tales of copper city

Reading politics in the Bible

About the only way I have been able to break open the Bible is to somehow relate it to the urgencies of my own time, to read the Bible and the front page of the newspapers at the same time, as I think Karl Barth once said. Tom Buechele, the Rector at St. John's here in Bisbee, a friend and an Espicopal priest, asked me to serve as leader and speaker at the church this Sunday. I intend to briefly discuss a "political reading" of some of the Lectionary readings of the day. This blog contains the gist of what I intend to say.

Our reading today in Acts 16: 16-34 about Paul exorcising a demon from a money-making fortune-telling slave girl and for his trouble getting dragged before the authorities, stripped, beaten and thrown in jail prompts me talk about similar stories where Jesus’ healing and teaching stirred up political conflict. I’m sure we have all noticed how frequently the Bible is about politics and the authorities. I want to explore this a little more this morning, in the context of the healing stories of Jesus and also his ideas about what he called the Kingdom of God.

The two kinds of politics today

One of the many things that are most peculiar about our politics today is how many people of ordinary means, people without much money on hand and almost nothing coming in, voted for George Bush.

Bush with his tax cuts blatantly promised to take money out of the pockets of ordinary people and put it into the pockets of rich people in order to “stimulate the economy” and to “cut taxes.” And millions of the plain people of America voted for Bush in large enough numbers to put him close enough for the Supreme Court to finish the job.

How can this happen? How can people be blind to where their interests lie? As it turns out, “blind” is the operative word; a new form of politics has engulfed the U.S. and it is specific purpose is to blind people to their interests.