In the wake of the BP disaster and ecological nightmare, which is unfolding in our Gulf of Mexico, I sit back and ponder the deeper elements of our current social climate, worldview, and social progress. I look at the seriousness of the close to 22% unemployment rate in California (based on the actual 10% unemployment rate and factoring in those who are discouraged workers, entrepreneurs, and those who are independent employees who cannot claim unemployment insurance), a government without any real “teeth” to tackle the greed of our country, and an economic system which seems to only benefit those who are wealthy, I am saddened. Moreover, I am also enraged by the sheer amount of greed, which exists in our country today—and not just our country, but it is passing onto other nations too.

Economic inequality is nothing new. This country was founded on the principles of thievery and “smoke and mirrors” if you study our nations history correctly—and can stomach it. Moreover, greed and the love of money is nothing new in this nation’s history. The myth of “work hard and you will make it” is a lie the rich elite have used to keep those in working class and impoverished conditions controlled and “kept” at their level. When one does the work of peering into the history books, one sees that money is chief agent and motivator for what we have now termed as expansion, growth, development, and even religious expressions. One of the main proponents to continue the middle passage and slavery from West Africa was not Europe, the Americas, or the West Indies, it was Ghanaian and Western African countries that had become economically dependent on those slaves being brutally treated and killed for their financial gain. The Civil War had less to do with “ending slavery” and more to do with financial gain and power for both sides—wars almost always produce capital and “put people to work.” If someone had not stepped in and limited corporations in the early 20th century, we might still have 5 and 6 year olds working full time jobs; further, we might still have 81 year olds putting in 65-hour workweeks—all for the love of money. Thus, it should come as no surprise when we see large bank executives walking out with million-dollar bonuses while their employees walk out with their layoff notices. The love of money is powerful.

In America today, we have created an ethos of unbridled and aggressive financial gain—for those who have access. Greed seems to be the key in all of this. Moreover, as I have stated prior, we have learned to love things and use people rather than the opposite. Therefore, our social structures reflect this type of greed and gluttony for money. The dollar has become a religion we must all follow; whether we like the dogmatic pedagogy or not. Money is one religious institution many Americans worship at faithfully every week. It is one where no one ever has get up too early or give up a whole afternoon; it is one in which those who have access and are “smart” are able to reach pastoral positions and create a hierarchy of sacraments to benefit themselves. It is also a religion with harsh penalties for not loving it and admiring it. Its pious mannerism is masked by the inequality and injustice it produces within its congregation. In addition, those who are “of the least” are used to help those who are the most.

This catastrophic event in the Gulf is part of this ongoing love for money. Cheap parts, cheap labor, procedures cut for cheaper time, all equals the “mess” that is spewing into our food chain every day. The love of money creates systems of inequality, which results in the crap we are seeing now with BP. But BP is not the only one to blame, trust me, if they could have kept this matter under raps they would have. Almost every major corporation has had its “hands dirtied” by the swift flow of greed when one looks closely. Laws are created and rules are put in place to generate a “buffer zone” in which these principalities are able to function. It is far better to maneuver in an environment that’s “legal” than in one that is not. In addition, we have even found that those “rules” can even be avoided as we saw this week when the Supreme Court rolled back a law born on the Enron scandal to limit corporate greed.

I do not hate money. I do not hate someone who wants to be financially secure—I know that is a goal of mine as well. What I abhor is the seemingly bottomless pit of the desire and love for more money coupled with the destruction of people and places in that quest. This ideological structure continues to undermine the idealistic principles our nation apparently stands for: equality, one nation under God, liberty, and justice for all—not so when 1% controls more than 90% of the wealth in the country. Moreover, when large corporations like BP are now allowed to “buy” their candidate almost anything, we have quite a paradox indeed. Is the Obama administration the answer? Of course not! Many of them are on the “payroll” (e.g. lobbyist) of these large corporations—there is only so much that can be done within that type of framework.

Where do we begin? Us. You. Me. Them. We can make better choices. We can demand reform. With all the issues this country has had, it’s arc bends toward justice—it just takes a very long time (Just ask the women’s movement how long it took them to get the right to vote).

But we must beware of those who are both in power and in love with a perfect theory and or a set of rules/ lifestyles and who love those theories and rules/ lifestyles more than they love people or places; in fact they start to see the messy reality of life and people interfering with the imagined beauty of those theories and rules/ lifestyles—which only exist in the “sacred texts” or in the idealized notions of these theories and or rules/ lifestyles. Because the other side of this “love” is hatred for anyone or anything that stands in opposition to this dreamed beauty and utopia—because in the end, this idealization of beauty and utopia cannot coexist with other ideas and concepts; it demands its own stage and will ultimately force itself onto people using any means necessary including death.

Fabrizio Eva, Italian philosopher and geographer, said it best:

“In a capitalistic system, economic inequality is acceptable. It’s the engine of production. So the political organizations and the state have to guarantee this inequality because theoretically inequality brings richness.”

Or, to put it another way, Saskia Sassen, sociologist and activist, states:

“Corruptions and the abuses of power, they are all legal! Those are our contemporary brutalities. The problem is that so many of these brutalities of global capitalism are not immediately legible. You need to make the connections between that which appears unconnected and to show the extent to which suffering here is a product of what we admire and consider prosperous and desirable there. And today too, I think, you see it happening in bits and pieces; that recognition, that this global capitalism needs to be civilized. We need to tame, you know, as the taming of a wild animal that wild capitalism.”

The narrative in the Bible has countless examples of the love of money going awry. Moreover, Christ discusses these issues at the ground level with the rich young ruler—who, on one hand has done all the “right things” but is unable to give that which he loves dearly over to follow Christ (Matthew 19:16-30). Moreover, Paul reminds Timothy that the love of money is at the root of all evil and to be cautious around those who are in love with the pursuit of money (1 Timothy 6). We have quite a chore before us, but hopefully and with a bit of God’s help, we are able to make it out of the religion of money and into a closer and stronger relationship with The Christ.