Money and Power

       Well, finally the election is over, we can find other things to obsess about.   I am particularly happy that I won’t have to use the mute button on my remote so often when campaign commercials come on.  They got to be rather annoying for all of us.

  I wonder what part religion played in this election.  There were people claiming all kinds of things.  The arguments over abortion and gay rights were two places where seeming  religious voices were raised and absolute claims were made.  I was struck by a full page ad that appeared in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a couple of times from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association that seemed to be telling us what God wanted us to do about these issues.  I was struck by the ad because I have always admired Billy Graham and was sorry to see his name used un such a way for political purposes.  I suspect that his son Franklin was behind all of this.  Billy is 94 and Franklin was the one who spoke so harshly of Muslims at the ceremony in New York after the 9/11 tragedy.  At the time I thought that Billy would never have done this.

My hope is that this election  will unite this nation, not divide it.  Religion is one of those wonderful areas where we can be so easily divided.  We saw that in Pittsburgh over the last several years, but with our new bishop, we are on our way to a new day.

     The way that religion in this election used power was with money.  That is always suspect with me.  What we discovered in this election is that money can’t always buy power.  I’m glad of this, because it is the people without power who need their voices heard in this land.  The Citizen’s United verdict is not the ultimate law that we were afraid it was going to be.  I am heartened by this.  It just may be that our political system is on its way to holding ideas of greater value than money.  Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing.

In the twelfth chapter of Mark, Jesus seems to speak about money and power in an excellent way.  Jesus has been watching as people drop money into the treasury at the temple.  He saw rich people putting in large sums, but he was particularly taken by a poor widow who put in two copper coins worth about a penny.  His lesson for his disciples was that she put in more than the others because  this small mite was all that she had.  He said for them to beware of the scribes who like to walk around in their long robes and to have the best seats and the places of honor.  They devour widows houses and for the sake of appearances say long prayers.  They will have the worst condemnation.

It is easy to fall in love with money and to believe that the power that it brings is absolute.  According to this election, that isn’t necessarily so.  Thank God for that.  My hope is that we can listen as ideas are offered and to use them to unite us in God’s love for all of creation.