Amos's River of Justice

Our Season of Creation

  • A recent article about the Pope’s address to the European parliament poses questions that I think many of us have been asking ourselves. For example, secularists might be asking why it is important for them to move toward dialogue with the Church.

    “The Pontiff wasn’t the most obvious person to deliver hard truths to elected politicians about the rising threats to the democracies they serve, or, as head of the Catholic Church, to convey a blast against global corporations that undermine the democratic process by co-opting institutions, as he resonantly expressed it, to ‘the service of unseen empires.’ Yet standing at the lectern at the center of the plenary chamber, peering through wire-rimmed reading glasses at his script, he did these things and more. The leader of a religion that has created its share of fractures made an eloquent plea for the European Union to rediscover its founding principles of “bridging divisions and fostering peace and fellowship.’” 1

    This attempt is important because questions can’t be answered until they are asked. Some might wonder what is required of them as a participant in this dialogue. I think I’ve answered some of these questions for myself, although there’s much I don’t know about the church, so any errors are unintentional. We each need to find an answer by paying attention to what the Pope is saying.

    Why is the Church Defending Democracy?

    First, the church’s defense of democracy is not a new innovation. The supporting theology has been developed over the last century. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church was published fairly recently but it was preceded by documents dealing with similar issues. The first was Rerum Novarum, the Papal Encyclical of Leo XIII on Capital and Labor, published in 1891.2.

    What Level of Commitment is Required From Us?

    Next you might be wondering about the level of religious commitment required for participation in this dialogue. The Evangelii Gaudium clarifies the part the church is willing to play in the conversation and it also deals with what it requires of other participants. If you are concerned about what is required of you, you would have to read it for yourself, but for what it’s worth I have a few thoughts.

    It’s possible that the requirements are different for the dominant class than for bloggers like me. With the doctrine of solidarity, the Pope addresses society’s leaders. Solidarity urges justice for the working classes in the service of social peace. It’s true that in the past it’s also been a defense against socialist solutions, but in past times of turmoil the political left, which is part of the dominant class, has participated in solidarity. So, from the Church’s point of view this is not a cynical maneuver:

    “The precepts of the sabbatical and jubilee years constitute a kind of social doctrine in miniature[28]. They show how the principles of justice and social solidarity are inspired by the gratuitousness of the salvific event wrought by God, and that they do not have a merely corrective value for practices dominated by selfish interests and objectives, but must rather become, as a prophecy of the future, the normative points of reference to which every generation in Israel must conform if it wishes to be faithful to its God.”((Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium)).

    Being Realistic About Working Class Alternatives

    There are fewer alternatives available to the working class today, and immediate dangers threaten our ability to agree on them.  So in the short-term I think it’s important to at least understand what is being offered by the other participants in the conversation. This brings me to another set of questions unique to women.

    Being Realistic About the Place of Women in Dialogue with the Church

    In view of the importance to women of the reproductive rights issue, I think it’s necessary to offer a rationale for those who are otherwise inclined to consider the church’s proposals as a way forward. (I don’t think it’s likely that the church will change its position on abortion, but more on that later.) The rationale for female participation begins with the Pope’s statement that women should have a greater voice in the church. Critics have said the place of women in the church will not change all that much, but I don’t think this opening should be taken lightly. From what I can tell, the church continues to build on the statements of previous encyclicals. According to Catholic writer and historian Hilaire Belloc, change happens slowly with actual practice following a change in attitude.

    “First comes in every great revolution of European affairs, a spiritual change; next, bred by this, a change in social philosophy and therefore in political arrangement; lastly, the economic change which political rearrangement has rendered possible.”((Belloc, Hilaire. The Crisis of Civilization. New York: Fordham University Press, 1937))

    The Church is Honoring Its Social Responsibilities

    Claims to religious and political authority are always predicated on the ability to fulfill social responsibilities. The church is honoring its responsibilities at this time, while our politicians are doing their best to prove themselves illegitimate.

    I’ve based many of my previous articles on the assumption that the system is not working. I’ve even considered the possibility that it’s unworkable. There’s one way to prove me wrong and that is to make it work. If politicians can’t immediately solve the problems, they can at least begin to move in that direction.

  • A recent article tells of a woman in Uganda whose husband beat her regularly until she finally left him and went back to her parents’ house. It is assumed that her husband’s behavior was caused by the custom of ‘bride price or dowry’ supposedly enshrined in Ugandan law. The article refers to a survey done by Mifumi (a Ugandan NGO) which found that 84% of Ugandans believe there is a connection between bride price and domestic violence, and ends by calling for the abolition of this custom. ((Wives not cows: Uganda Dowry fuels domestic violence. Fallon, Amy, Yahoo News. Oct. 24, 2014. Available: http://news.yahoo.com/wives-not-cows-uganda-dowry-fuels-domestic-violence-041333421.html))

    “A 2007 Constitutional Court petition launched by the charity (Mifumi) and 12 individuals argued that the dowry portrayed women “as an article in a market for sale” amounting to ‘degrading treatment’…In 2010, the court upheld the payment, ruling while the bride price played a role in some domestic abuse cases and women being treated as “inferiors”, this was no justification for a “blanket prohibition”…But the petitioners then appealed in the Supreme Court, and say if it does not rule in their favour, they will explore other legal avenues. The court is currently considering its judgement.”

    I’ve suggested [intlink id=”1113″ type=”post”]here[/intlink] that bride wealth implies status and relative independence for women. The situation in Uganda seems to contradict my view, doesn’t it? I don’t think so. I’ll begin with the article’s confusion of terms. In the second paragraph we read:

    “But the dowry she would bring — cows, goats and cash — soured the marriage and brought dark clouds over the partnership, a story repeated by many others in Uganda.”

    After reading this, one wonders if the court was amused by the petition. We are told the ‘dowry’ refers to the gifts of goats, cows and cash the bride’s family received from the groom. First, this is not the definition of a dowry; second, dowry is not the same thing as bride price; third, bride price is not the same thing as bride wealth, which is not even mentioned in this article.

    Dowry is a payment of cash or goods by the bride’s family. It does not refer to gifts from the groom or his family to the bride’s family. The subject of dowry can get really complicated. Its purpose differs according to the culture and time period. In some accounts it remains the bride’s property although she may use it to set up a household for her new family. At the other extreme a dowry is considered the groom’s property to use as he sees fit. Or it is considered the property of his family. In the most onerous manifestation of dowry, the bride suffers the wrath of the grooms family if the dowry is insufficient.

    On the other hand, bride wealth is cash or goods paid by the groom’s family to the bride’s family. Again, it’s complicated. Ideally bride wealth is held in trust for the bride even though her family is allowed to use the income it generates. But in current practice it might be counted as her father’s property. Today, it is often used to pay for a brother’s marriage.

    On the other hand, bride price is just that—cash or goods paid by the groom’s family for the services of the bride.
    This article also demonstrates a confusion of cause and effect. The bride’s father paid nine cows to her mother’s family when he married, and his marriage is still in tact. If this payment is the cause of domestic violence, why didn’t it lead to domestic violence in his case? In fact, the bride’s mother remains in favor of the custom.

    Furthermore, domestic violence exists in societies that don’t practice this custom. In the United States for example, the righteous indignation expressed in this article might be a little disorienting. Americans see violence against women, even though American laws support ‘community property’. They even hear violence encouraged by their own legislators who speak cavalierly of rape. Here is an important fact to keep in mind whenever you read about efforts to end payments associated with marriage—especially when they are promoted by NGOs: Usually it is to the advantage of a certain class of people to end them, and this class of people includes colonizers as well as Christians and Muslims. Why?  About some of the reasons we can only speculate. There is the matter of the family connections and the wealth the custom helps to protect. In addition, and this reason has been noted by others, because these payments have the effect of delaying marriage they have a tendency to decrease birth rates.

    But if this custom is so beneficial, how do you explain the abuse? To be fair, the cultural context can make the causes easy to misinterpret. You would have to start by looking at cultural changes wrought in these societies by turmoil and invasion. While bride wealth used to be premised on pleasing the ancestors, various factors have given it a more individual nature. For example, in one African society a colonizing ruling class levied taxes on the population to cover the costs of the colonial government. This made it necessary for the young men to work in a distant mine in order to earn enough money to marry. The result was a subtle change in the attitude of the men. Some of them began to feel that since they had paid for their wives they were entitled to rule over them.

    Meanwhile, back in the community property West, women often exit marriage financially destitute and can consider themselves fortunate if they are not deprived of their own children as well. I’m not suggesting that Americans should implement the practice of bride wealth, even if it were possible, which it isn’t, and not only because of cultural differences. Typically by the time society has been organized into states, the inhabitants don’t have enough wealth for such things. But on the level of principle this custom has much to teach us about human nature, about hidden and seemingly innocuous factors behind the world’s problems, and about how tangled these problems have become during the course of history.

    The confusion of terms in this article combined with the blanket assurance that this NGO knows what is right for this culture indicates that we haven’t even begun to talk about this custom rationally.

  • General Martin Dempsey stated recently that because the Islamic State group is motivated by an ‘apocalyptic, end of days strategic vision’ the United States and a coalition of partners must confront it ‘head on’ in Syria. ((Dempsey Hits Islamic Militant End of Days Vision. AP Aug. 22, 2014. Available: http://news.yahoo.com/dempsey-hits-islamic-militant-end-days-vision-120301204.html)) This has helped me to focus on a subject I’ve been wanting to talk about but didn’t know where to begin. This subject is probably the best illustration we will ever find for the importance of dialogue.

    I think Dempsey is correct in despairing that IS will never engage in dialogue. I also agree with the general’s assessment of the danger of the Islamic State’s apocalyptic vision. I just don’t agree that this vision can be wiped out by military action. After all, Jihadism is only only one version of this phenomenon. Americans have their own ‘end of days’ beliefs, and apparently, so do Britons. The Jihadist who beheaded American Journalist, James Foley is believed to be a British born militant from London who calls himself John. ((Rayner, Gordon and Martin Evans, British Jihadist Who Beheaded Journalist is Londoner Called John, The Telegraph. 20 Aug. 2014. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11047109/British-jihadist-who-beheaded-journalist-is-Londoner-called-John.html))

    The Blood Moon Influence and the Christian Answer

    This is a diversion from my main topic, but when I asked myself why so many Americans and Britons would be drawn to fight with the IS at this time, it led me in an interesting direction. It’s possible that at least part of the problem is an astronomical phenomenon, the ‘blood moon’. With the help of a growing industry that promotes end of days hysteria, apocalyptic beliefs in the West may be coinciding with IS’s apocalyptic jihadism.  Consider this article written in the UK in April of this year. ((Taylor, Jason, Apocalypse Now: Why a Rare Astrological Event Last Night Could Herald the End of Days. Express. April 9, 2014. Available: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/469228/Four-blood-moons-Does-alignment-of-Mars-Earth-and-Sun-mean-the-end-of-the-world-is-nigh))

    What is the blood moon? Sometimes during a lunar eclipse, the earth’s shadow on the moon takes on a red hue. Lunar eclipses aren’t unusual—there are about two per year. What is unusual this time is that there will be four blood moons within eighteen months. And well, certain parties have been whipping religious believers into a frenzy. Several books written for a Christian audience have been published about this event. They refer to an Old Testament verse in Joel 2:31 and its echo in Acts 2:20: “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord.”

    One author who is getting a large share of the attention is Texas megachurch pastor [intlink id=”689″ type=”post”]John Hagee[/intlink]. We’ve discussed him here before in relation to his belief in armageddon in Jerusalem. The book in question is “Four Blood Moons: Something is About to Change”.

    Lest I add to the hysteria, I’ll begin with a discussion of dissenting views in the Christian community. A pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minn., Greg Boyd, has called this whole thing a waste of time—a very dangerous waste of time–and he warns that no congregation is immune to it.

    Sam Storms, pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City says, “We need to stop giving into some of these sensationalist speculations. Maybe Christians are more gullible. One has to twist the data to make it appear as if these are the fulfillment of some biblical prophecy. I thought in 2011 we all said we weren’t going to fall for this again, when Harold Camping twice missed the date of the Second Coming?” (( Sarah Pulliam Biley, Blood moon sets off apocalyptic debate among some Christians. Religion News Service, April 14, 2014. Available:http://www.religionnews.com/2014/04/14/blood-moon-sets-apocalyptic-debate-among-christians))

    A Call for Dialogue

    Even though IS seems more determined than ever to provoke an immediate reaction, I’m going to argue that this is really the time for intensive dialogue.

    Characteristics and Tendencies of Apocalyptic Thinking

    To begin with, it’s important that we understand the general characteristics and tendencies of apocalyptic thinking. I’ll begin with a discussion of Muslim apocalyptic beliefs and end with Christian and secular beliefs in the West.

    Apocalyptic Jihadism

    Richard Landes discussed Apocalyptic jihadism in a 2004 article: Jihad, Apocalypse and Anti-Semitism. I’m aware Landes is controversial, however the value of this article is the perspective it offers on Islamic apocryphal thinking. In hindsight, we should be so lucky to be dealing with the PLO and Hamas instead of IS. However, Landes says they both used apocalyptic rhetoric. The majority of Muslims are not yet apocalyptic, but Landes worries that both Arabs and Muslims worldwide could get swept up in ‘a fever of apocalyptic hope and violence’. All things considered, it’s hard to find fault with him on that point.

    According to Landes, modern jihadism is a ‘cataclysmic, apocalyptic movement’. Its goal is Islam’s dominance over the world. Its promises have a millennial character, such as the claim that once Islam rules everywhere there will be world peace. Jihad’s millennial war operates on two major levels: The first is outright violence; the second is the invocation of civil society’s values to undermine that system from within.

    In more general terms, apocalyptic thinking is a belief that a cosmic transformation is imminent. The transformation can take two forms. Either it will end entirely (eschatology), or the Messianic Age will begin. The second form is often called millennialism. Moderate millennialism exists everywhere in the hope that the world is going to improve.

    Again, there are two alternative beliefs as to how this improvement will come to pass. The passive one says God will cause it. The activist approach says we are God’s agents. Therefore we have to bring it about. If activists believe cataclysmic destruction is necessary, it follows that they can save the world by destroying it. According to Landes, the Holocaust was an ‘apocalyptic deed’.

    Landes returns us to the West’s participation in this chain of events when he talks about ‘Philo-Judaism’. There has been a change in Anglo-Christians’ millennial scenario to a view which says that the Jews have to return to Zion in order for the apocalypse to occur. Balfour was a believer in pre-millennial dispensationalism and held views similar to today’s Protestant Zionists. According to Landes, the present degree of Christian millennial theology has never before been seen among Christians at so popular a level. (Pre-millennialists believe Christ must return before the Millennium can begin while post-millennialists believe we must create the millennium here and now.)

    The Mujaddid

    Landes cites a book by David Cook, Studies in Muslim Apocalyptic. According to Cook, there are a variety of apocalyptic traditions in Islam. One is called the Mujaddid. This tradition holds that every hundred years, a religious ‘renewer’ is expected. The Mujaddid is a Messianic figure. In 1300 of the Hajj (1881/2) the renewer was the Mahdi, who took over Khartoum and started a war against English imperialism. in 1400 (1979/80), Khomeini inspired apocalyptic thinking. That year there was a violent messianic outbreak in Muslim Nigeria, while the Shiites in Lebanon had a candidate for the renewer in the Imam Musa al Sadr of Lebanon.

    Khomeini had the support of a large number of secular, as well as religious, supporters. Both fundamentalist and progressive millennialists shared a common hope.  Unfortunately, Khomeini’s program didn’t work, but it did legitimize Islamic extremism.

    “Khomeini did for Muslims—even Sunnis—what Lenin did for Communists. No matter how bad the Sharia state, it served as a model of the possible. After Khomeini, apocalyptic Muslims could begin to imagine that Islam would eventually take over the whole world. The Taliban represented the first anti-modern Sunni millennial experiment.”

    The Apocalyptic Rhetoric of War with Israel

    The 1948 and 1967 Arab wars with Israel were accompanied by apocalyptic rhetoric. In the 1960s, the failure of Nasser’s ‘final war’ with Israel discredited secular Arab nationalism for many, leading back to religious fundamentalism and eventually to cataclysmic millennialism.”  (Of course, the Jews have millennialist beliefs as well, but Landes says these are passive.)  Islamic extremism has increased since that time.

    “In the 1980s, Muslim apocalyptic discourse took a new turn. Whereas previously it had been very conservative, only compiling traditional hadiths on the subject, it now borrowed ideas and techniques from the Western world—especially Protestant millennialism—including more sophisticated use of means of communication, such as glossy pamphlets and cassettes of sermons. It even picked up Western themes, such as flying saucers or Biblical texts, and quoted these in addition to the Koran and the hadith.

    “The approach of the end of the Christian era’s second millennium also influenced the Muslim world. It expected the classic Muslim version of the Anti-Christ, the Dajjal, to arrive in 2000. He would be a Jew and control most of the world according to the procedures outlined in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. (According to Landes, the Protocols remain influential with Arab intellectuals and elites.)

    “The most depressing aspect of current Islamic apocalyptic thought is that all its variants of cataclysmic events will bring immense destruction and death. This is why so much apocalyptic thought in the Arab world—secular and religious—focuses on death and martyrdom that kills indiscriminately. They think that God wants them to visit the destruction on the Jews that the Hebrew prophets warned about. Current Muslim apocalyptic thinking gives no support to the notion that Islam is a religion of peace.”

    Was the year 2000 a turning point?

    Since 2000 the 12-year-old boy, Mohammed Al Dura has become a martyr and patron saint for both the intifada and global Jihad. (Unfortunately, this article is unnecessarily inflammatory when it claims the Al Dura affair was staged.) ((Interview by Manfred Gerstenfeld, Jihad, Apocalypse, and Anti-Semitism. Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Sept. 1, 2004. Available: http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-24.htm))

    The Western Contribution

    According to an article on the TeacherServe website, apocalyptic thinking in the Americas began with Christopher Columbus who invested the discovery of the new world with millennial meaning. He thought he had found the new heaven and the new earth that God spoke ‘through the mouth of Isaiah’ and again in the Apocalypse of St. John. That said, it is more common for apocalyptic views to express the expectation that history will come to a complete halt. Protestant conservatives have been susceptible to this belief, especially evangelicals, because of their literal reading of the Bible. They focus on the book of Revelation in the new Testament, as well as the book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible.

    Evangelicals

    Throughout American history, evangelicals have vacillated between pre and postmillennialism. The Puritans were premillennial. In other words, they knew Christ’s return could take place at any moment. Jonathan Edwards believed the millennium would begin in America.

    The Shakers and John Humphrey Noyes

    The Shakers thought Christ had already returned in the person of Mother Ann Lee and they were busy establishing the millennial kingdom. They forbade all private union between the sexes. On the other hand, John Humphrey Noyes, founder of the Oneida Community in western New York, believed Christ had returned in A.D. 70. For him the millennium provided sexual license.

    The American Revolution

    Many patriots in the eighteenth century fused millennial expectations with radical Whig ideology and thought the American Revolution was ‘the sacred cause of liberty’.

    The Second Great Awakening and the Reform Movements it Inspired

    During the Second Great Awakening there was optimism in the perfectibility of humanity and society. This complemented the Enlightenment’s appraisal of human potential and inspired many reform efforts such as temperance, abolitionism, prison and educational reform, and Christian missions, in other words, postmillennialism.

    At the same time, some evangelicals had lost their optimism about human potential after the excesses of the French Revolution and they reverted to premillennialism. William Miller believed Jesus would return sometime between March 1843 and March 1844.

    Joseph Smith

    Joseph Smith thought the New Jerusalem would center in Jackson County, Missouri. His assassination interrupted the preparations, but in recent years a small band of Mormons has returned to resume the task.

    Nat Turner

    There was a conviction among antebellum blacks that God sanctioned rebellion against white slaveholders. On May 12, 1828, God appeared to Nat Turner, a slave preacher in Southampton County, Virginia. “I heard a loud noise in the Heavens,” he said, “and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching when the first should be last and the last should be first.” The rebellion he unleashed claimed the lives of fifty-five whites and two hundred blacks.

    Reform Judaism

    Even some Reform Jews caught the spirit and recognized America as the New Zion and Washington as the New Jerusalem.

    From Postmillennialism to Premillennialism

    After the Civil War, optimism about human perfectibility continued to dissipate. In addition, the evangelicals had lost their dominance due to European immigration. This caused an inward turn and eventual contempt for the culture that had spurned them. An alternative to postmillennialism was found in John Nelson Darby’s dispensational premillennialism. Believers saw a society careening toward judgment. Enter the influential [intlink id=”1074″ type=”post”]Dwight Moody[/intlink]. Subsequently, the Scofield Bible provided a dispensational template for their reading of the scriptures.((Balmer, Randall, Apocalypticism in American Culture. TeacherServe. Available: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/apocal.htm))

    Apocalypticism, the Right Wing, and Popular Culture

    According to another article on oldpubliceye.org (cited below) Apocalypticism and millennialism have influenced a variety of right-wing political and social movements, especially in the United States. Tim LaHaye in his 1980 book, The Battle for the Mind, stated: “tribulation is predestined and will surely come to pass.” But LaHay also teaches that there will be a pre-tribulation tribulation if the liberal, secular humanists are permitted to take control of our government. He says this not predestined, but it will happen if Christians fail to assert themselves in defense of morality and decency!

    In the United States the apocalyptic worldview is influenced by religious and secular interpretations of the prophecies in the Biblical book of Revelation about the coming of a new millennium. Fundamentalist Christians believe the end of time will be preceded by a cataclysmic battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The period of peace and harmony begins when evil is vanquished. This period marks the return of Christ. Popular films like Rambo, Mad Max, the Terminator series, and Red Dawn reinterpret the vision without making its origins clear. The film Apocalypse Now and theTV series Millennium name the myth while secularizing and mainstreaming it as a paradigm.

    The Heaven’s Gate group merged prophetic themes with the dynamic of manipulative demagoguery in the setting of a totalitarian group with a charismatic leader. Three roots of key prophetic visions in the Heaven’s Gate group came from:

    The Christian Bible
    The prophecies of Nostradamus
    Science Fiction

    The science fiction theme often proposes that more advanced life forms and beings with higher consciousness from space will visit Earth and select humans for travel or transformation. A typical example is the book Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke. These ideas are also embraced by people in the UFO movement.

    The New Testament Book of Revelation has inspired a large number of myths, metaphors, images, symbols, phrases and icons for mass movements. It is the influence behind current right-wing movements such as the new Christian electoral right, Protestant and Catholic theocratic groups, survivalism, the patriot and armed militia movement, Christian patriot constitutionalists, and the Christian Identity religion. Some, but not all, Christian Identity members such as Aryan Nations, are racists.

    This article lists six key ways the predictions of Revelations influence popular culture: Omens and Signs of the Times; Apocalyptic Doomsday Cataclysm; Subversion and Countersubversion; Armageddon and Holy War; Reign and Rule; and Transcendent Ascension and Rapture.

    The Branch Davidians believed the end times were approaching and were studying the meaning of the seven wax seals on a scroll mentioned in Revelation. Law enforcement abuse of power against the Branch Davidian’s in Waco, Texas and other dissidents creates cascading echoes of apocalypse throughout the society. (Italics mine)

    The survivalist movement, and in particular the Weaver family and the Montana Freemen, are influenced by a belief in apocalyptic doomsday cataclysm.

    Those who take the subversion and counter-subversion route believe that humankind will be betrayed by a world leader who will eventually be exposed as Satan’s agent. In addition to this leader there will be a false prophet and global religion that supports him. They especially mistrust those who call for world cooperation and international intervention, like the United Nations. They thought at one time that the antichrist was based in the Soviet Union. This was the evil empire of the Star Wars trilogy. It is also partly the basis for the Montana Freeman rejecting government authority. It influences some, but not all, armed militia groups.

    Believers of the Reign and Rule dogma think they must clean up secular society to prepare for the return of the Lord. Much of the violence against reproductive rights clinics and attacks on gay rights is based on this interpretation. This is called dominion theology. Its most theocratic and authoritarian version is Christian Reconstructionism.

    Dialogue is the Only Way Out

    “The millennium provides an opportunity for society to engage in a process of renewal and reconciliation, as well as an opportunity for demagogues, bigots, paranoids, and charlatans to spread messages of division and destruction. If a totalitarian group turns outward its members can engage in scapegoating with the most extreme outcome being homicide. If a totalitarian group turns inward its members can engage in scapegoating with the most extreme outcome being suicide. In a society where inequality and injustice is creating deep divisions and tensions, we need constructive ways to channel anger and alienation toward demands for social change rather than apocalyptic withdrawal or aggression. In societies suffering from economic and social stress, backlash movements take several forms: racial or ethnic nationalism; religious fundamentalism or spiritual alternative; and right-wing populism and conspiracist scapegoating. These forms can blend and interact.

    “The more we all discuss the issues of millennial expectation, apocalyptic thinking, and scapegoating, the more likely the outcome will be positive rather than negative.”

    Definitions

    Apocalypticism: the belief in an approaching confrontation, cataclysmic event, or transformation of epochal proportion, about which a select few have forewarning so they can make appropriate preparations. From a Greek root word suggesting unveiling hidden information or revealing secret knowledge about unfolding human events. The dualist or demonized version involves a final showdown struggle between absolute good and absolute evil. In Christianity there are competing apocalyptic prophetic traditions based on demonization or liberation. Central to Christianity, the tradition also exists in Judaism, Islam, and other religions and secular belief structures. Believers can be passive or active in anticipation; and optimistic or pessimistic about the outcome. Sometimes used similarly to the term millenarianism.

    Millennialism: A sense of expectation that a significant epochal transformation is imminent, marking either the end of a thousand year period, or signal its beginning, or both. Two major forms of millennialist response are passive waiting versus activist intervention. Can involve varying degrees of apocalypticism. In Christianity, the idea that the Second Coming of Christ marks a thousand year period.

    Aggressive apocalypticism: the merger of conspiracism with apocalypticism often generates aggressive forms of dualism. Apocalyptic aggression occurs when demonized scapegoats are targeted as enemies of the ‘common good’, a dynamic that can lead to discrimination and attacks.((Apocalyptic Millennialism, Political Research Associates. Available: http://www.publiceye.org/tooclose/apoc.html))

  •  

    Responding appropriately to the Church of England’s decision to ordain female bishops is complicated. In the case of the Mormon Church, I couldn’t see how a movement to ordain women would have a good effect on female members. However, the Church of England’s case is different in several ways and there are factors that complicate the analysis. For one thing, Great Britain’s class system makes it difficult to say how this decision might affect ordinary women. On the other hand, you could say that the British government’s lack of separation between Church and state makes the decision more impressive. Female bishops will now be eligible to sit in the House of Lords.

    This vote comes at a time when the monarchy is changing its system of primogeniture, making females equal with males in eligibility for the throne. And no, I’m not forgetting that it’s still primogeniture or that it helps keep the class system in place. Still, it’s hardly a small matter. Nor is it insignificant that Church leadership has long been in favor of ordaining female bishops when they could have just as easily refused to consider it.

    I’m not sure why this wasn’t bigger news in the U.S., unless it has to do with old rivalries, what with the Church of England being part of the British government, but I was fascinated to hear the Church say ’yes’ to women. I thought it made an interesting contrast with the favorite refrain of conservatives in the United States: ’Me Tarzan, you Jane’.

  • U.S. Federal Judge Thomas Griesa called a hearing on Friday to discuss the case of Argentina and the vulture funds. In this hearing, Griesa reaffirmed his ruling of June 16 favoring the vulture funds. He also said that Daniel Pollack would continue as mediator. However, he did not clarify what would become of the frozen payments intended for Argentina’s cooperating creditors.

    Argentine lawyer, Jonathan Blackman said that while Argentina is committed to the continuing negotiations, “The republic does not trust the process under (the intervention) of special master Pollack.” This mistrust is a result of Pollack’s statement that Argentina is in default. The act of declaring Argentina in default is quite meaningful in this case; it allows those holding insurance on Argentine debt to profit in the amount of $1 billion.

    All things considered, it is difficult to see how Pollack could make this statement with a straight face. According to Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernandez,

    “The causes of default are listed for the 92.4 percent of bondholders, in the bond, in the contract itself. There is no cause where default is an impossibility to getting paid, because default is not paying. Preventing someone from paying is not default. I told them they will have to invent a new word, and they will have to invent this word.”

    What happened to the money Argentina set aside to pay its bondholders? Judge Thomas Griesa confiscated it! The Argentine government maintains that it is not in default, as it is willing to pay and remains in negotiations with creditors.” ((Griesa: Talks between Argentina and Vultures to Continue, Telesur, August 1, 2014. Avaliable: http://telesurtv.net/english/news/Griesa-Talks-Between-Argentina-and-Vultures-To-Continue-20140801-0045.html))

    In a previous meeting on Wednesday, Argentina invited Elliot Management to join the 2005 and 2010 swaps by which the firm would profit 300 percent, but Elliot Management rejected Argentina’s offer. The enormity of this rejection can only be understood in light of Argentina’s history.

    “To understand the dispute Argentina has with the Vulture Funds, one must go as far back as 1976, when Argentina was governed by a brutal civil-military dictatorship that introduced an aggressive neoliberal economic policy that ended in the severe economic crisis of December 2001.
    In 1976, the dictatorship decided to extend the jurisdiction of foreign courts, a move that technically permitted judgments to be made abroad, thus causing Argentina to lose judicial and economic sovereignty.
    In order to attract foreign capital to Argentina, the Carlos Menem government signed investment and trade agreements with different countries that gave even more power to international tribunals.
    By 2001 Argentina’s economy was in a critical situation. Former President Fernando de la Rua and his then Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo implemented a financial operation called el Mega Canje, the Mega Swap, to ease the country’s economic strain. The proposal came from David Mulford, former Treasury Secretary of the United States. It turned out to be a scam which cost Argentina $55 billion and boosted its foreign debt even further. The scheme contributed to a tragic hike in poverty and triggered Argentina’s 2001-2002 economic, social and political outburst as well as its historic debt default.
    A court case was opened to try those responsible, which include seven major banks, Cavallo, Mulford and de la Rua. Some 69 percent of the bonds that the vulture funds hold come from the scandalous 2001 mega swap.” ((Vulture Fund Rejects Argentina’s Offer Preventing Debt Repayment. Telesure, August 1, 2014. Available: http://telesurtv.net/english/news/Vulture-Fund-Rejects-Argentinas-Offer-Preventing-Debt-Repayment-20140801-0022.html))

     

     

     

  • The Church of England’s General Synod is set to vote on Monday on whether to allow women to become bishops.  This would not necessarily compel all Anglican Churches to accept women bishops, but it would set a precedent.  Conservative Anglicans rejected a previous proposal in 2012.  However, Anglican women in the United States, Canada and Australia have already been ordained as bishops.  ((London AFP,  Church of England female bishops would be ‘seismic’, July 11, 2014. available: http://news.yahoo.com/church-england-female-bishops-seismic-032533964.html))

  • The debacle of Argentina’s blocked bond payment reminds me of Edward Moor’s description in his ‘The Hindu Pantheon’ of the Hindu deity, Kuvera. This deity seems to be the patron saint of Chief Justice Roberts, Judge Thomas Grieva, Elliot Management Corporation, and Aurelius Capital Management. Apparently, American courts are possessed by the spirit of Kuvera.

    American Courts arePossessed by the Spirit of Kuvera
    Kuvera

    Capitalist Manipulation

    Argentina will miss a bond payment today thanks to a U.S. court. Argentina had the funds set aside to make this payment. However, when Argentina transferred them to the bond trustee, a U.S. District Court judge, Thomas Griesa, ordered the payment sent back. He stated that his ruling will allow the parties to ‘negotiate’. What it will most certainly do is keep the scheduled payments from interfering with the vulture capitalists’ windfall—the windfall granted to hedge funds last week courtesy of our very own Chief Justice Roberts. Grieva’s ruling marks the first time in history a judge has prevented a country from paying a restructured bond holder.

    Edward Moor

    “Kuvera, the regent of wealth, for a moment demands our attention; and although few people seek the favor of this deity with greater avidity than the Hindus, yet I find but little mention of him in my mythological memoranda; nor have I any image or picture of him…On Kama, Lakshmi, or Saraswati, poets and historians dwell with complacency and delight; but the gloomy, selfish, and deformed Kuvera, claims not, nor deserves, so much of our attention….

    “His servants and companions are the Yakshas and Guhyakas, into those forms transmigrate the souls of those men who in this life are addicted to sordid and base passions, or absorbed in worldly prosperity. The term Guhyaka is derived from Guh (ordure), a word retained in several dialects: hence Guhya… We happily do not find that the regent of wealth is related in marriage or otherwise with Lakshmi, the goddess of riches, to whom a Hindu…would address himself for that boon, and not to Kuvera: he has, however, a Sacti, or consort, named Kauveri, whence I conjecture, the river of that name, in Myhsore, derives its appellation.”

    Rabinranath Tagore had similar things to say about Kuvera:

    “Those who are familiar with the Hindu Pantheon know that in our mythology there is a demi-god named Kuvera, similar in character to Mamon. He represents the multiplication of money whose motive force is greed. His figure is ugly and gross with its protuberant belly, comic in its vulgarity of self-exaggeration. His is the genius of property that knows no moral responsibility. But the goddess, Lakshmi, who is the Deity of Prosperity, is beautiful. For prosperity is for all. It dwells in that property which, though belonging to the individual, generously owns its obligation to the community. Lakshmi is seated on a lotus, the lotus which is the symbol of the Universal heart. It signifies that she presides over that wealth which means happiness for all men, which is hospitable.

    “By some ill-luck, Lakshmi has been deprived of her lotus throne in the present age, and Kuvera is worshipped in her place. Modern cities represent his protuberant stomach, and ugliness reigns unashamed. About one thing we have to be reminded, that there is no cause for rejoicing in the fact that this ugliness has an enormous power of growth and that it is prolific of its progeny. Its growth is not true progress; it is a disease which keeps the body swelling while it is being killed.” ((Tagore, Rabindranath, The English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore: A miscellany. Sahitya Akademi, 1996))

  • The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling that Argentina must pay hedge funds that refused to compromise on repayment of Argentinean bonds should be all the evidence Americans need that the Supreme Court is out of control. Many were jarred awake by the Roberts Court’s ruling in favor of Citizens United. However, efforts to remedy the problem have been limited to repealing the offending ruling. It’s obvious now that this approach fails to address the structural permissiveness and consequent moral threat of the Supreme Court.

    Subsequently, we’ve seen the McCutcheon ruling, which is the equivalent of a smirk and a wink on the sunny, untroubled face of Justice Roberts, informing us that Citizen’s United was no fluke. This ruling struck down aggregate limits on the amount an individual may contribute during a two year period to all federal candidates, parties and political action committees combined.

    The Court’s ruling against Argentina and in favor of hedge funds with no scruples about bringing down a sovereign nation should be the final straw, but it’s getting harder these days to drum up good old fashioned moral outrage. The hedge funds have even asked for and received a ruling that allows them to use U.S. courts to force Argentina to disclose the amount and location of its assets. This should be stopped before it goes any further.

    In case anyone is under the impression that Argentina is a deadbeat country, as the sharks would like you to believe, here is some of the history behind Argentina’s debt. After years of dictatorship and shameless colonialist collusion by a series of supposedly democratic leaders, Argentina was left with a crushing debt. The last of these mafioso-supported ‘democrats’ was shown the door by Argentina’s voters when they elected President Néstor Kirchner in 2003. Argentina’s current president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was elected to the presidency in 2007, and reelected in 2011. The Kirchners belong to the Peronist persuasion, associated with Isabel Peron who was deposed by coup d’état in 1976.

    Twelve years ago Argentina defaulted on $100 billion worth of bonds. Even though Argentina’s courts demonstrated the fraudulent origins of the debt, the government restructured its debt twice, in 2005 and 2010, in an effort to meet its obligations. Most of the holders of Argentinean bonds accepted repayment of 30 cents on the dollar. However there were holdouts—‘vulture capitalists’ who bought some of the defaulted debt at a steep discount and now want face value for the bonds plus interest. Shockingly, the Supreme Court has ruled in their favor. It is feared this will have serious consequences, both in the sovereign debt markets and in the future ability of sovereign governments to remain solvent through debt restructuring. The holdouts are New York hedge funds NML Capital LTD, a unit of billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Singer’s Elliot management Corp, and Aurelius Capital Management.

    They would like you to believe the Argentinean public benefited from this debt. Nothing could be further from the truth. Ever since independence 200 years ago, Argentina’s foreign debt has been a source of impoverishment and corruption. Since the first loan negotiated by Rivadavia in 1824 with the British Bank Baring Brothers, the debt was used to enrich Argentinean financiers and allow them to control finances and empty the country of its wealth. The British government donated a statue of British colonialist George Canning to Argentina in 1857 in recognition of the debt.

    Foreign debt has always gone hand in hand with big business. With complicity of nearly every government from Bartolomé Miter and Manuel A. Quintana, to Carlos Menem and Fernando de la Rúa. This created generations of technocrats and bureaucrats who favored banks and international corporations over their own country. Educated at Harvard, Chicago, Oxford or Buenos Aires, they include lobbyists Manual Garcia and Luis Belaustegui; and heads of the banking system, Pedro Pou, Roque Macarrone and Christian Colombo. These characters were administrators of a debt born in 1970s under the military dictatorship.

    This situation became much worse after America’s defeat in Vietnam. Oil prices were rising and petrodollars flooded the world. Banks were offering credit at 3%. This was the birth of Third World debt. By 1981, interest rates had risen to 16%, leading to the bankruptcy of these Third World countries. An alliance of foreign banks and multinationals came to power in Argentina. After seven years of neoliberal policies, the dictatorship left the country with $45 billion in debt. Twenty-three billion of this was owed by multiantionals operating in the country, including Citibank, First Boston, Chase Manhattan, Bank of America, Banco de Italia, Banco de Londres, Banco Espanol, Banco Frances, Deutsche Bank, Banco Rio and Banco Ouilmes, Banco Galica, and many more. Other debtors included Ess, Fiat, IBM, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Swift Pirelli, as well as local groups owned by Perez Companc, Bulgheroni-Brida, Macri, Techint, Fortabat, Pescarmona, Gruneisen, Soldati, Cogasco, Celulosa, and others. The state was saddled with this debt by a bureaucrat of the dictatorship, Domingo Cavallo. He was a ‘super-Minister’ of Finance in the Menem and de la Rúa governments.

    Even though Argentina’s courts ruled that parent companies were responsible for the debts of their subsidiaries, these swindlers made the government responsible for them.

    But the foreign debt was also illegitimate. Much of it was created when the parent companies made loans to their subsidiaries. These loans were internal movements within the companies, but they were assigned to foreign debt. Dollars were bought in Argentina and deposited in the U.S. With this deposit as collateral, you got a loan to purchase more dollars and so on. This is known as ‘bicycling’ funds. Because of the difference in interest rates, participants, mainly the big conglomerates, became wealthy.

    Usury has been another problem. It is estimated that with reasonable interest rates, Argentina’s debt could have been paid by 1988. But there have been no reasonable rates, interest or otherwise. At the end of Alfonsin’s presidency, the foreign debt was close to $54 billion. Then Menem let the creditors decide what they were owed with no debate in the Congress. This ignored the constitution and the ruling of the courts that the debt was fraudulent. Ten years later the debt was $130 billion.

    Lately you’d never guess that the United States has a history of opposition to this type of fraud. In 1898, the Americans invented a concept called the Theory of the Odious Debt. At the end of the Spanish occupation of Cuba, Spanish banks were demanding payment from the Cuban government of loans they had made to the colonial government. The Americans said that if the Cuban people didn’t benefit from these loans, they couldn’t be called public debt. Further, in 1923, a British bank, the Royal Bank of Canada, lent Tinoco, a petty tyrant of Costa Rica, a sum that he used for personal goals. The bank proceeded to demand payment from Costa Rica. In a law suit arbitrated by former President William Howard Taft, it was decided this was a private debt and the public was not responsible.

    The worst of Argentina’s betrayals came from supposed democrats. Social Democrat Raúl Alfonsin promised to defend human rights, but instead took the country into austerity. Carlos Menem claimed to adhere to the policies of the neo-Peronist party. His presidency coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the theory of the ‘End of History’, globalization, and neoliberal democracies in Latin America. It took him only a few days to change his stripes. He immediately cozied up with the conservative minority directed by the former rebel officer Alvaro Alsogaray. His policies were dictated by the United States, the World Bank, and the IMF. Of course, other political leaders and labor leaders jumped ship as well.

    Menem needed a biased Supreme Court to carry out his plans, as well as control of the federal courts. Parliament delegated special powers to him. In one month he had passed his Reform of the State law, which opened up privatizations. Menem controlled inventories with no accompanying balance sheets. For the privatization of Argentina’s two largest companies, YPF and Gas del Estado, large bribes were offered to members of Argentina’s congress, which they happily accepted.

    Argentina’s budget had to be approved by Washington. The convertibility Plan, in which one peso equals one dollar, stopped inflation but ruined industries. Previously, the country had produced 95% of what it consumed. Afterward, it imported garments, meat, dairy, fruit, pasta, etc. After the artificial elimination of inflation, banks lent at 50% per year when rates in the U.S. and Europe were 7%.

    The debt was now irredeemable. Cavallo negotiated with U.S. Secretary Nicholas Brady with the result that state enterprises were purchased with national bonds pegged at 15% of face value, but redeemable at 100%. The country lost more than $30 billion. Whole concerns were sold without debt and the government took responsibility for the layoffs of workers. The main investors were Spanish and French.

    Entei was sold for a fifth of its value to Telefonica and France Telecom, who saddled it with a 6 billion dollar debt.

    Aerolineas Argentinas was profitable and owned 37 planes. The Spanish line Iberia mortgaged them to purchase the business. Then they stripped it of its assets.

    The state water utility was taken over by a European syndicate headed by Suez and Vivendi. The works agreed to were not completed and 800,000 people were left without drinking water. A million were without sewers.

    The worst case was the railroads, which represented a fatal blow to the economy.

    The state paid out subsidies to these privatized concerns and eventually owed the World Bank the $700 million it borrowed to pay for the layoffs and another $700 million in interest. Normally anyone who uses public property belonging to another country has to pay a fee. These companies never paid it, but then they financed all the campaigns, the governments, the coups d’état, and all the public works.

    Then came the liquidation of Argentina’s oil and gas industry, an industry that was said to be a model for the world. In this, Argentina is a unique case. These industries were given up without losing a war.

    Oil was discovered in 1907 in Patagonia. YPF was created in 1923 at the orders of General Mosconi. When YPF was created, it was the first state enterprise in the world. Oil was considered strategic and the sale of fuel, of national interest. If the international price rose, YPF kept the price low, based on its costs rather than the market price.

    Hell hath no fury like Big Oil scorned.

    When YPF was sold, reserves that had been allocated for the next 25 years were valued at the equivalent of 9 months. It was so irregular that Menam had to deal with it personally. An outside company was hired to underestimate the reserves. A year later they appeared in the accounts of the Spanish firm Repsol at their real value.

    Gas del Estado was estimated at $25 billion by Petrobras Company. After being appraised by international consultants it was sold for $2.5 billion. Repsol took control and polluted entire groundwater systems destroying the usefulness of the land in those areas. And Carlos Menam was honored in Washington as the creator of the Argentinean miracle. ((Argentina’s Economic Collapse. Available: http://youtube/VK494Judxvg))And now the U.S. Supreme Court seems intent on finishing the job these hooligans started.

    The Roberts Court has taken possession of an unholy fortress—a constitutional fortress of our own making. If we agree that the problem is the lack of constitutional restraint on justices, it will be clear that caution and wisdom are needed to correct it, but also that something must be done. If we fail to act, we may as well forget about trying to make the world a better place for ordinary people. If we allow Argentina to be brought down by vulture capitalists and our own Supreme Court, we don’t deserve a better place.

  • There are several criticisms of the My Brother’s Keeper initiative, but they are not what I want to talk about here. I think the most meaningful part of this discussion is a letter to President Obama voicing concerns about his initiative and signed by 200 black men. Yes, it’s another criticism, but the thing I want to talk about is the signers’ understanding that efforts at reform won’t succeed if black men leave their mothers and sisters and daughters behind. And that is exactly what such programs require them to do.

    The letter’s signers are concerned that President Obama’s initiative for helping men and boys of color lacks a comparable focus on girls and women. To be clear, they don’t want a moratorium on such initiatives, but they think this program ignores the importance of women and girls in their own right—that is, the importance of women and girls to their community. I hope there will be more debate on the supposed benefits of the addition of women to this top-down program for men, but I think the signers have hit on a sound principle that should be emphasized.

    Modern religions tell us that humans are the offspring of fallen Man. On the other hand, I’ve said humans have the potential to be great. However, I wasn’t making a case for the genetic superiority of the species. I meant to say that humans are great when they make their communities work for everyone. Human greatness only becomes visible in a true community.

    Maybe My Brother’s Keeper will have a good effect. I hope it does. But I don’t think trickle-down social schemes will ever bring lasting change. Real change begins in a community and spreads outward from there. I think this letter illustrates that you don’t need help from governments or billionaires to understand that. And in any case, it seems the kind of community these signers imagine is not what the creators of My Brother’s Keeper had in mind.

    Regardless of the immediate effect of this letter, it illustrates a powerful principle. It might just be the start of something great.

  • Considering the big part played by corporate greed in the run-up to World War II, and the confusion of analysts about U.S. policy in Ukraine, I thought it might be interesting to find out what American corporations have against Vladimir Putin. I found an article on the Global Research website that I’ll share here. It seems if you are American, you can’t defend your own country without defending the devil. Read this.

    Ukraine: The Corporate Annexation. “For Cargill, Chevron, Monsanto, It’s a Gold Mine of Profits”.

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