A rich
man's wealth is his strong city, And like a high wall in his own imagination.
The sleep of the working man is pleasant, whether he eats
little or much; but the full stomach of the rich man does not allow him to sleep.
The rich
man is wise in his own eyes, But the poor who has understanding sees through
him.
Proverbs of Ancient Hebrew writings, also known as Proverbs
18:11; Ecclesiastes 5:12; and Proverbs 28:11
Good
morning, my brothers. I am honored that
you have chosen me to speak to you, the All-Wealthy Fathers Under Liberty, for I have been concerned about our plight
for some time. We have been subjected to
oppression long enough! (Cheers in the
crowd.) I was shocked last week to
hear Brother Steven’s speech on hate crime in motion pictures. Up until this point, I have enjoyed the James
Bond movies—but no more. Now I
understand that they are simply anti-rich propaganda, intended to throw
suspicion upon the good brothers who have worked hard to obtain their
wealth. How dare they make Dr. No or the
other villains wealthy? All of
them? Clearly, just as our brother has
pointed out, it is simple prejudice and jealousy! (More cheers.) I thank
Brother Arnold for his insider’s view and especially for his work in banning
these films, as well as any others which portray the wealthy according to
stereotypes, instead of the truly honorable men we are. Let the media put the specter of suspicion
where it belongs—on the government and the poor! (More
cheers.) Let us bring back more
wholesome programming, such as Schindler’s List and The Millionaire! (More cheers.)
As serious as the prejudice found in
movies is, there is yet another, more insidious cultural influence that we must
be concerned about. Movies and
magazines, television and newspapers, and, of course, the internet—all have
their various forms of prejudice and oppression against the rich and all need
to be influenced, such as our Brother Rupert, Brother Ted and Brother Bill have
done. But there is another, greater
influence that has been all but overlooked.
There is a medium that has been influential, not just for decades, a
century or a century and a half, but for millennia! It has been used by the enemies of the rich,
oppressing us and destroying us since time immemorial! It is the cause of many of the wars against
the rich—The Lombard uprising of the 1400s in England ,
the Thirty Years War in Germany
in the 1500s, and it is still used as a primary inspiration of the Marxists in Latin America today!
And while you may think that these events are too out of touch with our
current structure, I need to inform you that this medium—this dangerous piece
of literature—is in the majority of homes in the United States
Perhaps some of you are ready to
stand up and speak against me now, because I am speaking ill of a book that you
hold so dear. Perhaps some are ready to
walk out on me, because much of your wealth—the very reason you are here—has
come in part because of your talent in speaking on this particular book. I do not begrudge your use of it,
Brothers—especially our dear Brother Robert and Brother Benny. I appreciate your skill and tact in opening
this book and carefully directing the thoughts of those who read it. You religious leaders have been essential to
our cause, and our most important supporters!
You have succeeded to make wealth popular and important among your
people with greater success than any of us have! We thank you for your work! (Scattered clapping throughout the hall.) But we must also recognize how dangerous this
book is.
The Bible is a complex and
multi-faceted piece of literature. It is
sixty-six different books, written by a variety of authors over at least a
thousand years. Their perspectives vary,
as do the issues they discuss. With
this, there is much for anyone to expound upon with safety. There are examples of wealthy people who are
heroes in this collection of scrolls—Abraham, Jacob, Boaz, Job, Solomon and
Esther. However, even these are marginal
victories. Abraham and Job are seen as righteous,
not because of their wealth, but because of their generosity, faith and
sacrifice. Boaz is righteous for
assisting a poor, illegal immigrant.
Solomon is famous for his wisdom, but ultimately rejected for his
disobedience of God’s law and idolatry. Esther is of an oppressed racial
minority, which is the real focus of her story.
And Jacob is displayed as obtaining his wealth through deceit and the
power of God, and suffering greatly in his later life because of his trickery
early in his life.
In the Old Testament, where all of
these stories take place, there are dangerous themes that crop up now and
again. We have a sympathetic woman,
gaining a child after praying for so many years, saying, “The weapons of the
powerful are cast down and the weak take up strength.”47 One of the many psalmists say, “Better is
the little of the righteous than the wealth of the wicked.”48 In the book of Proverbs it says, “Give me
neither poverty nor wealth, lest I become arrogant and say, ‘Who is God?’”49 Another psalmist says, “These are the wicked
who have increased in wealth.” 50
In the prophets of the Old
Testament, the danger to us increases.
Ezekiel says that the sins of Sodom is that the city was wealthy and
arrogant, refusing to help the poor and needy.51 Jeremiah says that the wealthy in his day
became so because of deceit.52
Micah claims that the rich of his day were “full of violence”.53 Of course, this is blatant prejudice,
painting all the wealthy with the same stroke.
Nevertheless,
the Old Testament is not problematic overall.
None of these passages must be thought of as speaking of the rich in
general. While there seems to be a
theme—especially that of obtaining wealth through violence and deceit—it is not
consistent, and we can avoid such pitfalls by our Bible-brokers speaking of
these cases as being rare, while most wealthy are good and right before God.
The real problem comes in the New
Testament. This is a revolutionary text,
and I do not mean that positively. It is
speaking from the perspective of the disorderly elements of society, those that
disrupt the proper flow of economics and authority. As many of us well know, it is within this
tome of subversive writers that we have a few passages that support the lower
classes being in submission to the upper classes—and this is as it should
be. However, it is always spoken of in
the context of the upper classes oppressing and harming the lower classes. The New Testament has nothing good to say
about us, brothers.
Let us take, for example, a brief
letter to various churches, written by the brother or cousin of Jesus, James,
or perhaps by his students. James was an
important figure in the early church and his word was considered law by many
groups of this fledgling— but revolutionary— religious movement. He had much to say about us, my brothers—and
none of it was good. Listen to this:
“The poor brother should be glad for his high position, and the wealthy should
be glad for his lowly position, for even as a flower in bloom will soon fade
and become ugly, so will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuit of
wealth.”54 Again, listen to
this: “God chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith… but it is the
wealthy that drag you into court and oppress you.”55 (A few
gasps in the midst of a shocked silence.)
But this is not all. This
so-called “just” James dares to make yet another, more horrible, even more
prejudicial remark. This is difficult
for me to read, and it is extremely shocking, so please be prepared for it: “Weep and howl, you rich, for your miseries
are coming upon you. Your riches have
rotted and your garments are destroyed.
Your gold and silver have rusted, and its rust is a witness against you
in God’s judgment. The laborers you have
hired are crying out against you for you have withheld their wages and it will
be heard by the Lord of the harvest. You
have lived… luxuriously on earth…” I’m
sorry, I’m trying… “and you have… fattened yourself for the day of slaughter.”56 (Stunned
silence fills the hall.)
I hope you are outraged as much as I
am. This is blatant hate speech. It is more forthrightly prejudiced against us
than almost anything I have ever heard or read, except perhaps that despicable
song by Aerosmith. And if it was only
in the letter of James—which our Brother Martin Luther called a “right straw
epistle”—then perhaps it could be bearable.
The book is small, it could be avoided.
But who can avoid Jesus? Yet Jesus says, “Woe to you who are rich for
you have already received your comfort!
Woe to you who are well fed, for you shall go hungry! Woe to you who are entertained now, for you
shall weep!”57 It is Jesus
who says, “No one can serve two masters, either he will love the one and hate
the other. No one can serve both God and
wealth.”58 It is Jesus who
says, “Sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and then you will have
treasure in heaven.”59 It is
Jesus who says, “None of you can be my disciple unless you renounce all of your
possessions.”60 It is Jesus
who says, “You say ‘I am wealthy, I have need of nothing,’ but you do not see
that you are poor and blind and wretched and miserable and naked.” 61
Clear
lies, all of them! Our God could not
despise us, who has blessed us so?
Do
you not see? The real enemy of our cause
in this so-called Holy Writ is not James, but Jesus himself. It is Jesus that enacted the change that
turned the Bible from a humble critic of the excess of the unrighteous rich to
an attack on all of us! These terrible,
poor-loving, deceptive words, in blatant opposition to the equality of rich men
everywhere were spoken by the founder of the Jesus movement himself! I know that many of you scholars might be
saying, “Well, Jesus may not have said that,” or, “there are certainly other
interpretations.” Of course there
are. Of course there are doubts. But the clear reading of the text is
impossible to deny when brought all together.
Allow
me to repeat a couple main points. This
book is dangerous. It works directly
against our cause, and influences the simple minded to be prejudiced against
the wealthy. Secondly, this book is in
the majority of American homes! There
are people who read from this book daily!
Worst of all, there are many who actually believe this book to be God’s
own Word and so might very well believe what it says.
Now,
we know, Brothers, that God supports us and our cause—let there be no question
about that. God has granted us our
wealth and so wants us to rule the world and influence the people with it. And so God has given us a commission—we must
subvert the clear meaning of this book.
It is a book filled with despicable lies that will tear down the fabric
of our very society. And so we must continue
the work accomplished so boldly by our forefather Thomas Jefferson.62 We must discourage the reading of this book
as much as possible. If the masses are
to read anything, let them read the relatively safe Old Testament.
Even
better, we must follow in the ways of our Muslim brothers and claim through our
media that both New and Old Testaments have been superseded by greater, better,
teaching. The best, most popular
teaching are the new ethics based upon scientific principles. This allows us to support an ethics that are
based on positive, capitalistic principles.
In this way, the hate speech may be muted, and we will regain our former
glory and honor that we deserve to have.
I
see my time is up. Thank you for your
apt attention, brothers. (Wild applause breaks out.)
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