tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226481506470506962.post1569195502158847303..comments2023-10-25T08:44:46.963-07:00Comments on Two Friars and A Fool: The Solution is JubileeAric Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15241157655075444268noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226481506470506962.post-83362944079944132722009-01-30T10:23:00.000-08:002009-01-30T10:23:00.000-08:00Re: other people's money.I recognize that this is ...Re: other people's money.<BR/><BR/>I recognize that this is the primary argument against redistributive justice of any kind - I have no right, or the government has no right, or whoever is speaking has no right to tell someone what they "must" do with their own money. Since the money banks loaned out was not their own, they cannot forgive the loans, because that would be stealing...<BR/><BR/>A few comments in reply.<BR/><BR/>First, for all those who are Jewish or Christian, who regard the Bible with respect and God's Word with authority - what do you think Jubilee is? Is it not an outside force mandating what every person must do with their money? How do Christians reconcile their beliefs about private property with the Bible's extremely DIFFERENT view of property - namely that it all belongs to God.<BR/><BR/>In other words, it isn't that people are being asked to give up something that belongs to them. It is that they are being asked to pay back the loan that was made to them. God "loaned" them the money for a time, and now it is time (the time of Jubilee) to return it to its rightful owner, God, by making it serve justice. Jubilee is not the theft, Jubilee is the correction of theft.<BR/><BR/>From a secular viewpoint this has no sway - why should a Hindu or an Atheist care what Yahweh thinks they should do with their money? But we can still problematize the very idea of ownership which underlies our capitalist system. Shouldn't rightful ownership imply "just" ownership? And is it possible for ownership to be "just" if it is wildly unequal?Aric Clarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15241157655075444268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226481506470506962.post-7292057013097099412009-01-30T06:56:00.000-08:002009-01-30T06:56:00.000-08:00That's an interesting proposition. The Jubilee...That's an interesting proposition. The Jubilee is basically the cure for greed.<BR/><BR/>If the money the banks had loaned had been their own, or the government's, it might even be doable. Trouble is, the money they loaned was the money that other people deposited in their accounts. Like Arab oil money for example.<BR/><BR/>Humm...<BR/><BR/>Seriously, I would have expected the theological community to have started harping on greed by now. <BR/><BR/>There are lots of rules in the Torah about greed. Laws against driving the system to maximum efficiency. Its in the Torah and its in one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. <BR/><BR/>I can tell you first hand, the rules in business over the last 30 years have been primarily about driving the efficiency up through any means necessary, at the expense of infrastructure, at the expense of long term planning, at the expense of fiscal stability. Borrowing against the future to make the present >>look<< better on paper.<BR/><BR/>I think the community of pastors could help by taking the rich back to basics when in comes to greed.Jodiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15447125159108080797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7226481506470506962.post-73299036441265293882009-01-29T20:43:00.000-08:002009-01-29T20:43:00.000-08:00Careful - this will drive the people who confuse C...Careful - this will drive the people who confuse Christianity with pseudo-market capitalism to frothing lunacy.<BR/><BR/>I do agree with you here - the only hope is for our economy as it exists now to change completely. We are frantically trying to rescue what I think is, at its core, a necessarily unsustainable system.<BR/><BR/>I will quote Dead Prez, one of my favorite hip-hop groups:<BR/><BR/>"When the lights go out, <BR/>its gonna belong to the poor."<BR/><BR/>I wonder when we'll finally reap what we've sown?Douglas Underhillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02215736448645573566noreply@blogger.com