In the global market economy, a basic question that isn't being asked is, "What purpose do we expect the economy to serve." This is because we fail to see that our economic crisis is just as much spiritual as it is financial.
In Matthew 6:24, Jesus is giving his Sermon on The Mount and states that, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." In the global market economy, wealth has become an object of worship. Since 2008, we having been dealing with the consequences of this idolatry. The false gods of Wall Street have been given the power to decide the values by which we live and take make decisions about who will prosper and who live in desperation.
Jesus scholar Marcus Borg famously said, "Tell me your image of God, and I will tell you your politics."
The Patriarch Model that has been traditionally intertwined with the Abrahamic faith traditions has resulted in a hierarchy of domination. It has led to the individualistic politics of separation and favors seeking wealth accumulation by means of exploitation and predatory resource extraction. It has even led to some theological frameworks saying, whether implicitly or explicitly, that the rich and powerful are necessarily God's most-favored people.
The Spirit Model more accurately recognizes the face of God in every living being and every part of the universe. It leads to a politics of shared purpose, shared community and mutual service. Everything in creation is seen as the manifestation and agent of a greater spiritual intelligence.
Already, a spiritual awakening is underway. Most often, it is occurring beyond our religious institutions. It is essential to our collective future that our religious institutions refashion themselves as centers of spiritual inquiry and community building. They need to be dedicated to drawing from the whole of human knowledge and experience to deepen our understanding of ourselves and our relationship to the larger whole of Creation. As religious communities go public with the truth of our Spirit affirming messages, they help to expose as fabrications the false values of Empire that hold us captive.
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