Unemployment and underemployment are spiritually and emotionally violent. Invoked are many questions to consider.
Anger and depression, the absence of hope, the inability to be considered for even an interview without the knowledge of 'key' words that will match a computer search for the first screening of candidates; the toll is evident and communicated to a global audience in unimagined, historic ways.
Going beyond our tweets of despair, the physical presence and magnitude of the have-nots, the power of presence and assembly of kindred spirits may be one manifestation of the economy of our era and our sense of privilege and justice. The occupiers are united in emotion and need.
Who will chaplain those caught in the downward spiral of no job, no prospects?
If this is class warfare, who will emotionally and spiritually support those who seek a way of feeding their families and providing for their welfare? There are many persons of faith that have gathered to support the Occupy Wall Street Movement, and there are many police and fire chaplains who are supporting the unique stress of the police and fire departments that are called out by superiors to support the public order and maintain public services and safety for all. Who will bring Communion to those in the parks and plazas? Who will listen and bless the cops as well as the protesters? Who will chaplain the rich as well as the poor? How do we seek to understand the violence? How will we know what is just?
Is there justice in the economy? I wonder which theologians and philosophers the top "1 percent" embraces?
Doesn't ancient wisdom encourage us to invest not only in lumberyard, but also in the forest, the tree, planter and harvester? To grasp the immediate as well as what lies beyond the horizon?
Can this be a return to the liberation theologies of the late 50s and 60s when so many nations were joining the global community as former colonies gained freedom after so many years of "civilization and stability'--which included repression, enslavement, exploitation, mail service, sanitation and highways. Liberation theology in the Third World empowered the human spirit, gave comfort to the poor and may have contributed to the Arab Spring. When social media broadcasts the revolution to neighbors in the next street as well as all parts of the world, the message seeks to right injustice and persecution. Blessed are the poor in spirit as well as those who thirst for justice and make peace.
Yes, there may be a connection between the Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street Movement, because wherever in the world there is oppression and the absence of hope and future opportunity--there is also an emotional and spiritual conversation about justice and mercy. There you will find priests and prophets and chaplains to all.
For children to be fed in Tripoli and in Allentown, for jobs in Cairo and in Oakland. For those veterans who fought for the freedom of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, only to return and see our polarized nation where the divide is real and vast, and all glory may be fleeting.
Who will provide for our protection and for our welfare? Who will blame others for their condition, their poverty, this additional disaster that may be compounded by an economic and material winter, an absence of community resources?
Who will teach philanthropy and mitigation, and how to profit emotionally, spiritually and materially by contributing to the common good? Still standing today are hundreds of libraries built in small towns and great cities by the vision and investment of Andrew Carnegie.
The late Yale economist, founder of the European Community and advocate for the European Central Bank, Robert Triffin's 'favorite' theologian was Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Prosperity creates and insures peace and material accumulation (or absence) has an inherent connection to the spiritual (and emotional) in the individual, family, community, nation and interconnected global community (including economic policy and impact).
Fr. Teilhard de Chardin was a stretcher carrier during WW1 as well as a scientist and priest. He embraced evolution and saw marginalization and inequality to be the enemies of further spiritual and human evolution. To be a pastor, to be a spiritual care professional, one must study economics and theology, ethics and law. Is there any morality in split second trades or profits? Do those who die with the most toys win? What thought leaders (and theologians) drive Wall Street today?
Is "greed is good" an extension of the Prosperity Gospel? Is faith, belief in what one has, or in what one dreams and hopes for future generations?
Triffin questioned one student about the 'Big Lie' (i.e., the naïve idea that we're all here to help, we're all in this together), and to further articulate how people increasingly united in technology and knowledge could cease to care about one another--and an increasing deficit within material and spiritual resources.
What you do with the wealth matters. How you counsel the one percent makes a profound difference. And, relationships built upon common needs build bridges, even as bridges unmaintained may fall at any time. I've got my smoke detector, so why do I need to pay for a fire department, too?
Another Yale professor, Joe Duffey, encouraged us to read Paul Goodman's "Growing Up Absurd" (teaching to transgress?) and John Rawls "Theory of Justice"--i.e., all society benefits if you assist those who need help the most. Could this be an economy of justice? Just search Triffin, Teilhard de Chardin, Duffy, Goodman and Rawls. The instruments that create extreme wealth may have eliminated compassion for those in need, perceived as disposable souls. To "Think Different' now is to grieve and mourn for a divided nation and world, yet remembering so many advances and material marvels that caused our spirits to soar. After all, the personal operating device became a community organizing developer.
Let us consider again micro-investment that created jobs for the poor as worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize. Trickle up not trickle down.
When did luxury mean not caring about one another? Defining the common good, in part, as investment in our neighbor? How can persons of faith, who can barely take care of themselves, care for one another?
Has the immense economic and human cost of living in a state of perpetual war built more walls and eliminated the prospects of a just and lasting peace? For warriors that were honored and respected in battle, has the economic and spiritual violence of unemployment at home been answered with increased suicides and collective silence? Not for Scott Olsen and those who have been mobilized to fight for economic peace and justice.
When does one stop being human?