Nickle and Dimed, On (Not) Getting by in America

Part of my reading this year and last has included a real effort to acquaint myself with books that are required reading on the campuses of American secular universities (assuming, of course, that I can read them as a Christian). It's the way some of choose to contextualize without wearing nose-rings and tattoos.

How I find these particular books is rather unscientific. It usually happens by taking note of a comment in another book about an author or book that it is assumed everyone knows about. I then jot the name down on a piece of paper and retain the tidbit of information for a later time when I might have time, money, and opportunity collude conveniently for me to acquire the book that "everyone knows about" but me. Thus, I heard about Barbara Ehrenreich's book. I think I saw her on TV one time -- or mentioned -- and she is a flaming liberal and pro-Obama feminist.

I have to say at the outset that I have increasingly been unhappy with the American evangelical's conviction that Jesus is a Republican and that capitalism is the sanctified way of life among the nations that will separate the sheep from the goats at the bema. I personally have a bitter and cynical feeling toward raw, unchecked capitalism as anyone who has been on the losing side of a Monopoly game as many times as I have been may fully understand. There is no year of Jubilee. My Calvinistic theology convinces me that men are bad and that greed will prevail anywhere, be it a capitalistic or socialist system or in game of Monopoly. However, while it is incredibly naive to insist that capitalism is the best hope for the poor, it is also naive to think that socialism checks greed.

The disparity between the rich and the poor is even further in Western Europe than it is here in this messed up system and the gulf that separates the two classes is unbridgeable. Socialism, like Stalin's communism, classifies people permanently. In France or Sweden, for example, there is an impassible separation between the very rich and the not-so-miserable poor. At least in capitalism there is the technical possibility, though the probability is minimal, that one could move from class to class even though the poor or more miserable

Ironically, I also think that there is really a case to make that the poor in America are poorer than the poor in socialist Europe, but since I have also seen the downside of socialist government I am just as cynical and doubtful about the so-called hope that the new socialism is bringing to the United States of America.

The inability of the American Christian to see a third way (or fourth or fifth) or to weigh the arguments of economic liberals is because there is a patriotic head-buried-in-sand surrealism among American Christians about what life is really like in this country for most people. They believe in the "American Dream" without realizing that it is just a "dream." But worse, they only read or listen to people who are certified red-white-and-blue, anti-abortionist, Jesus-is-a-Republican, pro-Wal-mart, America-is-a-Christian-nation bona fide patriot. Anyone that does not fit that category is dismissed as an un-American quasi-communist infiltrator that has no other agenda but to see American go down in flames. Thus, with homeschooling and the Christian school and the Christian colleges there has developed another culture, another view point, and another concept of the America that we live in that is so radically different than the one their neighbors are learning about that they simply cannot even relate. Worse, the America they believe exists doesn't equate to reality. There is no America like the one most conservative Christians are willfully indoctrinating themselves to love and defend.

What is a Christian to do? The solution is not easy. You just don't switch parties. You don't fix lemming-hood by becoming the lemming of another party. Besides, in a two party system like America has presently, the morality issues of abortion and homosexual marriage, etc. are polarizing issues. For example, I may be sympathetic to some kind of governmental healthcare provision, but I can't in good conscience support a system that takes away the liberty of doctors to choose against abortion.

Thus, part of the solution for today's Christian is to get in the conversation. At least in conversation we don't have to be so either/or about things. As thoughtful Christians we should know what other people are thinking. That's what I suggested to my successful and generous Christian chiropractor yesterday. He had never heard of Ehrenriech's book. The goal is not political. The goal is missional. The goal is the Gospel. The Gospel is only really good news in reality.

The goal is present-day realism that makes one a much more effective witness to the world he lives in and demonstrates a more mature (and ultimately more effective) contextualization that goes beyond wearing hip-hop bling-bling.

We live in a world where ideas have consequences and thoughtless, driveling repetition of the party line exposes us as unhelpful minions of a perceived if not real oppressor. Can "good news" really come from someone who regurgitates something demonstrably bad?

It may also make him a more helpful contributor to the world's pursuit for practical solutions.

Christians need to face a reality that rich Republicans don't want Americans to see. I don't think it's a conspiracy on their part. I really don't think there are back-room deals among the very rich Republicans. I simply think that they and scores of thousands of comfortable middle-class evangelicals really don't see it; therefore, they think the mention of that reality is a conspiracy on the part of the liberals.

Listen to Hannity and Limbaugh scoff the poor. Listen to them say that anyone -- anyone! -- who wants to can be rich in this country. Just look at them, they say. They scrapped and clawed their way to their success by good old-fashioned work, they shrill. Basically, if you're poor and caught in a vortex of increasing poverty it's because you're lazy, they imply if not overtly declare. Of course, this is not new with them; we basically grew up with this Americana doctrine. However, the facts do not support the dream that these unimaginably rich men perpetuate.

The most blasphemous words a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can say from the pulpit are, "Weep and howl, you rich men." That they are biblical and applicable are irrelevant. These words are blasphemous to American Christians who grew up with a "Christian" worldview about American capitalism. One group of people that the American preacher knows he cannot address is the rich. After all, in most cases, they butter his bread.

Although, for the bold castigator of the rich there is always the realistic hope of, well, riches. Think Jesse Jackson and so forth.

In theory, I agree with the liberals in this state that think minimum wage should be elevated, but that puts me at odds with the accepted way of thinking among most Christians who for some bizarre reason think that employers are always fair and generous. I think the wages of the poor have "reached the ears of the Lord of hosts." However, I also think that the socialist answer is pocked with humanistic and naive thinking. Socialism obviously does not solve the greed problem and so far it only has a broken record which includes the stifling of innovation and liberties.

Millennialists are looking forward to seeing how Jesus will manage the economy since anything that includes unregenerate men will ultimately be abused. In the meantime, however, I think Christians would do themselves a service by accepting the fact that it is possible to be Christian without drinking the kool-aid of one party or the other. One doesn't have to sell his soul to a system. If capitalism is the "American Dream" they need to realize that for most people it's just a dream; and for others it has become a nightmare in which they are the losers of Monopoly that repeats itself over and over and over with no end in sight. If socialism is the answer, they need to realize that no legislation whatsoever will be just when unjust men are trying to shape society.

Instead, I think Christians need to see that all human beings have both an accurate and distorted perspective of the human problem of government, poverty, and wealth. I learned some things from Nickle and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America that not only opened my eyes to a reality that I knew existed but patriotically attempted to ignore, but I also saw that the liberal author is choosing her own set of blinds as well.

With that I conclude the introduction to my book review!