Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Every Town is Money

Every Town is Money

Last updated on: August 28, 2020 at 6:06 pm by Mary Pezzulo

Every Town is Money 2020-08-28T18:06:59-04:00 Mary Pezzulo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Today is the Roman Catholic feast of Saint Augustine, who was an African man with an African mother, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at most of his icons– and of Saint Moses the Strong, whom nobody could whitewash. Most paintings of Augustine make him look like he’s from Scandinavia, but Moses looks Black. Saint Augustine said of money: “The superfluities of the rich are the necessities of the poor. When you possess superfluity, you possess what belongs to others. God gives the world to the poor as well as to the rich. Redouble your charity.” And as for Saint Moses, he said “It is better for a man to put himself to death rather than his neighbor, and he should not condemn him in ‎anything.”

But I don’t live in a country that worships their God. I wish that I did. I live in the United States, and we honor a different god here.

Today is also the anniversary of the lynching of Emmett Till.

Emmett Till was a Black child who was lynched 65 years ago, at age fourteen, by white men who thought he’d grabbed a white lady. That white lady’s name is Carolyn Bryant Donham, and she later admitted she lied, and she is still alive. She’s 86 this year. Till would have been seventy-nine. Till’s murderers died free men.

The name of the town where Emmett Till was murdered was “Money.” Money, Mississippi. It seems an odd name, but then again, every single town in the United States ought to be called “Money.” Money is what we worship here. Money is our god.

It has been ninety-five days since the lynching of George Floyd, who died groaning for mercy while a policeman knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Unlike the lynching of Emmett Till, it was filmed. His crime, allegedly, was trying to pass a bill he might or might not have known was counterfeit. A counterfeit bill is a blasphemy against Money, and blasphemers are publicly tortured to death.

Black people were brought here from the United States in the first place, because of money. They were how we made our money and became the economic power we are today. We stacked them on top of each other like firewood. If they got sick on the voyage, we threw them overboard to drown so we could collect the insurance. We stole their names, their cultures; we sold them at auction for Money. We branded and scourged them, for Money. We raped women and then raped and sold their children, for Money. We worked them to death, for Money. And we were blessed in return with lots of money.

When slavery was abolished, we did everything we could to make sure that that these people couldn’t have any Money. We made sure they had no remuneration for their generations of labor. We made everything they did a crime, either a real crime on the books or just tacitly a crime, and then we punished them as hard as we could because they wouldn’t follow the rules. We told one another that they were violent and untrustworthy, and then we feared them because they were violent and untrustworthy. We refused to sell them houses or loan them money to buy a house somewhere else, and then we called them imprudent for not having invested in any property. And we called them lazy because the neighborhoods they went to live in were shabby. We had Money, and that means we were favored by God for our hard work. They had no Money so they were lazy and needed to be disciplined, by us.

That’s the history of America.

Earlier this week, two human beings were murdered during the protests and the rioting in Wisconsin. They were protesting the maiming of Jacob Blake. I think we were all surprised when Jacob Blake didn’t die after the police shot him seven times in the back; he’s only paralyzed from the waist down. We’re so used to these stories ending in the Black man’s death, or the Black woman’s death, or the Black child’s death. We do know that the police handcuffed him to his hospital bed, even though he had no way of getting out of it thanks to them. Of course, many were quick to come up with reasons for why he deserved to be paralyzed from the waist down. There was a knife in his car. There were warrants. He shouldn’t have turned his back. The police were worried for their safety. But plenty of other people recognized this as an atrocity, and they protested, and some rioted.

A young white man named Kyle Rittenhouse responded to this by having his mother drive him forty miles across state lines to guard businesses that weren’t his, with a rifle he was legally not allowed to carry– the minimum age for open carry is eighteen, and Rittenhouse is seventeen. Rittenhouse shot three people, killing two, and was allowed to walk right past the police– the same police force who shot an unarmed Black man in the back because they were afraid.

Thankfully, most of the people I know are horrified at Rittenhouse. But I also see an alarming number of people praising him, because he was defending properties. Riots destroy properties, and he took two lives and left another in the hospital, at least ostensibly in defense of somebody’s property. Somebody’s business. The means that somebody has to make money.

This is America, and money is what we worship. Money is what we value above all else. We are still a nation that praises the taking of lives, in sacrifice to Money. So little has changed.

Every town in America is really called “Money.”

Image via Wikimedia Commons

Mary Pezzulo is the author of Meditations on the Way of the Cross.

America

blood

cop-on-black violence

cop-on-black violence

Previous Post

August 22, 2020

This Inhuman Place

Next Post

August 29, 2020 The Children At the Unity Kitchen

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion Abuse Advent America American Christianity angel angels Annunciation Appalachia apparition apparition chaser apparition chasers apparition culture art art review babies baby baby Jesus Bad Lip Reading bad statue contest bath beauty Bible story blog blogkeeping blood book review Brandon Sanderson breastfeeding bus Catholic catholic conspiracy alarmism Catholic Oppositional Disorder Charismatic Renewal Charlie the Cat chastity Christ Christian idenitity Christianity and Judaism Chronic Illness clean clothing COD piece comedy compassion conscience conspiracy theory conversion cop-on-black violence Crucifixion cry of the poor culture Daesh Daily Saints death death penalty devotional diaconate diaper diapers dirty disability Donald Trump Dorothy Day dream drugs Eastern Catholicism Eastern Christianity education election election update Elsewhere on Patheos empathy environment Fear feminism film review fish flashback fluffy buns food Franciscan University of Steubenville Friendship Room fun Gabriel gardening gospel hair-splitting Heaven hell heresy Hillary Clinton history Holly the Witch Holy Spirit holy war Homeschooling homosexuality horror human dignity humor Icon idol immigrants infection inter-religious dialogue Interpretation of Scripture Islam Jesus Jihad Joseph joy laity and lay vocations lamb dinner laundry lent lgbtq literature love manners Mary Medicine and Science Meditation mercy mess milk misogyny Missouri monasticism monster motherhood mourn with those mourn movies movis music mystery nature neurodiversity New Pro-Life Movement news nonsense nostalgia O antiphons obituary objectification Ohio Valley Ordinary Time ordination Ordo Amoris parable paradox Passover peanut butter personal beliefs pets philosophy Planet Charismatic poetry politics polls poop Pope Francis Pope Leo power in the Church prayer prayer request prayers preferential option for non-violence president presidential election priest primary private revelation pro-life prophecy Public face of Catholicism Pure Flix Q and A race racism random rape rape. sexuality reader's request Reckoners refugee religious trauma ressurrection Right to life Saints saints and celebrations same-sex same-sex marriage satire scandal secular feasts seder Seven Joys Seven Last Words sex sexual ethics sexuality silencing six months skid row slavery social justice Speculative fiction spiritual abuse spoon stain story suffering suffrage suffragette Sunday Gospel temple Tenebrae Responsories Terror the exorcist The Friendship Room The New Pro-Life Movement Things I Learned on the Internet tin cup traffic true story tv review Uncategorized USCCB vice and temptation violence Virtue virtue and vice war Way of the Cross whimsy whole life women's ordination work of mercy Year A

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group follows the Augsburg Confession?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Lutherans Presbyterians Methodists Pentecostals