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
Progressive Christian
I am a dangerous woman: a fight against unbridled capitalism

I am a dangerous woman: a fight against unbridled capitalism

Last updated on: January 10, 2017 at 3:48 pm by Christy Thomas

I am a dangerous woman: a fight against unbridled capitalism 2017-01-10T15:48:41-05:00 Christy Thomas

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.

only-the-rich-and-powerful- I want to be a dangerous woman.

I made that decision after reading this opinion piece recently published in the New York Times.

There, a philosophy professor, George Yancy of Emory University, speaks of having been placed on the Professor Watchlist. The Watchlist is the place where students apparently indoctrinated in uncritical conservative thought patterns warn other students who want their current ideologies to go unchallenged to avoid identified-as-dangerous faculty.

Yancy decides to own it.

Well, if it is dangerous to teach my students to love their neighbors, to think and rethink constructively and ethically about who their neighbors are, and how they have been taught to see themselves as disconnected and neoliberal subjects, then, yes, I am dangerous, and what I teach is dangerous.

Yes, I thought.”I will be a dangerous woman.”

I will live faithfully to my baptismal vows to renounce the forces of wickedness, reject the evil powers of this world, resist evil, injustice, and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves.

Because I trust that the nature of God has expressed itself most fully in the life, death and new life of Jesus, I will find my model for behavior there. That means an intentional reach into the communities of the cultural untouchables of my day. For Jesus, the leper, the beggar, the bleeding woman. For me, the differently sexed, the victims of religious and political oppression, the captives of those who trade in sex and forced prostitution.

It also means a continued speaking out against a political system that bases itself on the “profit the rich” model only and refuses to accept our larger, communal responsibility to those on the outside of the rewarding forces of unbridled capitalism.

It means that I am aware of my position of privilege in this society and will abide by these words of Jesus, “To whom much is given, much is required.”

Years ago, I read a powerful and probably mostly ignored book called Coming Out of the Ice: an Unexpected Story.We learn of the life of Victor Herrman, who, with his parents, went to the Soviet Union in the 30’s to help build an auto plant there.

Victor ended up spending 45 years in the Stalin-ruled world, a world we could easily emulate with our own version of the paranoid, too-powerful, unaccountable leader at the helm. Hermann was an astoundingly good athlete and was first seen as a hero. However, he fell from grace and spent most of his later years in and out of Soviet prison camps, subject to many of the same tortures that are used today.

There is one scene, imprinted in my mind, of him at a camp where another prisoner, Red Loon (played in the movie version to perfection by Willie Nelson!) hands him his own cage to catch rats (eaten raw), a necessary survival technique. Red is about to be deported to an even worse camp where he faces inevitable death. He tells Victor that he, Victor, has seen the worst life has to offer. Because of that, he need never be afraid again.

I think we are getting ready to face similar evil and injustice, perhaps some of the worst ever seen in the US. We must stand up unafraid of the consequences of our resistance.

We will see it in the church as the religious far right seeks to eliminate more and more progressive voices who speak out for the marginalized. The conservative arm insists that church growth will be the result of expelling progressive voices. They have crowned Trump as their standard-bearer for “biblical” behavioral standards.

By making unexamined church growth and political influence as primary goals, they pander to the unredeemed need of humanity to define both an ingroup (themselves and therefore good) and an outgroup (the others and therefore bad). These stances are antithetical to the words and life of Jesus.

We will also see evil and injustice on a national and international scale as the political world deals with a constitutionally ignorant President-elect whose only experience is in the business world. He has surrounded himself with the darlings of white supremacists, with those dedicated to taking down the public education system, and with the worst: mega-billionaires who wish to turn control of the public safety net into private, profit-driven hands.

All these forces will culminate in making the poor even poorer.

Please note: I do not advocate nor support socialism as a viable economic model for the US, but do I recognize the evils inherent in unregulated capitalism that is driven only by bottom line results.

I am married to a person in the health insurance business. There is no question but that the private sector can come up with better products overall than what is offered through the Affordable Care Act.

The problems are not with the big middle who are generally healthy and who need reasonable access to decent health care. The problem is that the private sector can and will eliminate from participation the very small percentage of heavy users of health care, i.e, those with pre-existing conditions that need long-term support and often expensive attention to thrive and stay productive.

This is one of the reasons why running a business and running a government are two different tasks. Running a business means fighting for all advantages in a highly competitive a dog-eat-dog world, filled with winks and secret handshake deals. In its unregulated state, that world creates discriminatory practices and policies because they mean higher profits. Their appropriate goal is to ultimately bring financial benefit to the owners and stockholders.

The government, however, is a government of all the people, not just a limited and moneyed few. Everyone has a stake in its proper function. It is for the people, of the people, by the people. Government functions under a mandate to protect all citizens from danger, including the danger of unregulated rapacious corporate aggression.

So, when we privatize the social safety net, dismantling the Affordable Care Act for example, we put that net into the hands of those who have no stake in caring for the least among us. Why? Because the least can’t pay their way, biting into profits.

Simply put, I believe the move to privatize those things will lead to our own version of ethnic cleansing, except it will be financially-based, not wealth based. I predict that, should privatization as suggested so far happen, we will see a massive and tragic epidemic of early and unnecessary deaths of the poor.

Now, hear this: corporate America is not some unmitigated evil force. Again, I’m married to a person in the insurance business. My husband has graciously and patiently taught me more than I could have ever learned otherwise the challenges of working in a highly competitive environment where the bottom line must be considered in every decision. It’s extremely different from my life in the non-profit church world. It is also extremely different from the world of governmental policies.

Because of his willingness to take a lot of risks and to delay for an extensive period of time any financial rewards from his labor, my husband also made it possible for hundreds and hundreds to make a decent living, to support families, to give to their church and communities. I often call him the accidental philanthropist–a label he laughs at, but there is much truth there.

The US needs to create an atmosphere where millions of profitable businesses thrive with the same positive societal effect. If Trump’s policies can help create that atmosphere, then it should be celebrated.

But we should not enact government policy based on private profits. They are two different fields with significantly different values and motivations. Both are needed as well as the non-profit world in order to create a good, healthy society where no one is left out.

Our bottom line? In truth, privatizing could possibly be highly profitable for us personally, although no one can actually predict the outcome.

But I choose to be a dangerous woman and say, “I will do what is necessary to protect the vulnerable in our country.”

Who will stand with me?

privitazation of public services

Trump cabinet

Previous Post

December 1, 2016

The truth about the future of the United Methodist Church

Next Post

December 6, 2016 The State of Texas: disabled children to stay disabled

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category " obedience abortion accommodation accountability administration adolescence Advent advice an ordinary death anxiety apology apportionments Ash Wednesday ask thoughtfulpastor baptism betrayal Bible bondage calling certainty change character charity children Christianity Christmas church church as garden clergy clergy credentials closure comfort compassion competition compromise Confirmation conservation conservative conspiracy theories consumer conversion coronavirua corruption courage covenant cultural context death Deconstruction discipleship discord divorce doctrine doing good drugs dysfunctional Easter Easter; Resurrection education election entertainment envy escape evaluation evil exclusive church exercise faith faithfulness family fasting fear feast featured film review finances first world problem food forgiveness fundamentalist garden gay marriage General Conference generosity giving thanks GLBT glory good government grace guilt habit happy harmony hateful acts healing health health care heaven hell hello/goodbye heresy hidden agenda holiness homelessness homosexuality humility hymn hypocrisy Imago Dei In training inclusive church indulgence injustice innocents insurance intolerance itinerancy joy Justice kindness Kingdom of Heave kingdom of heaven language laughter laundry lawsuit leadership Lent LGBTQ liberal life Little Things Matter longform meandering thoughts memories mercy metaphor metrics miracle misfortunes morality Mormon Muslim mystery worship natural disasters New Category Name nutrients older adults oppression pain Paleo paperwork partnered pastor peace pension pharmaceutical placebo politics poverty prayer privilege public schools questions quiet racism rain reason reconciliation religion repentance requirements rescue respect rest resurrection retirement Sabbath sacrament sacred salvation same-sex marriage sanctuary schism schooling science SCOTUS secrecy separation of church and state sexism sexuality short cuts silence sin sleep soil spiritual journey stillness suffering surgery sustainable church teacher technology thank you theology therapy thinking tolerance TOS trust truth Uncategorized welcome Why Easter? wisdom women worship

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 December 2025 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 March 2025 February 2025 December 2024 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 December 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 July 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 October 2021 July 2021 June 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 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 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 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 July 2007 March 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz