wrote a piece that appears in the CNN blog site<\/a>, condemning the Occupy movement .\u00a0\u00a0 He cites the parable of the ten pounds in Luke 19, in which a master gave money to his slaves to invest until his return from a journey.\u00a0 \u201cHe summoned ten of his slaves, and gave them ten pounds, and said to them, \u2018Do business with these until I come back.\u2019 \u201d (New Revised Standard Version) In the King James version, which Perkins uses, \u201cdo business\u201d is rendered as \u201coccupy\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cBut just what does Jesus\u2019 order to occupy mean?\u201d asks Perkins.\u00a0 \u201cDoes it mean take over and trash public property, as the Occupy movement has? Does it mean engage in antisocial behavior while denouncing a political and economic system that grants one the right and luxury to choose to be unproductive?\u00a0 No, the Greek term behind the old English translation literally means \u2018be occupied with business.\u2019 As with all parables, Jesus uses a common activity such as fishing or farming to provide a word picture with a deeper spiritual meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The title for Perkins\u2019 article:\u00a0 \u201cJesus was a free marketeer.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there is no evidence for this assertion in this story or anywhere else in the New Testament.\u00a0 In the parable, the master was based on a real character, Archelaus, son of Herod, who went away to Rome to be appointed the successor to his father\u2019s unpopular, tyrannical reign over Judea.\u00a0 Jesus made it very clear to his audience that the master was a bad guy.\u00a0 The people he entrusted with the money were slaves.\u00a0 There was nothing \u201cfree\u201d about the market economics in this story.\u00a0 Hence the entirely rational fear of the slave who didn\u2019t invest the money.\u00a0 The master said to him: \u201cYou knew, did you, that I was a harsh man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?\u201d<\/p>\n
A vicious tyrant who enslaves people \u2013\u00a0 is this the kind of capitalist that Tony Perkins offers as a model for Americans today?\u00a0 Jesus was not on his side.\u00a0 Jesus stood with the 99%, in this parable and in all his others.\u00a0 Perkins is of touch with economic reality, both in the biblical and the present era.<\/p>\n
Tony Perkins takes a Bible story, ties it into the shape of a pretzel, and returns it to us as evidence from scripture that God has ordained an economic system in which 84% of the nation\u2019s net personal assets are held by 20% of its people.<\/p>\n
But Jesus\u2019 parable reminds his listeners of what they already knew:\u00a0 the political and economic system of their country was utterly corrupt.\u00a0 His parable was a powerful statement against capitalism, at least of the kind practiced at the time.\u00a0 But the punch-line of his parable wasn\u2019t about economics at all.\u00a0 It appears to be much more enigmatic and mystical.\u00a0 \u201cI tell you, to all those who have, more will be given, but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.\u201d (Luke 19:26)\u00a0 It resonates with the message of his mustard seed parable: even a little bit of faith is enough to grow our lives, but without it, we are spiritually bankrupt.\u00a0 Indeed, in tough times like these, we need to invest wisely the bit of faith that we have, so that it will grow to give us strength to change the world for the better.<\/p>\n
By Rev. Jim Burklo<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Perkins, president of the religious-right Family Research Council in Washington, wrote a piece that appears in the CNN blog site, condemning the Occupy movement .\u00a0\u00a0 He cites the parable of the ten pounds in Luke 19, in which a master gave money to his slaves to invest until his return from a journey.\u00a0 \u201cHe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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