If there’s one thing President Obama wanted his audience to take away from his speech in support of the American Jobs Act last Thursday night, it’s the urgency of the crisis facing the United States. Repeatedly he exhorted Congress to “pass this bill,” which the president assured would “create jobs right away.”
One of the important perspectives the president reminded the nation of is our dependence on the work of those who have come before us. “Where would we be right now?” asked the president, as he urged us to imagine the world without a litany of public spending projects in our nation’s history, from bridges to schools to Social Security. We might just as well ask, too, where we would be right now without the promises of politicians present and past, who have run up the U.S. national debt in excess of $14.7 trillion, or where we would be without generations of innovative enterprise in the private sector.
The greatest truth President Obama spoke last Thursday night was his acknowledgment that politicians “can’t solve all of our nation’s woes.” The one thing perhaps that the president and Dave Ramsey agree on is that, as the president put it, “our recovery will be driven not by Washington, but by our businesses and our workers.” Just how much politicians can “help,” however, remains the great matter of debate. The remainder of the president’s speech gives the impression that he believes there is, in fact, a great deal the government should be doing. But as pastor Kevin DeYoung put it so convincingly last week, “profits,” not politics, are “where jobs come from.”
The president closed his speech with a quote that illustrates perfectly the depth of the disconnect between today’s Washington and a properly Christian view of work and government. President Obama invoked the words of President John F. Kennedy: “Our problems are man-made – therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants.” Man can be as big as he wants. That sounds like a pretty good paraphrase of the serpent’s promise, “You will be like God."
Rather than making grandiose claims about what human beings can and cannot do, whether through politics or other social spheres, the Christian acknowledges, as the Heidelberg Catechism puts it, that all things, including wealth and poverty, come by God’s “fatherly hand." Our own participation in that providential order comes about through God’s gracious inclusion of human beings as his instruments. C. S. Lewis once wrote that God “invented both prayer and physical action” for the purpose of allowing his creatures the “dignity of causality” (a phrase coined by Pascal). This means that our work, in whatever form and in whatever sphere, is by definition secondary and subservient to God’s greater providential purposes. It also means, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “We cannot simply take it for granted that our own work provides us with bread; rather this is God’s order of grace.”
This means ultimately that even if our problems are “man-made,” the solutions to them start not with man but with God. As the Psalmist puts it, “Do not put your trust in princes, / in human beings, who cannot save,” but instead in “the Maker of heaven and earth,” who “upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry." It’s time for Christian citizens to ask what trust we’ve been putting in princes, elected or otherwise, and what the real responsibilities of government are and are not.
(Photo courtesy of The White House/Chuck Kennedy.)
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Comments (41)
It’s not surprising Acton comes down against the American Jobs Act; Acton is strongly libertarian, and the AJA and the president have progressive agendas. So around and around we go again through a tiresome argument that never resolves.
Which is not to say that Jordan’s piece is driven by institutional agenda; it may simply be poorly considered. Jordan writes that a statement by President Kennedy “sounds like a pretty good paraphrase of the serpent’s promise ‘You will be like God.’” Kennedy’s statement comes from his commencement address at American University in 1963, in which Kennedy made an impassioned plea for peace with the Soviet Union against a backdrop of nuclear tension (http://www1.media.american.edu.... When Kennedy said “Man can be as big as he wants,” he meant in the pursuit of peace.
Comparing one’s ideological opposite to the devil isn’t a particularly imaginative tactic, nor fruitful. In church this morning, we read from Ephesians 2, in which Paul reminds us we are “fellow citizens with God’s people, and also members of His household.” As fellow citizens, we can disagree; as members of His household, let’s be peaceful when we do.
I don't think that's just "Washington," though; in fact, I'd suggest that Washington is only a symptom of the place where we really need a more Christian perspective—private business, and particularly the multinational corporations that are now the dominant force in our global economy and governments and cultures around the world.
When a company's sole purpose—to the point where it can be sued by its shareholders for not pursuing this purpose vigorously enough—is to increase the short-term profit and share value of the company, that's where the problem lies. When those running corporations, and those owning corporations, believe that there is no value higher than their making as much money as they could possibly legally make, naturally the governments they buy will reflect the same values.
What we need is a truly Christian witness in large business—a witness that says that degrading or pillaging our environment, firing workers to make a few more bucks, undermining democracy, and fostering rampant individualism and consumerism in culture are wrongs, that they are subject to a higher moral law and higher obligation than their profits, that business does have moral ramifications.
I don't know businesspeople's hearts, but I do know their fruits ("By their fruits you shall know them")—and those fruits demonstrate that there are few if any people with any sense of morality, any knowledge of Christ, any notion that there is any higher value than their own selfish greed, currently occupying high-rise corporate or financial offices in Manhattan.
Since we have decided that it is money, not the common good, that will dictate what happens in our society, culture, media, and government, then the source of moral decay in our culture can be traced back to those who have the money—the wealthy and corporations. That is where we need a Christian perspective in which loving God and loving one's neighbor take priority over one's own gain, and that is where the church should be directing its prophetic voice expressing God's demand for justice. Until the wealthy and corporations acknowledge a higher law than their own selfish, immoral, Satanic greed, we shouldn't expect anything different out of the Washington politicians they've bought.
Also, I think the author's comparison of JFK's quote to the serpent's speech in the garden of Eden is clearly partisan. Haven't Republicans, Libertarians and Independents made similar comments about man's abilities that could be just as easily skewed?
Yes, and if the speech had quoted a figure from another party or been given by someone from another party I would have said the same thing. That quote reminded me quite strongly at the time of that original temptation to self-aggrandizement we find in Genesis 3, and it still does. Whether that's skewing the meaning of the quote or actually identifying the humanist ideology that undergirds it is for the reader to judge.
It felt odd to read this piece on Think Christian. Felt like it should be from a different site.
It would have been really easy to write a post about how American's have an overly misplaced trust in the government, celebrity, news, consumerism, pleasure or money without eroding to political rhetoric.
so a President gets criticized for not acknowledging God in the details, yet a pastor can pontificate on economics?
In a primitive hunter-gatherer economy, or even a subsistence agricultural community where everyone has access to land, everyone has work to do, and everyone benefits from their work. In a slightly more complex barter community, getting something you need from your surplus that you can't use, depends on your surplus being of some use to someone else, who needs it.
It a small-scale money economy, where ideally everyone has their own business, getting some money into your business does indeed depend on offering something that others need, and therefore will pay for.
But when it comes to massive interstate commerce, or a global economy, jobs come from somebody with money wanting to hire you, whether is is old inherited money in the hands of someone who wants a butler and a domestic staff, or someone running a scam (legal or illegal) that skims or manufactures money, with or without providing something anyone needs, or even by convincing people they need something they were doing perfectly fine without.
Somewhere in there, the individual enterprise becomes a thing that exists to turn a profit, whether or not it provides anything useful. It that enterprise can be profitable without hiring, then it will not hire.
"creating something that has value to others is a worthwhile pursuit.
It is a promotional speech for a bill at a secular podium on a Friday in front of a multi-faith nation and Congressional Assembly by the Commander and Chief charged with upholding the individual's constitutional right to practice their own private faith.
We are good at blaming others, even God, when life takes a turn for the worse. I, for one, am glad he laid the blame for poor stewardship at home and said let's work together and fix this.
Sovereignty is a tough sell when you've been stepped on by the world. It is not something you can explain in a soundbite.
Even God's dearly loved sparrow, having fallen from its nest, has to get up, dust itself off and go out looking for food or it will starve. God may give it strength and courage but God isn't going to bring the worms to the sparrow.
...
"President Kennedy once said, "Our problems are man-made – therefore they can be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants."These are difficult years for our country. But we are Americans. We are tougher than the times that we live in, and we are bigger than our politics have been. So let's meet the moment. Let's get to work, and show the world once again why the United States of America remains the greatest nation on Earth."...Note: The speech writer was probably closing the speech on a an rising scale using big as is "be the bigger man" connect to "bigger than our politics" then slide into greatest nation on Earth. It was likely an attempt to overcome partisanship. JMHO
“First: Let us examine our attitude toward peace itself. Too many of us think it is impossible. Too many think it unreal. But that is a dangerous, defeatist belief. It leads to the conclusion that war is inevitable - that mankind is doomed - that we are gripped by forces we cannot control. We need not accept that view. Our problems are manmade - therefore, they can be solved by man. And man can be a big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. (!!) Man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable - and we believe they can do it again”
This speech was given during the time Kennedy was escalating the military action in Viet Nam. This was 23 years after the conclusion of World War 2, fifteen years after the end of the Korean war, 6 months before his own assassination, 5 years before Martin Luther King was assassinated, 5 years nearly to the day his brother Robert was assassinated. Since then we have seen wars in Viet Nam, South America, Cambodia, wars in Yugoslavia, wars in Iraq, wars in Afghanistan, wars in Libya (of course I am missing several here). Kennedy’s quote, though noble sounding was disastrously bad theology. The world will not be at peace until the Prince of Peace steps foot on this planet again. It would be smart of us to realize that “the heart of man is desperately wicked above all things”. It would be smart of us to negotiate from a position of strength, to keep a strong vigilant army, to pray and negotiate for peace, but to come to the aid of the weak and oppressed. It would also be wise for us to acknowledge our sinfulness and to express gratitude to a mighty God rather than express the hubris that we can solve all things and be as big as we want. We are in need of regeneration.
I surely wouldn’t end a speech with this particular quote. But that’s just me.
The possibility that this was a partisan speech, that the campaign to pass the bill is the beginning of a re-election campaign, says nothing about whether the bill is Christian, unChristian, anti-Christian, or irrelevant to Christianity. It is merely a partisan, political comment about a partisan, political speech.
On the merits, I think I could have designed a better way to tackle what government can do and get out of the way of what government cannot do, but then, I don't have the awesome responsibilities of being President weighing on me every day. If I had my druthers, as a libertarian who supports the President, I would take simplification of the tax code from the Tea Party playbook, but do it in a manner that does result in a simplified progressive system of taxation, leaves families with the basics of what it takes to live on untaxed, leaves workers most of the next few percentiles, and tax the levels of income up to 50% that are way beyond necessary, without reaching the point of near-confiscation. Keep life simple for the majority, and it would work.
My point really was... IT'S JUST RHETORIC POEPLE - GET OVER IT!
If you want an intelligent discussion of the morality of the jobs bill - GREAT! Discuss the detail IN THE JOBS BILL. But don't hang it on that silly quote at the end. We may as well read meaning into the VP's choice of Ties.
I have not read the detail of the bill but may soon if it is posted as America's health affects our own.
Investing in infrastructure, roads, bridges, schools etc is something that I believe is part of a Christian work ethic. I think any time you give can give people a sense of purpose along with the pay check, instead of a welfare check, you do the country a favour.
Acedia or dejection along with despair and wrath are among the seven deadly sins. I believe that being out of work and unable to provide for one's family breeds these feelings in the heart and if this bill can fight against despair, wrath/anger, and dejection and bring hope, then it is doing Christ's work in Man's hands.
Canada had a similar investment in infrastructure, education, jobs, retraining, even tax credits for things like home renovations and children's sports programs. People out of work went back to school for a while or worked on their homes or spent more time volunteering with overfilled pee-wee sports programs. Times were tough but the tough got out of bed and off the couch. We also hiked the cost of beer and cigarettes if I remember right?? (We jokingly refer to it as the sin tax also controlled by the government.) I remember one politician saying something to the effect that we could either hire the kids to paint the bridges or they would be hanging out at night vandalizing them. He was a strong supporter of hiring within the community. Emotional infrastructure is as important as the bridges and paint.
The jobs speech promised to close tax loopholes for the greedy, gluttonous, oil companies and the rich wall street executives. You can't fight greed and lust or gluttony easily but you can make those profiteering, or simply profiting pay the lion's share. I believe if the actual bill was fairly represented by the speech, it might attempt to do that - which may be its downfall unfortunately. The emotional infrastructure of areas such as Detroit are crumbling and even parts of DC are so visibly divided between the rich and the poor that repairing that divide will require taking some advantage from the rich to provide for the Jobs bill in the short term. The bill promises to make it financially beneficial - a win/win - for the small business man to hire his neighbour. Looks to me like both the man fallen by the road and the good Samaritan stand to benefit in this version.
When Jesus fed the 5,000 he didn't start with empty baskets. He started with 5 loaves and 2 fish.
As if you get to define what a "properly Christian view" is? Kind of an arrogant stance if you ask me.
I find the rhetoric of this post more anti-Obama than pro-Christian.
Christianity got problems if this is the basis of your worldview and a way to justify capitalism as the best form of gov't for christians.
American capitalism was built on the backs of indentured servants, native americans and black african slaves. And people like that pastor DeYoung want to encourage capitalism for it's CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES?
Go fly a kite. Individual work and responsibility? " all things, including wealth and poverty, come by God’s “fatherly hand.” This is not how America was built. This blogger has his head in the sand.
Furthermore, this: Man can be as big as he wants. That sounds like a pretty good paraphrase of the serpent’spromise, “You will be like God." <<< is just idiotic.
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