Bridging the Gap
Bob Wickizer
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Our country or better yet, the western world has put itself into exile. We did not need the Persian king Nebuchadnezzar to come and deport our upper 1% off to Babylon. We did it to ourselves. Slowly, inexorably we slid down the slope of self-exile. Like the exile of Israel of old, we are now two groups of people living virtually 600 miles apart. We no longer share common dreams or a common purpose. It has become every household for itself. We no longer send our children off to war regardless of their social status. We now have the poor fighting the wars for the wealthy who want them. We no longer talk about fairness and justice and equality, instead we substitute words like ''takers,'' ''entitlement'' and ''my money.'' We have sacrificed the vision of liberty and justice for all in exchange for quarterly investment returns. We have forgotten the dream and much of what we once were is now broken.
Americans are conditioned to thinking of strong separation of church and state, but in Europe of 1517 there was no such thing. For several centuries cathedral and castle building was done on the backs of the poor. It took about 10,000 able bodied men five to seven years to build a castle or a cathedral. They were forcibly conscripted from fifty miles in all directions and lived on-site until the job was done. The wages of these workers consisted of their room and board. They had no ''income'' to send home to the wife and children on the farm. Cathedrals were funded by selling indulgences to the wealthy. Castles were built by taxation from the king taxing feudal barons. In either case the workers bodies were damaged by the hard labor. Most of them returned home broken.
Here are two stories of exile, brokenness and return.
After Solomon built the first temple, Jews worshiped there for over 500 years. Caught up in a scheme of grandiose expansion, the Babylonian king (remember ancient Babylon is across the river from ...
Bob Wickizer
Jeremiah 31:7-9
Our country or better yet, the western world has put itself into exile. We did not need the Persian king Nebuchadnezzar to come and deport our upper 1% off to Babylon. We did it to ourselves. Slowly, inexorably we slid down the slope of self-exile. Like the exile of Israel of old, we are now two groups of people living virtually 600 miles apart. We no longer share common dreams or a common purpose. It has become every household for itself. We no longer send our children off to war regardless of their social status. We now have the poor fighting the wars for the wealthy who want them. We no longer talk about fairness and justice and equality, instead we substitute words like ''takers,'' ''entitlement'' and ''my money.'' We have sacrificed the vision of liberty and justice for all in exchange for quarterly investment returns. We have forgotten the dream and much of what we once were is now broken.
Americans are conditioned to thinking of strong separation of church and state, but in Europe of 1517 there was no such thing. For several centuries cathedral and castle building was done on the backs of the poor. It took about 10,000 able bodied men five to seven years to build a castle or a cathedral. They were forcibly conscripted from fifty miles in all directions and lived on-site until the job was done. The wages of these workers consisted of their room and board. They had no ''income'' to send home to the wife and children on the farm. Cathedrals were funded by selling indulgences to the wealthy. Castles were built by taxation from the king taxing feudal barons. In either case the workers bodies were damaged by the hard labor. Most of them returned home broken.
Here are two stories of exile, brokenness and return.
After Solomon built the first temple, Jews worshiped there for over 500 years. Caught up in a scheme of grandiose expansion, the Babylonian king (remember ancient Babylon is across the river from ...
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