That final minute counts

“The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity.”  - Viola Davis

Lupita Nyong’o in Us (2019) dir. Jordan Peele

Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers (2019) dir. Lorene Scafaria

Awkwafina in The Farewell (2019) dir. Lulu Wang

“The pyramids always funnel upwards. Trickle down means eaten up. You pay The Few to control you. You beg through your action and capital to be contained to the life you lead.”

If this is supposed to be a criticism of the “All Lives Matter” reaction to the “Black Lives Matter” movement, it doesn’t work. Jesus did say “Blessed are you who are poor,” but he also spent some time explaining that amassing wealth does not sit well with a godly life. 

Here are some of the direct words of Jesus from the gospels:

Matthew 6:24: “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.”

Matthew 19:21: “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.” 

Luke 6:24: “But woe unto you that are rich!” 

Luke 16:22-23: “And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.”

Luke 18:25: “For it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Over and over again, Jesus directly says that you can’t be rich and on his side. For whatever reason, it just doesn’t work. The theme is developed in the rest of the New Testament:

1 Timothy 6:10:  For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

James 5:1: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.”

Revelation 3:17: “Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked”.

Perhaps the clearest message to rich people that they need to sell everything (not just donate what they think they can afford) comes from this charming story from Acts 5:1-11:

“But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband.”

Jesus was very clear about this. His disciples were very clear about this. The entire early church was very clear about this. Rich people are screwed. Tolstoy understood it (although his wife wasn’t too happy). Wittgenstein understood it. You have no excuse.

Of course people like money, and modern capitalist culture trains people to think of poverty almost in terms of a moral failing, particularly in America, but you can see it in most countries. This creates a cognitive dissonance: “I want money”, “I love Jesus” and “Jesus hates money”. The most common way you will this cognitive dissonance play out (and if the gods of irony smile on us, you might even see it in the notes of this post; the world is full of desperate fools) is in scrambling to “explain” what Jesus “really meant” by “the eye of the needle”. I’ve seen pages and pages of hardcore gibberish trying to flip it around some way - any way at all - so the people writing the gibberish get to be rich. As though that were the only verse in the bible where Jesus castigates rich people.