Showdown in Chicago: Gospel in Action

“Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

Mark 12:28b-31

Teri and I had an exciting week! Read on to find out what we did and why we did it - and specifically why our faith led us there.

Teri and I left for Chicago on Sunday afternoon to join with several hundred members of the National People's Action for a Showdown in Chicago: the American People Vs. the Wall Street Banks. We stayed in the Hyatt Regency on East Wacker right on the Chicago River and directly across the river from the Sheraton where the American Bankers Association was meeting. We gathered from 20 states to bring a unified voice calling our financial industry and government to account for the economic crisis that they allowed to happen. More on that in a bit. Teri heard from US Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois while I was already at work with the inside action team for our first big action of the three-day protest. Crammed in a regular hotel room with 26 close friends for almost 2hrs waiting for the outside team to show up was - well, 27 people in one hotel room. Teri and several hundred other folks marched across the river as the ABA was beginning their "Roaring Twenties" themed party. Upon their arrival at the hotel, the inside action team descended to the lobby to begin our action and deliver a strong message from our communities where unemployment is as high as 10% and foreclosures are happening every 7.5 seconds.

What a sight! Words fail to describe the feelings that rushed upon us when the inside team was escorted outside where we were face to face with the power of the people cheering us!

On Monday, our group grew and began the day by hearing from FDIC Chair Sheila Bair. I left early once again to prepare for our actions at Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. GS recently announced huge bonuses for their top executives after we bailed them out. Enough is Enough! Wells Fargo has a lawsuit pending against them by the IL Attorney General's Office for discrimination and leading African American borrows regardless of credit qualifications into high cost loans including sub-prime and adjustable rate mortgages! The stagecoach wasn't robbed this time - the stagecoach was full of bankers robbing us! It is time to hold these institutions accountable and demand that they stop fleecing us!

The action on Wells Fargo's office was a surprise. It was during this action that I met a Deputy Chief of the Chicago Police Department, who helped us deliver a letter to the CEO's of GS and WFB with our reasonable demands. Afterwards we returned to the American Bankers Association convention with a few hundred more folks to let them know that we demand accountability. ABA CEO Edward Yingling said that the community bankers meeting in Chicago were not responsible for the crisis. And, while it may be true that most smaller community banks did not play high risk roulette with their capital by playing the sub-prime and ARM games, the ABA is funded overwhelmingly by large banks that did! Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, Citi Group, and Bank of America hold the lion's share of control and capital and they bully the smaller banks as they hunt them down like prey for the taking. The ABA also uses millions of dollars from their TARP funding (bailout) to lobby congressional officials, by contributing to their campaign funds, to vote against financial industry regulatory reform such as the Consumer Financial Protection Agency proposed by the President to oversee the banking and non-bank financial industry. Basically, the Banks got bailed out, we got sold out! The CFPA would not be comprised of bankers like the Federal Reserve is or Wall Street Execs like the SEC. The CFPA would have community influence and with new disclosure rules would be able to closely monitor for unjust lending practices. Time to Reclaim America and our Democracy! On Tuesday, alongside thousands of friends from labor and other justice coalitions, The Showdown carried a message through the streets to Congress as well...

Time to choose a side Congress! The people or profit? Big Bonuses or Jobs and Saved Homes? Greed or Democracy? During the rally, I presented a PAST DUE invoice for trillions of dollars to a representative of the ABA who was called out of the convention for me by my new Chicago Police Department friend.

Back home today, I had the opportunity to do a live interview with David Shuster on MSNBC to invite everyone to call their congressional reps and tell them to put the people first! I've been on local TV several times and this was my first time on national television - it was a blast!

So what does the gospel or faith have to do with all of this? Everything!!! Jesus said, Love God and your neighbor. That is the gospel - plain and simple! He took action in the courts of the temple when a corrupt financial system was preying upon his neighbors and he praised the widow's mite for she was giving more than most. And, he calls those who would follow to do likewise. Jesus' kingdom ranks ones neighbor before oneself - does not destroy the neighbor by preying on them with high cost, bad loans, foreclosing on them and leaving them jobless while you party like it is the roaring twenties! Faith leads me to do justice, to bring good news to the poor, to support the weak, to return no one evil for evil, and to honor all people - to love the Lord God and my neighbor, the banker and the homeless foreclosed.

What a week this has been!

Self-Service Christianity

"but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Mark 10:43-45



I had no intention of blogging about the lectionary this week - don't want to become too routine - and then it happened again! I had my shower epiphany about the subject for this post and while looking for the Isaiah passage referred to later, I read the gospel pericope for this coming Sunday and to my wonderful surprise, the author of Mark was saying many of the things I was thinking!

Anyway, do you remember when self-service gas pumps were first installed? Do you remember the first Automated Teller Machines were up and running 24hrs a day? And, when Aldi Foods broke us in on bag your own groceries? I may not be forty yet, but I do remember all of those early ventures into the self-service world that we now have come to accept and expect. Some of us even prefer the U-scan aisles over the live cashier at our favorite shopping spots. We select the item, we scan it, we pay without passing our method of payment to a person, we bag it, we forget to take our receipt and we carry it to the car. It is truly all about us. And, we are so proud of ourselves for being able to do it ourselves - like toddlers in potty training - "look mommy, I can do it all by myself."

While our culture may have rapidly adapted to the self-service mentality of business, the church has at least drug her feet kicking and screaming, or has she? Many churches have adapted quite well to the self-service mentality - providing multiple options of times and styles of worship experiences, installing ATM machines, bookstores and cafe's to cater to a parishoner's every need. In many cases, even the gospel has been adapted to the self-service mentality. Follow Jesus and you will be saved - you will defeat the power of death, stay out of hell and achieve your personal salvation. And, what about the church budget as it relates to the mission and ministry of the church? The maintanence of the building and the staff chaplains nearly always overshadows the community outreach and justice ministries of the church.

Last Saturday, Teri and I were fortunate to attend the Mid-Nite at the Oasis celebration and fundraiser at the newly renovated Knights of Columbus hall downtown. We were invited in part because Central Christian Church was a recipient of an award for being one of the top three supporting religious organizations for the Oasis Day Center for the homeless which opened ten years ago this past April. I have been blessed to represent Central on the Oasis Advisory Board since 1998 when CCC gave Oasis - then just a vision of a marvelous collaboration of folks - a major gift from undesignated bequest funding. One of the highlights of the evening for me was when my tablemate, Grady Wilkinson former CEO of Heritage and visionary of the day center, looked at me and said, "Can you believe, ten years?" Grady and I met many times back in 1998/1999 when we were searching for funds to operate the day center. We met with a handful of influential business folks in Decatur, took them on tours of the then storefront operation, and shared the vision of a safe day shelter that welcomes folks unconditionally and offers them opportunities to connect with services to improve their lives. Well, it worked and one of those business folks remains a champion for Oasis yet today. I have always thought of Oasis as an example of how Isaiah's vision is made real in our midst: "The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing...Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way; the unclean shall not travel on it, but it shall be for God’s people; no traveler, not even fools, shall go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there." (Isaiah 35)

Oasis is a blossom in a desert of despair for so many folks who get lost along the way in our self-service society where community health and wealth are far behind the improvement of self. Oasis is a safe way in the midst of dangerous life intersections and super-highways for so many who are vulnerable prey for those who choose to condemn and exploit others for their own personal benefit. Oasis is an example of the gospel of serving others. We are truly the redeemed when we seek to serve rather than to be served, when our faith is about communal well-being rather than personal salvation, when we no longer participate in self-service Christianity.