an open labor day letter to Dr. Charles Stanley

[hfojvt]

For background, the message of the TV-sermon was about "avoiding the 'landmine' of slothfulness"


Dear Dr. Stanley,

This is labor day weekend, and I just watched your latest sermon on TV as I look forward to every week. It seemed like a good message, although to me 'looking your best' implies too much concern with the outward. Also, I thought you could have used my acronym - ALAP. Instead of 'as little as I can' I often feel that my co-workers' goal is to do A LAP, or, "As Little As Possible".
Then TBN came on with a spot that wished me a 'happy labor day' and I remembered the working class. Do the working people of America really need to be told to work harder and work more cheerfully? To a degree, yes. I have worked, and am even currently working with lazy, grumpy people who slack off constantly and expect their co-workers to pick up the slack, and then they bitterly complain that they are not paid enough, and that their co-workers are not working hard enough.
But it seems to me that America has a more serious labor problem - the problem of greed. That greed is shown a little bit in the lazy workers who want more money for less effort, but it is typically more prevalent among the owners and managers, who want more profit and much higher salaries and treat both their customers and employees not as beloved children of God, but as disposable and anonymous things to be sold products that are unhealthy or dangerous, and to work extremely hard in conditions that are dangerous and for as little pay as possible, all for maximum profits and salaries at the top. Here's my signature quote:
"the incomes of the richest 300,000 Americans, adjusted for inflation, more than tripled between 1970 and 2000. Incomes of the bottom 270 million Americans -- 9 Americans in 10 -- were basically flat. The real incomes of the working poor fell." Robert Kuttner
Do working people need to be told to work harder, when most of the effort of hard work goes to their employers? Do the 5,734 people killed on the job in 2006 need to be told to give more to their employers? What about the 4,214,200 workers who were injured on the job in 2005?
It would be truer to the Gospel of Jesus if you spoke against the 'servants of mammon' instead of telling those of us, who labor for those rich rulers, to work harder and more cheerily. Jesus tells a parable in Luke 16 where Lazarus, who is too lazy or too ill to do more than beg, is rewarded with heaven, whereas the rich man 'Dives', who may have worked hard for his wealth, is condemned to hell. James says to them in chapter 5, verse 6 ""Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on the earth in luxury and self indulgence." Those are the people who already benefit from the hard work of the workers of America and the world.
In his "Prayers for the Social Awakening", Walter Rauschenbusch writes, in 1910, a 'prayer of wrath' - 'against the servants of mammon'

"We cry to thee for justice, O Lord, for our soul is weary with the iniquity of greed. Behold the servants of Mammon, who defy thee and drain their fellow-men for gain; who grind down the strength of the workers by merciless toil and fling them aside when they are mangled and worn; who rackrent the poor and make dear the space and the air which thou hast made free; who paralyze the hand of justice by corruption and blind the eyes of the people by lies; who nullify by their craft the merciful laws which nobler men have devised for the protection of the weak; who have made us ashamed of our dear country by their defilements and have turned our holy freedom into a hollow name; who have brought upon thy Church the contempt of men and have cloaked their extortion with the Gospel of thy Christ.
For the oppression of the poor and the sighing of the needy now do thou arise, O Lord; for because thou art love, and tender as a mother to the weak, therefore thou art the great hater of iniquity and thy doom is upon those who grow rich on the poverty of the people.
O God, we are afraid, for the thundercloud of thy wrath is even now black above us. In the ruins of dead empires we have read how thou hast trodden the wine-press of thine anger when the measure of their sin was full. We are sick at heart when we remember that by the greed of those who enslaved a weaker race that curse was fastened upon us all which still lies black and hopeless across our land, though the blood of a nation was spilled to atone. Save our people from being dragged down into vaster guilt and woe by men who have no vision and know no law except their lust. Shake their souls with awe of thee that they may cease. Help us with clean hands to tear the web which they have woven about us and to turn our people back to thy law, lest the mark of the beast stand out on the right hand and forehead of our nation and our feet be set on the downward path of darkness from which there is no return forever."

More than ever, it seems that our nation is controlled by 'men who have no vision and know no law except their lust' except that their lust, except for Senators Craig and Vitter, is for power and wealth rather than for flesh and pleasure. Yet on this weekend of a holiday set aside to honor working people, you preach that God commands us to work harder for our greedy masters. Why? Is the Gospel of Jesus a message that afflicts the afflicted and comforts the comfortable?
Your sermon was from your book about "Landmines in the path of the believer" and I am sure it is a good book, but the summary mentions these 'landmines' - "pride, jealousy/envy, insecurity, compromise, unforgiveness, fear, immorality, and laziness". You have most of the traditional 7 deadly sins there - lust, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride, but two are conspicuously missing. Why? Are those two not serious problems for Christians and all of humanity? And especially Americans? Charles Sheldon wrote 111 years ago "Somehow I get puzzled when I see so many Christians living in luxury and singing, 'Jesus, I my cross have taken, all to leave and follow thee...'" and we are all aware of the story in Matthew 10 where Jesus tells the rich young man to sell everything he has, give it to the poor and follow Jesus. We are less aware, perhaps, of how the early apostles lived that out in Acts 2: 43 and Acts 4: 32 where it says 'there were no needy persons among them.' Not because the poor people worked so hard, but because the rich people shared.
Sometimes a little laziness might be a good thing. Jay Gould once bragged that he could "hire half of the working class to kill the other half." Many rich people are so ambitious and greedy for more that they do alot of harm in the world by their tireless efforts. Not only do they work too hard, but, like the caricature Ebenezer Scrooge, they drive their employees too hard. As Rauschenbusch said above they: "grind down the strength of the workers by merciless toil and fling them aside when they are mangled and worn;"
That you would choose labor day to preach a message that people should work harder rather than preaching about the greed and gluttony that seem to be the keystones of our society speaks volumes about 'which side you are on'. In Luke 4, Jesus begins his ministry by quoting Isaiah "...He has annointed me to preach the gospel to the poor ... to set at liberty those who are oppressed ..." It would be nice to hear such a gospel today.

[JDPriestly]

1. Absolutely on! Thank you!

People are working harder and earning less. Used to be people owned their own little corner stores. Now those same people's grandkids work for Walmart. Sad, sad, sad. And they call this capitalism? They are wrong. This is corporatism.