'Come september' again

This past summer I linked to a post of son Isaac's containing a speech by India's Arundhati Roy entitled "Come September." You'll need to go to Isaac's blog to read the entire speech. I thought it was worth reposting a blurb from it now, though, in light of the current little financial fiasco we're going through. While Americans are trying to blame it on Republicans or Democrats, perhaps we're a bit naive to think we really have that much say in the matter.

Here's the tidbit from Roy's speech...

Donald Rumsfeld said that his mission in the War Against Terror was to persuade the world that Americans must be allowed to continue their way of life. When the maddened king stamps his foot, slaves tremble in their quarters. So, standing here today, it's hard for me to say this, but "The American Way of Life" is simply not sustainable. Because it doesn't acknowledge that there is a world beyond America.

But fortunately, power has a shelf life. When the time comes, maybe this mighty empire will, like others before it, overreach itself and implode from within. It looks as though structural cracks have already appeared. As the War Against Terror casts its net wider and wider, America's corporate heart is hemorrhaging. For all the endless, empty chatter about democracy, today the world is run by three of the most secretive institutions in the world: The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization, all three of which, in turn, are dominated by the U.S. Their decisions are made in secret. The people who head them are appointed behind closed doors. Nobody really knows anything about them, their politics, their beliefs, their intentions. Nobody elected them. Nobody said they could make decisions on our behalf. A world run by a handful of greedy bankers and C.E.O.'s whom nobody elected can't possibly last.

Soviet-style communism failed, not because it was intrinsically evil but because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to usurp too much power. Twenty-first century market-capitalism, American style, will fail for the same reasons. Both are edifices constructed by the human intelligence, undone by human nature.

Now, I'm not trying to be a doom-and-gloom, end-times sensationalist. I find great hope in this. And, personally, I don't give two hoots about anyone's political persuasion, nationality, or religious convictions. Babeling towers have fallen before, and who are we to think it won't happen again. This morning I've been thinking of Matthew 24:

6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains...

...12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations...

The "gospel of the kingdom"... the good news of Jesus Christ. Now THAT is what I'm talkin' about. I'm not being "anti-American" when I say my faith is not in our country or our military or our government. I don't think the "American Way" is even a consideration to the God of the universe. The "way of Christ" is our only hope. Sure, maybe a bunch of rich American politicians can "save" a way of life for a small group of people for a little while. But what then? It won't last. Salvation - the setting things right for everyone for all time - cannot be bought for a mere 700 billion dollars. It has already been purchased for those whose faith and trust is in Jesus Christ.

As Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me." Come September, or October, or November, or... whenever. That works for me.

Peace out, folks; and more importantly... peace in.