Wednesday, February 5, 2025

What is Ordo Amoris?

 

 

 


Time for a bit of seminary.

Thanks to a bit of discourse JD Vance engaged in, we have our next big question. 

What is ordo amoris?  

The Vice President appeared on Fox News to discuss the administration’s immigration policies and picked up an emergent thread in conservative circles regarding the “sin” of empathy, arguing the political left carries empathy too far and attempted to shrink the bounds of empathy to a closer circle of people.  From the quote, highlighted in the tweet above, “There is a Christian concept that you love your family and then love your neighbor, and then you love your community, and then you love your fellow citizens, and then after that, prioritize the rest of the world.

It’s a great quote and it’s a great sound bite.  

The problem is that it is a stretch and a misstatement of the Christian concept.

As many in the subsequent days, including Vance himself, have pointed out, Vance seemed to be trying to highlight the theological concept of ordo amoris, or “ordered love”.   

The concept comes from the work of St. Augustine in The City of God.  Augustine believed that true virtue and moral goodness stem from properly aligning our affections and desires with what is truly valuable and worthy. Thus, God’s love must be centralized in reordering our affections.  Our ultimate fulfillment then lies in the pursuit of virtue and moral goodness required the proper ordering of our desires, with God as the ultimate object of love and devotion.

But if the Creator is truly loved — that is, if He Himself is loved, and not something else in place of Him — then He cannot be wrongly loved. We must, however, observe right order even in our love for the very love by which we love that which is worthy to be loved, so that there may be in us that virtue which enables us to live well. Hence, it seems to me that a brief and true definition of virtue is ‘rightly ordered love.’” (City of God, XV.22).

We can see the genesis of Augustine’s theories in Jesus’s encapsulation of the commandments.   And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and Prophets.”  Matthew 22:37-40.  In these two, Jesus is likewise tying the order of love together.  To love others, we must love God first, and to love God is to love our neighbor.  

C.S. Lewis described this relationship in his letters.  “To love you as I should, I must worship God as Creator. When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.” Letters of C. S. Lewis.  To do otherwise, is to create idols in one’s relationships.  We’ve all seen these.  The parents that have made idols of their children and lift of their children as the greatest importance in their lives.  The spouses that lift up their mate as their idol, prioritizing their mate to the exclusion of all else.  It’s not to say these relationships aren’t important or that making them a priority is bad.  It’s when it comes out of order that a person’s life is unhealthy.  But that is a sermon for another time.

Vance doesn’t include God in his list of loves, so it’s hard to determine if his list would follow the concept of ordo amoris or not.

His comments instead seem to go to a related concept discussed by Thomas Aquinas.  Ordo caritatis, or the order of charity, a concept in which the application of our love, or of how our affection is expressed is directed to those more closely related to us.  This principle is outlined by St. Paul in his letter to Timothy.  “But if any man have not care of his own, and especially of those of his house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” 1 Timothy 5:8.   Aquinas ordered love as follows:
  • God
  • Ourselves, as a man ought to love himself more than his neighbor
  • Our neighbors
  • Our bodies, as a man ought to love his neighbor more than his body
On this respect we love all men equally out of charity: because we wish them all one same generic good, namely everlasting happiness. Secondly love is said to be greater through its action being more intense: and in this way we ought not to love all equally.” STh q. 26, a. 6.  Our love therefore applies universally, but our charity is not distributed equally.  The degree of our charity is then applied according to our proximity.  In friendship, in kinship, in nationality, in physical space, etc.  “Moreover there is yet another reason for which, out of charity, we love more those who are more nearly connected with us, since we love them in more ways. For, towards those who are not connected with us we have no other friendship than charity, whereas for those who are connected with us, we have certain other friendships, according to the way in which they are connected.” STh q. 26, a. 6.

This is just common sense.  Of course we love those closest to us in different ways.  The bonds are stronger, we go to greater distances for them.  

It is not, however, a good philosophy for foreign policy, nor is it exactly applicable to our current immigration issue.  First, as foreign policy, we would have to assess at a broader scale the concept of our neighbor.  Who is the United States neighbors?  Is it just Canada and Mexico, literal proximate neighbors?  And of late, it doesn’t seem like we are acting too charitably to them.  Is it the countries we share kinship with, like the United Kingdom?  Or friendship or our allies?  What is the neighbor to a country?  Vance would like this to be just another part of America First, but it ignores a much deeper concept.

Secondly, with regard to immigration, we are largely dealing with an issue that is here already.  The issue is proximate.  It’s at our door.  So the question is more how we treat the stranger that is already among us than the foreigner that is very distant.  

Here, I think John Calvin gives perhaps the greatest critique.

"Now, since Christ has shown in the parable of the Samaritan that the term 'neighbor' includes even the most remote person (Luke 10:36), we are not expected to limit the precept of love to those in close relationships.

I do not deny that the more closely a man is linked to us, the more intimate obligation we have to assist him. It is the common habit of mankind that the more closely men are abound together by the ties of kinship, of acquaintanceship, or of neighborhood, the more responsibilities for one another they share. This does not offend God; for his providence, as it were leads us to it.

BUT I say: we ought to embrace the whole human race without exception in a single feeling of love; here there is no distinction between barbarian and Greek, worthy and unworthy, friend and enemy, since all should be contemplated in God, not in themselves.

When we turn aside from such contemplation, it is no wonder we become entangled in many errors. Therefore, if we rightly direct our love, we must first turn our eyes not to man, the sight of whom would more often engender hate than love, but to God, who bids us extend to all men the love we bear to him, that this may be an unchanging principle: whatever the character of the man, we must yet love him because we love God."
    John Calvin, Institutes of Christian Religion, Book 2, Chapter 8, Section 55.

As Calvin outlines, this is the whole point of the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Remember, the parable of the Good Samaritan comes in Luke immediately following Jesus outlining the two greatest commandments.  A young student of the law asked Jesus what he must do to attain eternal life and Jesus asked him the commandments.  The student repeated the two commandments Jesus stated above. Jesus then acknowledged his correct statement.  

The young student of the law had to ask one more question.  Luke adds, desiring to justify himself, the lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?

The lawyer, the pharisees then and now wanted a neat box tied around who their responsibility to love covered.  Fellow Israelites would be certain.  Showing hospitality to foreigners and travelers was to be expected.  But surely Jesus could not expect them to love a Samaritan, or worse, a Roman.

Jesus responds with a familiar story that I've written about before.  He tells of a Levite and a priest that pass by the injured man and worry more about themselves. What will happen to me if I touch this man?  Will I be defiled?  What has he done to deserve such a fate?  It's important to note that both the Levite and the priest could not imagine themselves in the man's position.  They could not empathize enough to see his need for assistance, so they crossed on the other side of the road to avoid him.

The Samaritan on the other hand worried about what would happen to the man if he did nothing.  Perhaps, the Samaritan could imagine himself in a similar situation.  He knew the treachery of the road and saw how it could have easily been him in that fate.

From the story, we see that the only response to Jesus' question at the end, asking who was the neighbor to the man who fell to robbers, is "he who showed mercy on him."  We see that all we come in contact with are people who are our neighbors.  And we have the opportunity to be neighborly in response by being the ones who show mercy and love.

Who we are called to love in our order of love, who we are called to those in our order of charity is those that God has brought into our paths.  We focus on that proximate connection.  The one that God has ordained and brought around us.  Not just the nice ones.  Not just the ones we choose.  Not just the convenient ones. 

Our order of love extends to the messy ones, the broken ones, the bleeding ones, the inconvenient ones that are brought in our circles.  The ones that don’t look like us.  The ones that we disagree with.  The ones that we have no other connection beyond a creator.  And especially the ones where we have no other connection than a faith, as we love our family in Christ.

So here, it calls us to care for and love to the migrant among us.  The refugee.  

They are here.  They are our neighbors.

For, the order of our love is in God’s control, not ours.  So let’s stop trying to justify ourselves.  Let’s stop putting limits on what God has called us to.

And if you need more encouragement…

"You shall not wrong nor oppress the stranger, for you were strangers in the Land of Egypt"  Exodus 22:20

"The strangers who reside with you shall be to you as your citizens … for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."  Leviticus 19:34

"For the Eternal your God is God supreme and Lord supreme, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, providing food and clothing — you too must love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."  Deuteronomy 10:18-19

“Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” Romans 12:13

“Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.” 1 Peter 4:9

“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”  Hebrews 13:2

“Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.”  Titus 1:8

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”  Matthew 25:35

“Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. Please send them on their way in a manner that honors God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth.”  3 John 1:5-8




Tuesday, February 4, 2025

Punching Down

I’ve been thinking a lot about why Trump’s recent actions and foreign policy bother me so, and I think I’ve identified it.  There’s a concept , a maxim in civilized culture, that you never punch down.  If violence, force, even comedy needs to be used, it should always be used laterally or upwardly.

“Punching down” is a concept that has come from the world of comedy.  It speaks of the idea to attack or criticize someone who is in a worse or less powerful position than you.  Simply, in comedy, you make fun of the rich and powerful, not the marginalized.

To put another way, you don’t attack those that are smaller, less powerful, less able than you.  You only go after those who are bigger than you, stronger than you, more powerful than you.  You go after those that are abusing their power.  You go after those who are punching down on others.

Punching down makes you a bully.  You are preying on a power imbalance to force your way.

And it’s quite clear today, that America is now the great bully of the world.

There are those that would have claimed we were before this administration and recent actions.  And there are times in our past when they would have been correct.

We are at one of those times now.

For Trump to initiate trade wars with Canada and Mexico, to seek territory from Denmark and Panama, to remove the protection and aid we provide to the rest of the world, turns us into the bully.  We are definitively punching down.  

We’re not going toe to toe with China and Russia, our economic and military rivals.  We’re not holding them accountable for their actions in the world.  We’re not acting on behalf of smaller countries like Ukraine, that are being pushed around by those same superpowers.  We’re not seeking to lift up or support those countries and societies that need our aid.

We’re looking to force our way on everyone else.

We’re the bully.  We who used to see our role as the great protector of freedom around the world, are now the world’s bully.

And there are honestly people who think we can keep up the trade wars and tank Canada’s economy to make them our territory.  That we can do the same to Denmark to make them give us Denmark.  And we can pressure Panama to make them give us back the canal.

We’re just taking the lunch money away from the world, right?  I mean, we do see that these are mob tactics, right?

As if there would be no consequences.

Why does this sit well with so many people?  Were there that many Republicans that were just waiting to bully the rest of the world back into submission?  Is that who you are?

Is it how we want to be perceived?

No seriously, I’m asking, does our public perception matter any more?  Does it matter if the rest of the world sees us as their protective older brother?

Or are we okay with being the school yard thug?

Monday, February 3, 2025

Writing in the Age of Trump

There are days when the writing just flows.  Where the ideas are coming left and right and can move to the fingers very easily.   Where emotion, frustration, inspiration, or celebration make it easy to share and to document.  

On the other hand, there are days where nothing comes.  No ideas. No even an inkling.  Just completely at a loss.  Writer’s block.  Hit the wall.  Done.

But writing in the age of Trump has a third problem. 

There’s no shortage of ideas.  In fact, it’s overwhelming.  There is so much to be frustrated by, saddened by, angered by, to the point where there are topics that could go on for days.  Our government, our country is being dismantled piece by piece and handed over to the world’s richest man to do with as he pleases.  We should all be enraged and moved to action.

And yet, it’s so overwhelming, it’s so all-encompassing, it’s hard to sit with.  It’s all coming so fast and from some many different directions, it’s impossible to keep up.  

There’s no time to react, there’s no time to grieve, you just have to move on to the next thing and pray it’s not as bad as what came before.

It creates a different type of writer’s block.  An overwhelming paralysis moving to apathy.  So much we care about is being utterly destroyed, that it’s getting hard to care about any single piece. 

And that’s where I’ve been.  These first two weeks have been overwhelming and dizzying.  It’s been hard to process it all and to determine what can be prioritized to discuss.   

Plus there is the overwhelming need to remove all expletives from my vocabulary before I start to write, because otherwise, this would be a very different blog.

And that’s the point of this whole blitz.  They are trying to break all resistance in addition to everything else.  They are trying to wear us down to the point where we don’t care anymore.  To where we don’t speak up, don’t fight back, just let it pass by.

We can’t let that happen.  

Take a break.  Take a breath.  Step away and relax.  

Listen to comedians to help diffuse the blow.

Implement time constraints on social media and the news.  

But don’t become numb to it. 

It all still matters.  None of this is normal. None of this is appropriate.  Much of this is illegal.

We have to remember it.  

We just have to be prepared to keep it up.  It’s going to be a long four years.

Friday, January 24, 2025

What is Birthright Citizenship?

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”


In the flurry of his first handful of days in office, Trump has handed down a wide assortment of executive orders.  All following the Project 2025 playbook.  All expected following the promises or threats he made in the campaign, touching on his favorite topics:  gender issues, government bureaucracy, isolationism, and immigration enforcement to name a few. 

Under immigration enforcement, Trump released probably his most controversial executive order.   Executive Order Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship.  A lot of words to make his end goal sound a lot nicer and more legitimate than it deserves.  Put simply, this is his order to end birthright citizenship.

Which raises the question asked today - what is birthright citizenship?

Put simply, birthright citizenship is the idea that citizenship in a country results from the circumstances surrounding one’s birth.  Not from race, religion, ethnic heritage, or creed, but by nature of birth.  In America, birthright citizenship is obtained either by being born in a United States state or territory or by being born as the child of at least one United States citizen, regardless of location.  The first essentially saying anyone born in America is an American, and the second saying the children of Americans are American wherever they are born.

It’s the simplest form of citizenship, in complete contrast to naturalization or the legal immigration process.  Immigrants become citizens through a naturalization process involving applications and interviews and tests and oaths.  Birthright citizens are born here.

The concept is one entrenched in our constitutional amendments.   The Fourteenth Amendment, a cornerstone piece of our jurisprudence, lays its foundation simply and perfectly in the first section of the Amendment. 

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” [emphasis added]

The Amendment was written as a response to the infamous Dred Scott v Sanford (1857) case, in which African Americans were denied citizenship regardless of the location of their birth or their status as free men (given the times).  The Fourteenth Amendment in response, confirmed the citizenship of those people and their entitlement to representation in our government.

It’s settled law and a foundational piece of our civil rights.

It’s been confirmed, affirmed, and expanded upon in the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 and the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.

And now, Trump is determined to destroy it, all to remove the possibility of ‘anchor babies,’ or women coming to America, legally or illegally, just to have their child born in America and become a citizen by birth.

The United States of America as a country is unique in many ways, but perhaps most striking in that there is really no true native child of the United States of America.  What I mean by that, is that the nation, as a country again, has always been a collection of immigrants and their children united not by race, religion, ethnicity, or any of the traditional markers of a country, but instead united by a set of ideas.  The borders of our country outlining primarily the bounds of the people held together by those ideas.  

In that respect, it makes sense that our citizenship generally was provided by the “right of the soil”, jus soli.  The idea that, indeed, this land was made for you and me, and that those who were born here, regardless of family history and background, could be part of that united idea.

It’s baked into the concepts and precepts that we teach and proclaim regarding what it means to be an American.  To be part of this great melting pot.  “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”  The promise of coming here and that those born here are born in the “land of opportunity.”

In all, there are around 30 countries which maintain this idea of the right of the soil, most in the Americas, including Canada and Mexico.  In some ways a recognition that this “New World” would have new ideas about citizenship and what makes a country.

Trump’s policy would be to revert to a very old idea.  The “right of blood.”  Jus sanguinis.  To be a citizen is to be born of citizens.  To be “full blooded American.”  As is that had any basis in our history.  

I don’t mean to diminish the concept citizenship being passed by parentage.  This is a part of the current basis for our citizenship.  It’s how American’s traveling abroad for pleasure, work, or duty, that happen to birth a child outside the United States, can still bring that child home and have it be a citizen.  

But it’s the exception or the outlier, not the primary rule.

I get it, to many, this is quibbling over semantics.  Over a small change in the workings of the law, but it represents a fundamental shift in how we perceive ourselves and our country.  If citizenship is only passed by blood, or granted to those we deem worthy through naturalization (which is a grueling process), then we are saying America is no longer an idea, but a defined set of people and it’s closed.  The Golden Door is slammed shut.

We’re not different than any other nation.  We’re not better or unique.  America as that great experiment is done.

And that seems to really be the case if we’re okay with sending ICE agents into an elementary school during school hours, as they were today in Chicago.

It is important to note that a federal judge has recently blocked Trump’s executive order from taking effect, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional.”  U.S. District Judge Coughenour in Seattle expressed  incredulity at how any member of the Bar could argue this order was Constitutional.  Judge Coughenour will hear further argument on February 6.

Of extreme irony in the matter, is how the United States Justice Department defended this order, by arguing that the children of Native Americans aren’t US Citizens.  That’s right, they argued that the people who have the most right to be considered part of this country are not citizens.  They relied on an old Supreme Court case Elk v Wilkins from 1884, in which the court found because members of Native American tribes owe allegiance to their tribe first and foremost, that they were not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States as provided for in the Amendment and were then not constitutionally entitled to citizenship.  In the first place it’s a stretch argument and one overturned by the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.  In the second, it’s an incredible reach to apply it to today.

It just goes to show the extremes Trump will go to in order to make sure his agenda, or Project 2025, be achieved.  Damn the consequences.

Hopefully the rest of us can maintain the memory of what we were.

‘Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!’ cries she
With silent lips. ‘Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’

Thursday, January 23, 2025

What is Sanctuary?

On Tuesday, January 21, 2025, the Trump administration reversed a decade old guidance which previously restricted key immigration enforcement agencies from carrying out enforcement in sensitive locations like schools and churches.  “This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murderers and rapists — who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.

Time for a new question inserted and this question is mine.  

What is Sanctuary and how important is it?   

It’s one that came to my mind from the news above.  And one I feel needs to be continued to be reviewed again and again. 

What follows is a revision of a discussion that has been posted here before.  And one I imagine that will continue to be added to and revised throughout the tenure of this blog.

See, I love The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I've been listening to the cast album from the Paper Mill Playhouse production and it has quickly become one of my favorite musical compositions. The moment, of course, that always stands out to me is when Quasimodo finally breaks his chains and fights back against Frollo, yelling "Sanctuary" over and over, claiming Notre Dame as a place of refuge for all.

And that got me thinking...
When did the Church stop being a Sanctuary for all?
I know the specific laws of Sanctuary have long been overturned and those had their own unique problems, but there is something truly Christ-like about the image of anyone regardless of their background and sin being able to enter the church and claim sanctuary.
And it just doesn't seem like we live up to that any more. It seems we are more interested in the privileges and perks afforded our members, making sure they are well taken care of, than in providing refuge to the weary. A spa or country club as opposed to a fortress and refuge from the battle outside.
It's time to be honest. How do we act when a stranger comes in to the church? Does it depend on the stranger?
If a Muslim sought protection from a group of persecutors or if a homosexual person sought refuge from the same, would it be extended? Or would the church and its members be more likely to be the ones persecuting them?
Is the church out there speaking up for Black lives, or is it insisting the whole thing has just been stirred up by the media?  Claiming "All Lives Matter" in the face of specific hurts to specific populations?  Generally true, but not helpful?  
Perhaps most pressing today - will the church stand in the gap and declare itself holy ground and refuse to allow ICE to raid the building?
Do we believe in that separation of church and state?  Do we believe in protecting the family that needs protection?  Do we believe in hospitality to the stranger among us?  
Do we believe the words of Jesus, or do we not?
Are we just another arm of the government?
Does it even matter to anyone but me?
We have got to as the body of Christ take a very hard look at ourselves and what we’ve aligned ourselves with.  How we’ve allowed ourselves to be seen and where we are taking Christ’s name.    It’s the broader question in what is a Christian, but this part just needed to be asked today.  
Because this goes more to the distinction between church and Christianity.  Even begging the question what is church or what is a church?  Is there something special about a church, that distinguishes it from any other space.  Prior to this revocation, we recognized it as something set apart.  Something that should not be invaded.  People should be able to be safe in their place of worship and we should not interfere with that.  
Likewise, the church has an important function that makes it separate from the government.  The government’s focus should be on the health, safety, and prosperity of the physical state of their populace.  The church focuses on the health, safety, and prosperity of the populace’s soul.  
Often the two intertwine.  Meeting physical needs and caring for the least of these helps not only lift spirits but take care of the physical body.  To that end, we’ve often relied on the nations churches for their charity work in taking care of the physical needs of the greater population (sometimes improperly at the expense of government intervention).  
Similarly, the our government’s founding documents make preserving the right to free exercise of religion, a protection of the physical act that also leads to the care for the soul.
The differences between the two mean that there comes a point where two also hold each other accountable.  Government is supposed to intervene and protect its citizens from abuse by the church.  Government should absolutely be called to bring those pastors, priests, and lay leadership who have committed sexual abuse under the “protection” of church leadership, for example.  That is not something that could or should be left to the church.
Further, the church must be responsible to hold government of all stripes accountable for its actions and policies.  To demand justice where appropriate.  To seek peace where needed.  And to ask for mercy as is appropriate, as Bishop Budde just plead.
That call for mercy is appropriate here.  A call for mercy and for thoughtfulness in how to resolve this issue.  A call for justice beyond the letter of the law, appealing to its spirit.
And I know, I’m going to hear the constant replies of how the families and individuals at the heart of these raids are breaking the law and how we have to be apart of making sure the laws of our country are followed.  
Perhaps it’s just me, and I’m sorry, but all I keep hearing are repeated questions of “Who is my neighbor?” and repeated attempts to redefine what that parable actually meant.  I’ve seen that whole discourse online before.  
I know many are trying. I just pray that we can do better, because it seems as a whole we keep missing the point.
“God help the outcasts, or nobody will.”
Because, if we needed any other reason beyond empathy - at some point, we’ll be the outcast and there will be no one there for us.
I’m including below a graphic on reminders for how to proceed if ICE does try to raid your church.  It’s really a good reminder for how to interact with law enforcement in order to preserve your rights in any respect, especially if you suspect you will be going through prosecution.  The biggest piece of advice I can give is to have an attorney you are prepared to consult in the event of a raid.  

"Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place." Jeremiah 22:3
"For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in." Matthew 25:35

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

What is an Oligarchy?

“That’s why, in my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And this is the dangerous concer- — and that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of very few ultra-wealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.

Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.

We see the consequences all across America. And we’ve seen it before, more than a century ago. But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts.

They didn’t punish the wealthy. They just made the wealthy pay the by — play by the rules everybody else had to. Workers won rights to earn their fair share. You know, they were dealt into the deal, and it helped put us on the path to building the largest middle class and the most prosperous century any nation the world has ever seen, and we’ve got to do that again.”
President Joe Biden, Farewell Address, January 15, 2025


President Biden delivered his farewell address on January 15, 2025.  While Biden himself would admit he is not the greatest orator, the speech is a good speech.  It’s well written and reflective and accomplishes what a farewell address is supposed to do.  He highlighted America’s strengths and reflected on the accomplishments of his administration.  Then he provided a warning for the future.  One in which he warned Americans of the concentration of power in the hands of select few.  

He warned Americans of an oligarchy taking root.

And so, for the rest of the day and into January 16, 2025, the top trending search no Google was “what is an oligarchy?”

I don’t know if this speaks more to interest or to a failure in our Civics education that we are googling the answer, but here we are.  Our first Big Question of 2025.   One whose importance was highlighted at Trump’s second inauguration.

And one I wish I still had my notes from a certain “-Isms” test to answer, but I’ll do my best in the interim.  For at least this question has a definitional answer.  We can talk about what constitutes an oligarchy and discuss examples of it.  Beyond that, we also have to discuss why it matters now.

First, definitions.

An oligarchy is government by the few.  A power structure in which the power rests with a small number of people.  We contrast this with a monarchy, in which power rests with one person, or a democracy, where power rests with a large number of people.  The oligarchy rests somewhere in between.  No set number, but just recognizing all the power rests with a defined subset of people.

The people in the group are usually distinguishable from the general populace in certain specific ways.  Nobility, education, fame, wealth, or some sort of degree of control.  Military control, religious control, economic control, political control.

Generally, today, we focus on economic control.  A group of the wealthy.  As it goes, money makes the world go round.  Money buys influence and political power.  Money can buy fame.  

This puts us in a subset of the oligarchy - the plutocracy.  Rule by the wealthy elite, where wealth rather than merit controls.

Our most recognized current example is Russia.  Since the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, the general view is that Russia has been ruled by a class of individuals with significant economic power intertwined with the role of the President. A group of individual leaders in the energy, natural resources, and metals sectors, overseeing and working through President Putin.  A list of around 13 individuals controlling the direction of the Russian Federation.  These are the people our sanctions against Russia have targeted - not the country specifically, but these wealthy individuals that can effectuate change in the country.

In America, we can look at examples in our past of economic oligarchies.  We called these trusts or monopolies.  Collusion by a few companies to control a particular market.  Standard Oil, American Tobacco, US Steel.  Power in the hands of specific conglomerates, allowing for rampant abuse in the market.  Price fixing, income inequality, strong arm elimination of competition, worker abuse.  All so the small group in charge could remain in charge.

Commentators have been more recently rising alarms about an oligarchy in modern America, as we’ve seen continued increases in the power of the financial elites.  The Supreme Court in Citizens United removed campaign donation limits, seemingly okay with the wealthy being able to buy politicians.  Former President Jimmy Carter described America afterwards as “an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.” 

A 2014 political science study found evidence that the United States’ political system does not primarily reflect the preferences of its average citizens.  Analysis of policy outcomes between 1981 and 2002 suggested that the wealthy and business groups held substantial and disproportionate influence over political decisions, to the detriment of the majority of Americans.

Which brings us to today.  

To the inauguration on Monday in which the seats normally reserved for state governors were filled by the tech industry elites.   Tech industry billionaires all currying favor with the incoming and returning president.  Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Shou Zi Chew, Sunar Pichai, and Sam Altman.  Tesla/SpaceX,Twitter, Facebook/Meta, Amazon, Apple, TikTok, Google, and OpenAI.  Combined they represent around over $1 trillion in wealth.  To put that in perspective, the combined wealth of the bottom fifty percent of Americans or around 170 million people is just less than $4 trillion.   Disparity and income inequality on a factor it’s hard to fathom. All there in seats of prominence at this most recent transfer of power.

The more concerning part is that all of these CEOs represent control over our modern media.  Social media platforms, devices, satellite internet, and servers.  That does not even start on e-commerce.  Put simply, these CEOs can control the information that we receive and how it flows between us.  They can decide what is acceptable information and what is misinformation.  What fits their agenda and what does not.

The power of these companies and their leaders is concerning in and of itself.  Their intertwining with President Trump is downright alarming.  This is why so many people have had concerns regarding Elon’s connectedness to the President.  There have already been questions about his election interference in this recent election via Twitter(X).  We will only see those grow.  

America is structured as a constitutional republic because we recognize that real power should belong to the people and should be acted on by their representatives to prevent mob mentality.  It should be purposefully diffused.  It’s why we have separation of powers, why we wrote in checks and balances, why we have historically busted trusts and fought against monopolies.  

This should be an apolitical issue.  Something all sides could agree upon.  

We should all refuse to allow any group of wealthy elites to exert influence over our government and country.  But I fear, this has just become another political hotbed.  The Republican Party and MAGA sect seem to love and respect Elon Musk and are excited for his influence in the government, thanks to the Department of Government Efficiency push.  Trump has scored major points by reinstating TikTok, and Zuckerberg is showing his alignment by removing fact checking.  

What remains to us is to resist.  

We should hold our representatives accountable to oppose the oligarchic intrusion.  We should push our representatives for strong antitrust measures.  To reinstate common sense campaign finance restrictions.  To demand our elected officials make appropriate divestitures and not profit off their time in office (looking at you TrumpCoin). 

You know, things we used to expect and demand.

In the interim, we just have to keep reminding ourselves this is not normal.  This is not how things are supposed to work.

That will remain a thread in all of these entries coming up.





Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Big Questions 2025

  “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.”

Voltaire

Much of human existence seems to be the pursuit of answers.  Pursuit of the right answers.  We have to find the right spouse, the right house, the right job, the right city, the right denomination, the right church, the right hobby, and so on, and so on, and so on.  Ad nauseum.

We’ve made education the regurgitation of right answers.  In our faith, we have to associate ourselves with the right theology.  We have to be associated with the right political party, and for much of the people I find myself surrounded by, that side is even named the “right.”

We’re convinced there are right answers to most of life, and we just have to find them.  This comes from a desire for certainty, a desire for stability.  We need answers because they set our lives right.  They make us  feel secure because everything is known.      

Think about how we approach our advisors - our doctors, our lawyers, our counselors.  We go to them for answers.  We want a diagnosis.  The correct legal remedy. The solution.  And we get very uncomfortable when the answer is “we don’t know.”

We’re really uncomfortable with the unknown.  With the uncertain.  We blow past the “we don’t know” to finally get to an answer.  We get second and third and fourth opinions.  Or in situations where there is truly no right answer, we seek to make one.  We look for signs and find them in the smallest coincidences.  We make a right answer.  We reduce things to black and white, we simplify so we can understand.  

I don’t know, but of late, I’m getting more comfortable with questions.  I’m getting more comfortable with “I don’t know.”  

To me, the truth is, questions are just more interesting.

Because questions lead to all sorts of interesting experiences.

We know this as kids.  Children live in a state of constant “why?”  It’s intellectual curiosity that continues to propel them into discovery, into experience, and into the unknown.

Perhaps today, of all days, on this monumental change in our society, questions are more important than ever.  There are titanic questions hanging in the ephemera, spoken and unspoken, that are filling our collective unconsciousness.  

Questions that matter.  

That are shaping the direction of our future.  Questions that will be imperative to discuss and evaluate. 

I say evaluate and discuss because it’s important to note we may not get to one right answer.  There may be no one specific answer that is right and everything else is wrong.  We may be able to identify a lot of wrong answers, but there may be a lot of ambiguity we still have to live with.

These questions are being raised through online social media.  Through news broadcasts and media.  Through dining room discussion.

They are popping up whether we recognize them or not.  And some are even trending as questions on our search histories.

Questions like -

  • What is an oligarchy?
  • What is fascism?
  • What is a Christian?
  • What is masculinity?
  • Why does it matter?
  • How do we proceed?

Heady.  Deep.  Though provoking.  Unanswerable?  Charged.  Divisive.  

All descriptions above could apply to these questions.  And all are reasons why the questions must be discussed.

So for the next several posts, that’s what I intend to do.  To raise the question, to explore why it’s being asked, and to address my thoughts on the question.  I ran a series in 2020 called Big Questions.  That focused on questions of faith.  Questions like, do my resolutions benefit only me, does my church look primarily just like me, who is my gospel excluding, and am i willing to yield?

Today starts Big Questions 2025.  And I hope you will be along for the ride.  We have to be able to discuss these things, to disagree on points, and come to resolutions.  To recognize the question behind the question and to help each other along in faith and love.

If we don’t, if we can’t, what are we even doing here?

“Test all things; hold fast to what is good.”
1 Thessalonians 5:21