Q & R: Deficit Reduction, Double-Dip Recession, In $$ We Trust

Here’s the Q from a week or so ago:

Brian, I just heard that President Obama signed the deficit reduction law.
Previously I wrote you that the words “In God We Trust” are written on the God in which we trust.
It looks to me like the poor and marginalized are about to be sacrificed at the Altar of Mammon.
Idolatry seems to be alive and well in the 21st Century. I would like to see you address it. It is certainly not something you hear discussed from the pulpit in the majority of churches.

Here’s the R:
Thanks for your note. Yes, once again, our leaders are showing that ours is a government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich. But I don’t think the solution is as simple as some people think: “throw the bums out.” If you throw these ones out, the ones who replace them will be equally bought by the elite “principalities and powers.”
The good news is that people are concerned about the long-term sustainability of our government and the economy which it supports (or by which it is supported – a whole ‘nother discussion). The bad news is that we’re not paying attention to the environmental or social systems on which both government and the economy depend.
I haven’t written much on this recently because my own thinking is unsettled. I’m struggling to understand what new realities we’re facing. I think the game is changing. I think that the Tea Party is telling us something important – even as I normally find their diagnoses and prescriptions to be as morally unhelpful as their tone. I think the “old liberals” are also telling us something important – even as I find their diagnoses and prescriptions terribly flimsy and short-sighted. Behind the loud rants of human voices, I think the earth itself is trying to tell us something – speaking in the language of heat waves and storms and melting polar ice and disappearing songbirds. So right now, I’m trying to listen and discern what “the Spirit is saying” to us all through and beneath these many voices.
I hope to be ready to do some writing about all this in the future, via my upcoming weekly column for Patheos. My personal hunch is that we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. We’re dealing with an epic fail not just of the US government, but of government as we know it, to deal with the rising tide (pun intended) of incoming global disruptions – including global ecological convulsion which is rooted in global corptocracy/plutocracy/consumerism which is aided and abetted by the global corporate media. In the meantime, I can only say three things:
1. everything must change.
2. To support the needed change, we need a new kind of Christianity.
3. To find our way again into that new kind of Christianity, we need a naked spirituality – one that disrobes from the uniforms of power in search of what Bonhoeffer called “religionless Christianity,” which is rooted in the core message of Jesus.
In every crisis, there are multiple opportunities – including the superhighway of opportunities to make the crisis even worse, and mountain-path opportunity to learn, grow, evolve, and be born again. So far, we’re barrelling down the superhighway, but perhaps things will get bad enough to make the mountain path look appealing?