This is a talk I gave on April 6 at a protest at Princeton Theological Seminary demanding the removal of hedge fund billionaire Michael Fisch as chair of the seminary's trustee board.
If everyone just spent one day in jail to learn how cruel that system is, minds would bend. I’ve been there, and I saw everything you describe. A fourteen year old boy who missed Thanksgiving with his Grandmother because he didn’t have subway fare and jumped a turnstile. The callous and selfish people say: don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. I tell them “They said that to another man as they nailed him to a cross.”
I treasure this article. I know how close you are to so many incarcerated, and I’ll share it when I can.
This is the most magnificent piece of writing I have read so far this year. Thank you Chris Hedges for making me believe in the possibilities of human kindness again.
Well, that's the last time you will be invited to speak at Princeton Seminary. Well said, and courageous. Donors like Fisch use board positions for reputation laundering and to add gloss to their resumés. But lets face it, its not just the seminary. The big universities are awash with dirty money from donors but also from corporations and foundations that fund their research. For example, at Cornell the Gates Foundation as well as Monsanto are massive funders of research on GMO crops and also on "science education."
I was stopped behind a Cadillac SUV/Crossover at a traffic signal the other day with a personalized plate with WWJWMTD. After thinking for a moment what that meant I finally realized it was the first letter of "What Would Jesus Want Me To Do". I thought to myself if the owner asked him the question and received an answer he would tell you to sell the Cadillac and give the money to help some of those Chris mentions. Obviously they weren't listening.
There are 14,000 people in the Los Angeles County jails, where toilets don’t work and the food is inedible. LAist noted that 2021 marked the highest annual number of suicides in L.A. county jails ever. Yet comments on social media in wealthy white areas repeatedly complain that enough poor (nonwhite) people are not being incarcerated for property crimes. “You get what you vote for”, they say, blaming democrats for what they view as lax law enforcement. The westsiders are fine, so what’s everyone else’s problem? Lock ‘em up! Don’t use tax dollars for social programs, but jails the size of Versailles and an army to keep them orderly would be fine.
Whatever BLM began as or was intended as, it's a brand now, and a Team D veal pen.
One could have said something similar about the Tea Party. For if the Establishment is good at nothing else, it is very good at determining whom to co-opt, whom to buy off, whom to neutralize, whom to ignore.
Can we reproduce this piece in the New Observations issue on political prisoners? You may have seen our issue on Wounded Knee linked to a front page story in The New York Times on the return of the artifacts stolen from the site of the massacre. I negotiated their return to the Lakota people back in November. Your powerful piece fits in perfectly with our next issue. Please let me know. Thank you! Mia
I left the church many years ago......finding it irrelevant....and the sermons boring.
Chris' description of the radical church reminds me of the work of Canada's Tommy Douglas....one of the founders of the CCF............the social gospel is what in fact I have lived for.......
But in a Petro State like Alberta.........most of us have no congregation. Church is a social club for the most part...........where perhaps some charity is performed, but precious little social justice. Most Christians don't even know enough of the Bible to be qualified to critique those parts that are sexist or racist.................let along to wonder, what scribe penned those nasty parts.
And as the Christian right rises all around us, we'll act surprised when we can no longer ignore the phenomena.....but in fact, intolerance of 'the others' has been baked into that spiritual arm of imperialism forever.
Wow Chris you keep on outdoing yourself. Kudos! Although Secular myself, I have always used Biblical teachings and live by "do unto others as you would have others do unto you". Years ago when the Commie scare was everywhere along with the collapse of Soviet Russia and Reagan's voodoo economics and trickle down theory capitalism took hold with the "Moral Majority". I always wondered how did Jesus become a Neo Con? From his description he would have been a socialist and quite possibly a communist. That being said I just read the book "The Rise of the Power Worshippers" by Katherine Stewart. I would highly recommend it and along with having her on your show. A sample rom the introduction "It is a political movement, and its ultimate goal is power". They want to "replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity, that adherents call a "Biblical Worldview" that also happens to serve the interests of its plutocratic funders and allied political leaders." The list of Christian Libertarian Oligarchs and cohort's is to long to list but it includes Koch, DeVos, Leonard Leo, The Federalist Society, MAGA, The Tea Party, Franklin Graham and every Mega Church in the USA. They promote Trump at Church services and call their vote "Gods Vote". Scary stuff but better armed with the facts and aware of the consequences of these Christian Fascists!
So well said! The Christian right ignores the teachings of Jesus and invents self-serving fiction like the "Prosperity Gospel" to rationalize their greed and moral failures.
If everyone just spent one day in jail to learn how cruel that system is, minds would bend. I’ve been there, and I saw everything you describe. A fourteen year old boy who missed Thanksgiving with his Grandmother because he didn’t have subway fare and jumped a turnstile. The callous and selfish people say: don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. I tell them “They said that to another man as they nailed him to a cross.”
I treasure this article. I know how close you are to so many incarcerated, and I’ll share it when I can.
This is the most magnificent piece of writing I have read so far this year. Thank you Chris Hedges for making me believe in the possibilities of human kindness again.
Well, that's the last time you will be invited to speak at Princeton Seminary. Well said, and courageous. Donors like Fisch use board positions for reputation laundering and to add gloss to their resumés. But lets face it, its not just the seminary. The big universities are awash with dirty money from donors but also from corporations and foundations that fund their research. For example, at Cornell the Gates Foundation as well as Monsanto are massive funders of research on GMO crops and also on "science education."
I was stopped behind a Cadillac SUV/Crossover at a traffic signal the other day with a personalized plate with WWJWMTD. After thinking for a moment what that meant I finally realized it was the first letter of "What Would Jesus Want Me To Do". I thought to myself if the owner asked him the question and received an answer he would tell you to sell the Cadillac and give the money to help some of those Chris mentions. Obviously they weren't listening.
There are 14,000 people in the Los Angeles County jails, where toilets don’t work and the food is inedible. LAist noted that 2021 marked the highest annual number of suicides in L.A. county jails ever. Yet comments on social media in wealthy white areas repeatedly complain that enough poor (nonwhite) people are not being incarcerated for property crimes. “You get what you vote for”, they say, blaming democrats for what they view as lax law enforcement. The westsiders are fine, so what’s everyone else’s problem? Lock ‘em up! Don’t use tax dollars for social programs, but jails the size of Versailles and an army to keep them orderly would be fine.
Whatever BLM began as or was intended as, it's a brand now, and a Team D veal pen.
One could have said something similar about the Tea Party. For if the Establishment is good at nothing else, it is very good at determining whom to co-opt, whom to buy off, whom to neutralize, whom to ignore.
Thanks, Chris. Your writing reflects real Christianity.
Hello Chris,
Can we reproduce this piece in the New Observations issue on political prisoners? You may have seen our issue on Wounded Knee linked to a front page story in The New York Times on the return of the artifacts stolen from the site of the massacre. I negotiated their return to the Lakota people back in November. Your powerful piece fits in perfectly with our next issue. Please let me know. Thank you! Mia
I left the church many years ago......finding it irrelevant....and the sermons boring.
Chris' description of the radical church reminds me of the work of Canada's Tommy Douglas....one of the founders of the CCF............the social gospel is what in fact I have lived for.......
But in a Petro State like Alberta.........most of us have no congregation. Church is a social club for the most part...........where perhaps some charity is performed, but precious little social justice. Most Christians don't even know enough of the Bible to be qualified to critique those parts that are sexist or racist.................let along to wonder, what scribe penned those nasty parts.
And as the Christian right rises all around us, we'll act surprised when we can no longer ignore the phenomena.....but in fact, intolerance of 'the others' has been baked into that spiritual arm of imperialism forever.
A well-written, moving article.
Thanks for giving this talk and posting this
Wow Chris you keep on outdoing yourself. Kudos! Although Secular myself, I have always used Biblical teachings and live by "do unto others as you would have others do unto you". Years ago when the Commie scare was everywhere along with the collapse of Soviet Russia and Reagan's voodoo economics and trickle down theory capitalism took hold with the "Moral Majority". I always wondered how did Jesus become a Neo Con? From his description he would have been a socialist and quite possibly a communist. That being said I just read the book "The Rise of the Power Worshippers" by Katherine Stewart. I would highly recommend it and along with having her on your show. A sample rom the introduction "It is a political movement, and its ultimate goal is power". They want to "replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity, that adherents call a "Biblical Worldview" that also happens to serve the interests of its plutocratic funders and allied political leaders." The list of Christian Libertarian Oligarchs and cohort's is to long to list but it includes Koch, DeVos, Leonard Leo, The Federalist Society, MAGA, The Tea Party, Franklin Graham and every Mega Church in the USA. They promote Trump at Church services and call their vote "Gods Vote". Scary stuff but better armed with the facts and aware of the consequences of these Christian Fascists!
Damn. Hedges literally never misses.
So well said! The Christian right ignores the teachings of Jesus and invents self-serving fiction like the "Prosperity Gospel" to rationalize their greed and moral failures.
Chris Hedges can be my rabbi!
You have a remarkable way with words. Chris.