The all-American story faces precarity and theres a biblical blueprint for how it happened. The American story never had a true foundation and was always on the cusp of a great fall, but now it is coming apart at the seams. If ever a Bible story reads like our national mythology, its Jesuss story of the rich farmer in Luke 12. If there was ever a character in the New Testament that seems like our guy, the rich farmer is our guy. Hardworking, successful, rich, ambitious and he has a vision. He could probably convince the Shark Tank investors to put a pile of money into his expansion project.
Rodney Kennedy
The all-American story comes out whole hog for the hogs. Those who have plenty desire to have more. The rich farmer seems afflicted with what has been called Social Darwinism. The application of the brutal survival of the fittest to society and the economy should be dubbed anti-social Darwinism. As an unrepentant, churchless, born-again antisocial Darwinist, the rich farmer comes out in favor of himself, bigger barns, more money, more acquisitions, more consumption, and the all-American slogan, eat, drink, and be merry. But none of this shows up at first in the story. He looks like a good guy, a basically good person who works hard, takes care of business, and is a huge success. Today, he would be a run-of-the-mill billionaire buying larger private jets, yachts, and mansions.
The story, having started with such adulation for the rich man, turns a darker color when the voice of God invades the property: You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? This doesnt add up in the American imagination about being rich. The all-American hero is dubbed a fool. Thats not the kind of language we usually use in polite company, at least not until Donald Trump weaponized rhetoric and branded people with an array of nasty words. Can you imagine anyone calling the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway a fool, or the CEO of Goldman Sachs? Well, Lloyd Blankfein, as CEO, once did say that Goldman Sachs was doing Gods work. I wouldnt say that makes him a fool, but I roll my eyes at his comment. Forbes puts out an annual list of the richest people in the world. It is not called the Fools List. If anything, it reads like the list of the greatest idols in our culture. People we adore, worship, emulate, and want to be. I am convinced that poor people support the 1% because they want to be in the 1%. If we arent rich, we probably want to be rich. This story doesnt make American sense.
Lets consider that this may be the right story for us to be reading because of our current economic difficulties. Theologically, some people would say that our chickens are coming home to roost because our greed has grown out of control. I dont think it is clear how greed is connected to our economic troubles. I have friends convinced that we are suffering because some became too greedy. We continue to be troubled, they tell me, because the rich are getting very, very, very rich and the poor are getting very, very, very much poorer. In this reading, greed has no limits or shame. Greed has to increase because it is the necessary engine for economic growth, and we believe that the economy has to always be growing. We once had millionaires, now we have billionaires. Who will be the first trillionaire? How rich do we need to be to have enough? Im not sure.
The rich farmer seems oblivious to his own greed. How subtle. He sees no warning signs on the horizon. Like people who ignore floods, hurricanes, and forest fires by denying climate change, the rich farmer denies that he is greedy while howling for more. The one characteristic associated with greed is the presumption that no matter how much we have we need more. We need more because we cannot be sure that what we have is secure. So, the more we have the more we must have. The rich farmer is a living caricature of the more syndrome: And he thought to himself, What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops? Then he said, I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. Hes fixated on I a raging individualism and he has what one preacher dubbed more-itis.
Theres a gnawing insecurity between the words uttered by the confident rich farmer. Perhaps a bit of St. Augustine can help here. He says that the essential context for ambition is a people corrupted by greed and sensuality. For all his boasting about bigger barns and living it up, the rich man was afraid of dying and he lived in fear of the loss of status and comfort. He was greedy for significance, and he dreamed that his bigger barns would give him significance. Bigger barns were the signs of his status and significance and the means of sustaining status and well-being, but ironically, the bigger the barns the more social anxiety and insecurity in the rich mans mind. The irony drips from the farmers words the one with the most is the one who is the most anxious in irrational and uncaring ways.
Yet in America, we dont recognize this as greed. We call it a vision, a game plan, a business strategy, good sense. I am suggesting that we have lost the ability to see how greed possesses our lives. We live in a culture that celebrates and desires wealth. I am a preacher of the gospel of Jesus, who teaches us that we are gripped by greed. Mixed messages? Of course. Greed, the most subtle of vices, has managed to get inside the church, be baptized, and become a virtue. When evil becomes good, we should know we have a problem. Our parents told us to work hard, to get ahead, to be the best we could be. I am not convinced this was a totally good idea, because greed has insinuated itself into all these parental lessons and we dont even realize it. How subtle!
Now, look at the story once more. Do you identify with the rich farmer? Are you at all uneasy about the judgment that this man, in Gods sight, has been foolish, and that now he must face the consequences of his greed? After all, as we have seen, his greed is invisible to us. I am not suggesting to you that this man went to hell for being rich. The story doesnt address the subject. I am saying that something is not exactly right in this mans life. His All-American desire, expressed in the All-American slogan, eat, drink, and be merry, turned out to be insufficient for a flourishing and meaningful life.
Ralph (Ravi) Kayden / Unsplash
Sometimes we need to read an Old Testament story to get at the meaning of a New Testament story. So, lets go back to the story of Pharaoh in the Old Testament book of Exodus. The story of the rich farmer parallels the story of Pharaoh. The Old Testament story is not subtle, and it shows the greed of Pharaoh in living color. Pharaoh had a surplus of food. In fact, he controlled the food supply of the ancient world. Walter Brueggemann reminds us that Pharoah is a metaphor. He shows us what raw, earthly power looks like. He is a stand-in for all the greedy, powerful people who take what they want and in doing so create damage for all others and place all others in situations of precarity. Pharaoh has a food monopoly, and he uses it as a weapon. Pharaoh shows us greed as the principal vice, greed before we baptized it, made it a virtue, and turned it into a necessity for economic growth.
And Pharaoh has a man of God on his side. His name is Joseph. The story tells us that Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. There was a severe famine and Joseph bought all the land at a cheap price. Because Pharaoh has so much land and produces so much food, he needs granaries where he can store his surplus. Now remember the words of our rich farmer: and he thought to himself, What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops? Sounds like Pharaoh.
Now, please look at what Pharaoh does. He used forced labor, made slaves of all the people, including the Jews, and put taskmasters over them, and they were forced to build supply cities to store the food. The store-house cities are an ancient parallel to the great banks and insurance companies where surplus wealth is kept among us. Now again remember our rich farmer: he built bigger barns. He acts like Pharaoh.
Pharaoh, not content to have all the food supply, not content to have all the land, not content to enslave all the people, decides that he will cut his costs by taking away the supplies that his cheap labor had to use to make bricks. You shall no longer give straw to the people to make bricks as before. They still must meet their daily quota of bricks, but they also have to gather their own straw. Pharaoh then accused his slaves of being lazy. You are lazy and thats why you pretend that you want to go and sacrifice to your God. Pharoah is the definition of greed. He is greed revealed.
The rich farmer is subtle greed, invisible greed, all-American greed. He is the tolling of the last bell for the all-American story of excess capitalism, the Market God, Mammon, money, success, and everything that he thought was Christian because it was so American. When the American dream fails, when the all-American hero flounders, we are all in trouble.
Rodney Kennedy has his M.Div. from New Orleans Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Louisiana State University. The pastor of 7 Southern Baptist churches over the course of 20 years, he pastored the First Baptist Church of Dayton, Ohio which is an American Baptist Church for 13 years. He is currently professor of homiletics at Palmer Theological Seminary, and interim pastor of Emmanuel Friedens Federated Church, Schenectady, New York. His sixth book The Immaculate Mistake: How Evangelicals Gave Birth to Donald Trump is now out from Wipf and Stock (Cascades).
Here is the original post:
The Fading All-American Story - Word and Way
- Darwinists Devolve - Discovery Institute - February 11th, 2024 [February 11th, 2024]
- Darwin's fatal competition model - Times of Malta - February 11th, 2024 [February 11th, 2024]
- Bitcoin Halving Is Poised to Unleash Darwinism on Miners - CoinDesk - December 12th, 2023 [December 12th, 2023]
- David Gelernters Farewell to Darwinism - Discovery Institute - November 20th, 2023 [November 20th, 2023]
- Darwinizing the Universe: A Theory That Explains Everything ... - BreakPoint.org - November 20th, 2023 [November 20th, 2023]
- Science Lab: Evolving Dak, McCarthy on the attack - DallasCowboys.com - November 20th, 2023 [November 20th, 2023]
- How to ensure that all students have scientific literacy - Inside Higher Ed - August 14th, 2023 [August 14th, 2023]
- The Darwinism of timepieces - Manila Bulletin - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- ProSocial World: How the principles of evolution can create lasting ... - Science Daily - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- New National Museum of Wildlife Art exhibition announced - Buckrail - May 2nd, 2023 [May 2nd, 2023]
- Digital Darwinism: How To Build Future-fit Foundations For Business ... - The Drum - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- In Breath-Holding, Kate and a Croc Are Champions - Discovery Institute - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- How the principles of evolution can create lasting global change ... - Binghamton - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- What is essentialism? And how does it shape attitudes to transgender people and sexual diversity? - Phys.org - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Media CEO Says Writers Should Be Using AI to Churn Out 30-50 ... - Futurism - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Survival of the richest - Perspective Magazine - April 22nd, 2023 [April 22nd, 2023]
- Darwinism - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics - February 7th, 2023 [February 7th, 2023]
- Darwinism Theory of Evolution (With Criticism) | Biology - January 4th, 2023 [January 4th, 2023]
- Survival of the fittest | Definition, Applications, & Examples - December 25th, 2022 [December 25th, 2022]
- Naturalistic fallacy - Wikipedia - December 25th, 2022 [December 25th, 2022]
- Social Darwinism | Definition & Facts | Britannica - December 21st, 2022 [December 21st, 2022]
- Epigenetics Directs Genetics And Thats a Problem for Darwinism - December 16th, 2022 [December 16th, 2022]
- Herbert Spencer | Biography, Social Darwinism, Survival of the Fittest ... - November 27th, 2022 [November 27th, 2022]
- Herbert Spencer and Social Darwinism - SciHi BlogSciHi Blog - November 27th, 2022 [November 27th, 2022]
- Epigenetics: Adaptation Without Darwinism CEH - November 21st, 2022 [November 21st, 2022]
- Is Darwinism a Theory in Crisis? | Evolution News - November 21st, 2022 [November 21st, 2022]
- Social Darwinism | Examples & History - Study.com - October 25th, 2022 [October 25th, 2022]
- Survival of the fittest - Wikipedia - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Michael Behe: Game Over for Darwinism | Evolution News - October 23rd, 2022 [October 23rd, 2022]
- Gnter Bechlys Journey to Faith - Discovery Institute - October 13th, 2022 [October 13th, 2022]
- Gene Sharing Is More Widespread than Thought | Evolution News - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The Complicated Legacy of Herbert Spencer, the Man Who Coined 'Survival ... - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Darwinian Racism, Past and Present - Discovery Institute - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- God Created Wholes, Not Parts | Peter J. Leithart - First Things - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Does Ian Remind Us We're in This Together? - LA Progressive - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- A Pleasure to Serve - by Kevin D. Williamson - The Dispatch - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Opinion: Darwin, mega trends and tech drive food and beverage venture investing - FoodBev.com - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- The mad, bad and dangerous theories of Thomas Henry Huxley - The Spectator - October 6th, 2022 [October 6th, 2022]
- Emily Whitten: Start with evolution | WORLD - WORLD News Group - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- What did the U.S. know about the Holocaust and when did we know it? - Forward - September 20th, 2022 [September 20th, 2022]
- What now for the British monarchy and its legacy for First Nations people? - National Indigenous Times - September 15th, 2022 [September 15th, 2022]
- Why Darwin Eclipsed Wallace: Darwin and the English Class System - Discovery Institute - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Michael Behe Debates Evolution and Catholicism - Discovery Institute - August 25th, 2022 [August 25th, 2022]
- Critical Race Theory's Merchants of Doubt | Time - TIME - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Survival of the briefest | Strictly Opinion | richmondregister.com - Richmond Register - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Critical Race Theorys Merchants of Doubt - Yahoo News - August 2nd, 2022 [August 2nd, 2022]
- Experts Share Opinions on Aliens and Humanity's Role in Space Exploration - The Future of Things - July 27th, 2022 [July 27th, 2022]
- Gnter Bechly: Species Pairs Wreck Darwinism - Discovery Institute - July 3rd, 2022 [July 3rd, 2022]
- Donate Darwinism for a Tax Credit? Evolutionists Admit Their Field's Failures - Discovery Institute - July 3rd, 2022 [July 3rd, 2022]
- Do we need a new theory of evolution? - The Guardian - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- Overruling Roe v. Wade: The International Dimension - International Policy Digest - June 30th, 2022 [June 30th, 2022]
- On Darwinism and the Abdication of Reason - Discovery Institute - June 22nd, 2022 [June 22nd, 2022]
- Fact-Checking Professor Dave on Darwinism | Evolution News - June 5th, 2022 [June 5th, 2022]
- Texas Conservatives: Defenders Of Capitalism And The Free Market? Not So Much - Reform Austin - May 25th, 2022 [May 25th, 2022]
- Humans Could Go Extinct. Here's How and Who's Trying to Stop It - CNET - May 25th, 2022 [May 25th, 2022]
- Darwin, Galton, and Replacement Theory - Discovery Institute - May 21st, 2022 [May 21st, 2022]
- UPES takes the lead in rebooting business education and entrepreneurship - Times of India - May 21st, 2022 [May 21st, 2022]
- The implementation of brand safety is weak in India: MMA Impact India 2022 - The Financial Express - May 21st, 2022 [May 21st, 2022]
- The Real Roots of Racism: Pseudo-Science - Discovery Institute - May 13th, 2022 [May 13th, 2022]
- How We Moved Beyond Darwin to the Miracle of Man - Discovery Institute - May 13th, 2022 [May 13th, 2022]
- Opinion | Courage Seemed to be Dead. Then Came Zelensky. - The New York Times - May 13th, 2022 [May 13th, 2022]
- As PopSci turns 150, we reflect on the highs and lows of our long history - Popular Science - May 3rd, 2022 [May 3rd, 2022]
- "RB takes Darwinism very seriously" Lando Norris doesn't think highly of Red Bull driver programme; Carlos... - The Sportsrush - April 29th, 2022 [April 29th, 2022]
- Darwinism and the So What? Question: John West's Darwin Day in America - Discovery Institute - March 27th, 2022 [March 27th, 2022]
- Andrew Carnegie - Social Darwinism & Andrew Carnegie - March 23rd, 2022 [March 23rd, 2022]
- The Rise of Theistic Darwinism - Discovery Institute - March 23rd, 2022 [March 23rd, 2022]
- The Racism of Darwin and Darwinism - Discovery Institute - February 11th, 2022 [February 11th, 2022]
- Darwin's Rhetorical Foundation of Sand: Theological Utilitarianism - Discovery Institute - February 11th, 2022 [February 11th, 2022]
- Darwin's Reticence: On the Origin of a Book - Discovery Institute - February 11th, 2022 [February 11th, 2022]
- Evolutionary Thinking: On Darwinism, Doubt and Dunedin - RNZ - February 11th, 2022 [February 11th, 2022]
- Top Scientific Problems with Evolution - Discovery Institute - February 11th, 2022 [February 11th, 2022]
- Allowing 'Darwinism to Kill Off' the 'Foolish' Unvaccinated is a 'Necessary Evil,' According to a D.C. Mayor's Office official - The Lee Daily... - February 7th, 2022 [February 7th, 2022]
- Darwin and the Newtonian Metanarrative - Discovery Institute - January 30th, 2022 [January 30th, 2022]
- Social Darwinism - Communication Theory - December 29th, 2021 [December 29th, 2021]
- The Dead Talk Back to Darwin - Discovery Institute - December 15th, 2021 [December 15th, 2021]
- Materialist Science as Paternalistic Propaganda - Discovery Institute - December 15th, 2021 [December 15th, 2021]
- Why Darwinism Is False | Discovery Institute - December 3rd, 2021 [December 3rd, 2021]
- Herbert Spencer: Theory & Social Darwinism - Video ... - December 3rd, 2021 [December 3rd, 2021]
- Social Welfare History Project Social Darwinism and the Poor - November 28th, 2021 [November 28th, 2021]
- Three Stunners Challenge Traditional Darwinism | Evolution ... - November 28th, 2021 [November 28th, 2021]