New Energy
Crossleft.org advocates new energy for America. We are literally running out of gas. High fuel prices are figuratively choking the American economy as there is less money left over for other goods after paying for fuel and heating, and carbon emissions literally choke America, causing health problems and global warming. As good stewards of God’s green Earth we advocate for energy sources that are renewable and non-polluting.
We call for factories that produce wind turbines, solar panels, and hydrogen fuel cells. Stop government subsidies and tax breaks to big oil and put it the production of clean energy sources and there will be plenty of cash incentives for corporate investment in clean energy.
We call on American auto makers to develop clean energy cars with better gas mileage and hybrids. They will sell more cars here and abroad if they do this.
Restoring offices and homes to become more energy efficient , will create jobs, and in the long run make huge savings for business and individuals. These are jobs that cannot be outsourced.
We urge urban areas to develop mass transit with high speed rail systems and an electric grid.
As we destroy God’s creation, ExxonMobil posted the highest annual profit ever for a U. S. Company , $40.61 billion in 2007, while they enjoyed billions in tax breaks and government subsidies. In 2007 the Senate Republicans used a filibuster to block a clean energy bill that would have ended subsidies to Big Oil and invested in renewable energy, we call for an end to politics of this kind.
Wildfires world wide are burning hotter and longer, Artic ice is melting at a record pace, a record number of hurricanes in the Atlantic have formed in the last several years, wildlife habitats are being negatively impacted, and water supplies are drying up. Man ‘s bad choices are destroying God’s earth.
We at Crossleft.org, as responsible stewards call for end to the greed and negligence of our way of producing energy and a new way forward in energy resources.
I like this as a start!
As a US Army combat veteran, I feel as if the safety and security of my country is being compromised by our oil situation.
It would be great to see the effect on world players reframing this issue would have.
I'm leery of living in a capitalist society and taking a dig at "greed". Forgive me, but capitalism rocks. It gives us the resources to live life, and live it abundantly enough to give to those who have less.
Competition is at the crux of capitalism, and if we were to address the unfair (read: monopoly) advantages our society has built into the oil industry versus the renewable energy industry, then we would make headway, against "Big Oil" greed, in my mind.
So, security and competition would be the dominating themes if I were crafting this plank.
Great start!
Capitalism rocks?
Chuck,
I think "progressive Christians" have to take a real hard look at capitalism -- or what passes for capitalism these days: corporate capitalism.
Corporate capitalism institutionalizes avarice and irresponsibility. The monetary bottom line is its only value system.
Corporations enhance profits by shifting costs to humans and to the environment -- the commons. The principle of limited liability frees their human owners/enablers from any personal responsibility for damages they cause.
So I think we're lost if we don't recognize that this is not a model for Christian economic behavior.
As for competition, that's what corporations are always trying to get rid of. Whether it's through mergers or alliances in restraint of free trade, competition is minimized wherever and whenever possible. You can go right to the source: Adam Smith. This is what he wrote:
"People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices." (The Wealth of Nations: Vol 1, Book 1, Chap 10).”
"M&A", Mergers and Acquisitions, is a big part of investment banking and corporate strategy. M&A gives us ever larger corporations with monopolistic or, more accurately, oligopolistic capabilities. "Omnicorp" is the logical outcome, but of course that's been tried and shown to be a failure -- the USSR was an exercise in State Capitalism where the state became the Omnicorp that tried to direct everything and found the ultimate in monopoly to be an inefficient and ineffective way to run an economy.
Instead of running on about this, I offer up a CrossLeft blog I wrote in February on "God and Wealth".
The very first blog entry I ever wrote was in a blog I began two years ago, Brother Billy's Bible Blog, and was on this same subject. You might find it amusing.
Bill
Good to Hear From you Tyler
Always good to hear from another veteran. I am a Vietnam veteran and shot at something moving around in the bushes a few times and they shot back a couple of times but most of the time I was in the rear with the gear. So I am shy about calling myself a "combat veteran". I did have some Agent Orange exposure though. I am not sure excatly how much combat one has to see to be a "combat veteran". Another thing I always wondered about was, how many decorations do we have to get to be a "decorated veteran"?
Excellent comments, too. Maybe "greed" is a little preachy, perhaps preventing monoply and market manipulation are better words. Perhaps others would like to chime in on the phrasing.
Capitalism is straight with me too, I just want sensible good government regulation so our kids aren't chewing on toxic toys and our workers aren't competing with workers from countries with no environmental regard that produced goods in sweatshop like conditions.
"Greed" is right on the money
No, Jim, "greed" isn't too preachy. However, since it can be confused with "gluttony", let's use the Biblical term "avarice".
It's necessary to remember that the basic responsibility a publicly held corporation has is its fiduciary responsibility to its stockholders. This is legally interpreted to mean the maximization of shareholder value. This generally involves the maximization of profit. (Corporate philanthropy doesn't contradict this: it's considered a form of advertising, PR, and building Good Will that will aid in the creation and protection of profit.) (Also note that there are legal issues concerning short-term vs. long-term considerations of shareholder value.)
I like to hearken back to the idealized Jubilee system, and to Jesus being presented as the realization of the Jubilee, and to the Lord's Prayer as an example of Jubilee thinking (re: forgiveness of actual debts), and to the early community of Christians described in Acts. Capitalism, in the modern sense, is not a part of fundamental (if I may use that word) Christian values or practice.
"Free enterprise", whether in the form of individual, mom-and-pop, partnership, cooperative, or collective enterprises, or a mix of these, is one thing. Corporate capitalism is something quite different as it subordinates everything to pecuniary values. Real human beings, even markedly avaricious ones, are more complex than that and hold to more complex sets of values.
"The love of money is a root of the evils." I submit that our current system, being based on the unlimited love of money, makes an idol of Wealth. Therefore, I repeat "You cannot serve God and Wealth". That's what's straight, in my estimation.
Bill
Whats Straight
Your estimation is usually pretty straight, Bill.