The Rev. Rodger McDaniel is one of my fellow progressive bloggers. While none of us take any pledges as bloggers, Rodger has pledged a lifetime of service to God. As pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne, he has taken to heart the old adage, "to comfort the afflicted to to afflict the comfortable." Newspaper reporters used to believe in that, although in today's media, it seems as if that gets turned on its head to become "to comfort the comfortable and to afflict the afflicted."
That carries over into politics. Republicans make no secret of their disdain for working people, especially the working poor. They spent all last week comforting and praising their rich-boy presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who aims to gut government programs for working people while giving more tax breaks to his rich pals.
This week, the Democratic Party will showcase a different philosophy. While the Dems sometimes are beholden to the same corporate interests that own the Republicans, there is a clear-cut difference in their policies. They will speak in Charlotte about health care, liveable wages, protecting Social Security and Medicare, education, environmental policies and that nebulous thing known as "the future." It's up to us to hold them accountable once the convention is over. This is good to keep in mind on this Labor Day as we remember the workplace sacrifices of our ancestors.
In his Labor Day sermon reprinted on his Blowing in the Wyoming Wind blog, Rodger reminds us that our religious traditions have a long history -- going back to Moses -- of standing up for working people. He also notes that our modern churches must do more than conduct the occasional holiday food drive, that they must actively champion the rights of people to receive a living wage and fair benefits. Read his sermon: "Cesar, Samuel, Shanker & Moses"
No comments:
Post a Comment