Author: Wick

Maybe you’ve heard of it, but maybe you haven’t. Just recently, a $31 BILLION Capital Bill was signed by Governor Pat Quinn. But what sorts of things around the State could add up to warrant such a grand total? Follow the link above to read the actual, over 900 page, bill.

I recommend at least giving it a good skim (pages 50-100 are a good chunk). It’s a bit ridiculous, and it’s obvious that although some of the money is going to places and organizations that should receive it, a majority of these dollars are going to every greedy hand who sold it’s right to claim a few bucks well.

The disappointing part? $11 Million of it is going towards religious facilities. Now, $11 Million doesn’t seem like much, especially when compared to the $31 Billion grand total (only 1/3 of 1%, if I did the math right).

I can’t account for the other religious groups/organizations that are involved in receiving funds from such a bill. But my question would be this: Should organizations that seek to honor Christ be among the greedy open hands demanding their portion of state moneys?

A small example: Our church does a food pantry once a week. We’ve served hundreds of families each week, largely through money people have donated and our church has set aside for this specific purpose. Because of how/where we get our food supplies, we do not require any sort of religious involvement, or even publicly pray with/for any of those who come through our line.

Because this type of thing occurs within our facility, shouldn’t we make the case that state money should go towards re-vitalizing and making capital improvements to our facilities? We’re putting a new roof over that section of the church very soon, which is a major expense. Shouldn’t the state pay for that?

Nope. Not at all. Not only is it against how our government is set up, it also goes against the nature of what we see Christ speaking of throughout scripture.

Should we serve the poor and needy to the best of our ability? Yes.

Should we join the ranks of those who “work the system” in order to “get ours” when Government is handing out it’s financial support? Probably not.

(Many thanks to Mr. Mehta, whose site I’ve not referenced so that more of my readers might read this post. 🙂 )

In talks with an old professor this past week, I confessed my unhealthy love for NT Wright. I even told him of my attempt at reading something that disagreed with Wright (John Piper), only to end up with us both laughing at that tremendous “fail”.

In the end, he pointed me in the direction of John Caputo’s book “The Weakness of God – A Theology of the Event“. I haven’t read much Caputo, other than knowing of him for the famous “What Would Jesus Decontruct” a couple years back. (not that I even read that)

Not that Wright is completely wrong, or that Caputo is completely right, but that both might help balance each other in view of resurrection and “new creation” type things. I flipped open to the table of contents, and had planned on simply reading the recommended chapters on Resurrection/Kingdom; but I made the mistake of beginning to read the first chapter.

Wow. Not the Bible. But I like this. Not 100%, but enough of it to read on. He speaks of God as an “event”, rather than a thing, or a name…

“A name can accumulate an army and institutional power, semantic prestige and cultural authority. But the event is not a natural thing, not a part of the natural language; it is more like a ghost, the specter of possibility…

..The name of God is the name of an event transpiring in being’s restless heart, creating confusion in the house of being, forcing being into motion, mutation, transformation, reversal…

..the kingdom of God is a domain in which weakness “reigns”, where speaking of a “kingdom” is always an irony that mocks sheer strength.

..a kingdom where the only power that is permitted is the power of powerlessness, where the very condition of power is that it be without power.”