Woeful Bible factions 2/6/17

George F. Will, “A modest proposal to solve inequality,” The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA, February 5, 2017, online at nationalreview.com/article/444478/solving-inequality-egalitarian-myths-about-economics-vs-reality .

My thesis in response to Will's article: Four factions derived from controversies surrounding Abraham's story cause the world's woe and the antagonists could easily stop the misery and loss by iteratively-collaborating with the people for Security. 

Sorry to be repetitious, but has Will lost it? After all these years he should be capable of scholarly thought.

I cannot imagine writing to incite either revolution, Alinsky-Marxist disruption (war), or epidemic disease as possible political tools, but that’s how I interpret Will’s citation of Walter Scheibel’s work (the citation, not necessarily Scheibel’s work). And who can believe Michael Tanner’s so-called myths: inequality is less now, inheritance of power is not significant, classification doesn’t usually stick, and poverty consumes the middle class? There’s plenty of evidence that all these factors oppress the poor and pull the middle class down.

Much more applicable to solve inequality is to present the evidence that Chapter XI Machiavellianism is at the heart of the world’s chaos and let the people willingly stop the pain and suffering. In America, influenced by the Magna Carta, elite Christian traditionalists encourage the people to count on faith, family, community and work to provide upward mobility. In this apparent motivational message, the elite omits save & invest. The omission keeps the working class consuming but not owning (compare the “myths” above). The clergy-elite-partnership lives high on the hog by picking the people’s pockets. The elite strive to keep the poor able to consume, so that elite assets will grow; the middle-class cannot keep up in the coverage of the poor, so the poor class grows.

A remedy is for the people, as individuals, to separate collaboration for civic-morality or safety & security for living from religious morality for the afterdeath; require the clergy to stick to religion and government to provide Security. The people may demand enough wages so that they can save & invest and must practice the principle: save & invest. It matters not if a church or other association makes this commitment: Each person may choose real-no-harm individual-independence, and collectively, a civic culture will emerge. Civically immoral institutions may perish on depletion of believers.
 
Chapter XI Machiavellianism emerged from canonization of the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament. Four thousand years ago, the Jews contemplated, perhaps originated, monotheism and considered themselves as chosen people through whom the world would be saved. With the woeful Security we experience in 2017, the Jewish belief is not of itself a threat: Religious beliefs in a civic culture are private. In other words, real-no-harm religious associations may hope they are chosen people without disturbing civic morality. A civic people may contribute to Security first and beliefs second. 
 
However, Genesis 16:10-12 is disparaging toward the Arabs. The expressions are judgmental, civically immoral, and beg woe. Seventeen hundred years ago, the Catholic Church, with no intent to resolve that Jew v Arab conflict, canonized a Bible that claims God chooses believers. The chosen believe in Jesus. Thus, salvation is available to everyone who is elected by God to believe Jesus. And only 48 years ago there emerged skin-colored Christianity: black theology holds white church as oppressor. Consequently, four biblical factions are at civic and practical war: the Jews, the Arabs, and the victim v oppressor Christians. And each of the factions has factions.

The biblical factions are liable to humankind for the woe that has emerged, and all four may collaborate with us---the ones with no biblical theism---to terminate the human misery and loss. The rest of us are being robbed of our brief opportunity to live in a civic culture. We need to communicate plainly that we hold all four of the biblical factions accountable. The right negotiator can end the madness practically overnight, merely by bluntly expressing the-objective-truth and gathering the leaders of the world to work out remedies. Everyone I know wants Security so as to pursue the happiness he or she perceives. But there are dissidents, so humankind must have statutory law and law enforcement, leaving inalienable human rights for private pursuit according to informed personal-preferences and abilities.

Copyright©2017 by Phillip R. Beaver. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the publication of all or portions of this paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included. Revised February 6, 2017.