{"id":402,"date":"2009-01-31T21:35:45","date_gmt":"2009-01-31T21:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/god-damn-wall-street.html"},"modified":"2009-01-31T21:35:45","modified_gmt":"2009-01-31T21:35:45","slug":"god-damn-wall-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/god-damn-wall-street.html","title":{"rendered":"God Damn Wall Street!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ok, I had to get a little Jeremiah Wright off my chest because the disgusting behavior of Wall Street while our economy crumbles has made it tough to maintain equanimity<\/span>.  <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

The rip off disgrace of Bernie Madeoff, the spa adventures of government bailed-out AIG<\/a>, the $100,000 office antics of Merrill Lynch’s John Thain<\/a>, – these have been enough to wish for some good old fashioned Divine judgment.  But now <\/span>the New York Times recently reported that hefty bonuses were awarded on Wall Street.<\/a>  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

\n

“Despite crippling losses, multibillion-dollar bailouts and the passing of some of the most prominent names in the business, employees at financial companies in New York, the now-diminished world capital of capital, collected an estimated $18.4 billion in bonuses for the year. <\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

That was the sixth-largest haul on record, according to a report released Wednesday by the New York State comptroller.”<\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The sixth largest haul in what people are called the next great depression!  <\/span>What exactly have the Wall Street empoyees accomplished for which they should be awarded bonuses?  <\/span>There is a complete disconnect between the bubble of downtown Manhattan and the rest of the country which faces foreclosures, rising poverty, and unemployment figures that will likely reach double digits in the coming year. It is time for some deep soul searching among those who just got these fat bonuses in this time of crisis.  <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font> <\/p>\n

I do not pretend to speak to people of any other faith, but as a pastor I encourage any Christians who got a bonus this year to give 100 percent of your bonus to the charity of your choice.  Maybe a job center, a foodbank or a public health care facility. <\/span>Like the rich young man, you are loving money too much and your greed is a stumbling block to your own salvation.  <\/span>This is your opportunity to respond to Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 and help those who are hungry, sick, captive, and naked.  <\/span>Repent, before it is too late. Save your soul, and help your fellow citizens while you are at it. <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ok, I had to get a little Jeremiah Wright off my chest because the disgusting behavior of Wall Street while our economy crumbles has made it tough to maintain equanimity.     The rip off disgrace of Bernie Madeoff, the spa adventures of government bailed-out AIG, the $100,000 office antics of Merrill Lynch’s John Thain, – these have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christians","category-poverty"],"yoast_head":"\nGod Damn Wall Street! - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/01\/god-damn-wall-street.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God Damn Wall Street! 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Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}