Gods a capitalist
(by John Stanton and Wayne Madsen)
The evidence is irrefutable. Whether through one of his
subsidiariesIslam, Catholicism or
Christian Evangelicalits clear that God believes in one
world under capitalism and demands of his minions a healthy investment
portfolio of stocks and mutual funds, and an unquestioning faith in
the corporate purveyors of greed and corruption. God is extravagant
in tastes, paternal in his worldview, and relishes the publicity he
gets on US currency and in daily recitals of US Pledge of Allegiance.
He is thrilled at the building of palatial houses of worship around
the world at the expense of the hundreds of millions of those who
are impoverished and struggle to find food, clothing and shelter.
Is their any doubt that God favors the ruthlessly powerful and wealthy:
the Bushes and bin Ladens, the Murdochs and Alsauds, the Rumsfelds
and Cheneys?
God has no problem with income disparity and the brutal competition
that is capitalism. In fact, he encourages it, applauds it. His beloved
imbecile, US President [sic] George Bush II, spoke recently for God
when he said that all matters political come from God and that God
should have a say in appointing judges to Americas courts. But
theres more. The president [sic] owes God because God helped
him become a real capitalist by helping him become a millionaire.
With so many poor, so many middle-income households struggling to
make ends meet, can their
be any doubt about where Gods priorities are? Is it any surprise
that God is hard at work through his corporations lobbying the US
Congress for more tax breaks, manipulating world financial markets,
changing tax codes everywhere to favor his wealthy minions, and making
sure that corporate executives receive immunity from prosecution?
Saintly Investments
At Crown Financial Ministries, Gods Financial Principles
are taught to practitioners.
According to Crown, God suggests that disciplined financial management
comes from investing according to the financial advice in the Bible.
No econometric models here. It is the blessing of the Lord that
makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it (Proverbs 10:22). With
that advise, Crown provides religious leaders and their flocks with
the necessary tools to invest and manage money for easy living and,
of course, turning earnings into donations back to Gods bureaucracy.
God invests through his various subsidiaries making money on everything
including hip
replacement gear, video games, soft drinks, genetic engineering and
defense contracting.
Over at Christian Stewardship Funds, Gods investment managers
are pretty picky about
evildoers who might get their hands on Gods money.
Christian scrubs its funds and shuns
investments in stocks or bonds of companies involved in abortion,
alcohol, gambling,
pornography, and tobacco industries. Christian claims that it is the
only index mutual fund family with these screens. But wait!
The Timothy Plan goes one step beyond the Christian financial offering
and claims that it is is a family of mutual funds offering individuals,
like yourself, a biblical choice when it comes to
investing. If you are concerned with the moral issues (abortion, pornography,
anti-family
entertainment, non-married/same-sex lifestyles, alcohol, tobacco and
gambling) that are
destroying children and families you have come to the right place.
Oddly though, one of
Timothys portfolios includes investments in BioGen, a company
that develops drugs through
genetic engineering and Electronic Arts, purveyors of violent video
games.
Also in the mix is KPMG Consulting, the firm with many US defense
contracts and responsible
for the flaky audit of Xerox.
BusinessWeek reports that KPMG is under investigation by the SEC here
in the US and is
getting hammered in Germany. On Apr. 24, KPMG Germany was forced
to disavow the
financial reports of former client Comroad, a small software maker
based near Munich. The
embarrassing reason: On Apr. 23, a new auditor found that 97 percent
of Comroads reported
sales in 2000 came from a nonexistent company. Former Comroad CEO
Bodo A. Schnabel is in jail, awaiting trial on fraud charges. In an
attempt at damage control, KPMG has said it will re-audit all 35 clients
whose stocks trade on Frankfurts tech-heavy Neuer Market.
Nothing like some good old-time Christian fraud. But its the
return that counts, no matter whether its
tinkering with the genetic code (obviously Gods not concerned
about that anymore) or the
linkage to malfeasance that many of Timothys investments have.
Show Me the Money!
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
reads the banner at the Islamic
Development Bank in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Founded in 1975, the banks
purpose is to promote economic development and social progress
of member countries and Muslim communities individually as well as
jointly in accordance with the principles of Shariah, i.e.,
Islamic Law.
The bank helped get the attention of Wall Street and subsequently
in 1999, the Dow Jones
Islamic Market index was created which contains roughly 1,862 Shariah-compliant
stocks from 34 countries with a market capitalization of US $11 trillion.
The FTSE Islamic Market Index contains 660 Shariacompliant
companies and includes notables such as Coca-Cola and
Microsoft.
Islamic financial advice, like their Christian counterparts at Crown,
are laced with quotes from
holy works reminding the investor or borrower of the gravity
of investing with God or
borrowing from God. Be fearful of a day when you shall be returned
to Allah, then everybody
shall be paid, in full, what he has earned. And they shall not be
wronged. That admonishment
appears on an Islamic-banking site after a discussion of finance and
borrowing. According to the Quran and the Bible, messing around
with Gods moneynot getting a good returncan get
one into a lot of trouble and cause problems on judgment day.
Of course, no look at Gods finances would be complete without
the Catholic Church. The
Catholic Values Investment Trust puts Gods money into roughly
100 Blue Chip stocks but the
money can only be invested after the Church Magisterium and the trusts
Board of Advisors
reviews the stocks to make sure that the companies represented by
the stocks adhere to Gods
teachings. The board has as its members Margaret Heckler, a former
congresswoman,
ambassador and US government bureaucrat, and two former ambassadors
to the Holy See in
Rome. Investments include defense contractors General Electric and
ITT Industries, Alcoa
Aluminum, American Express, Coke, Pepsi and oil and energy conglomerates.
Put up US $
1,000 and you can get in on the high yields of the Catholic Trust.
In the immortal words of Pastor Simon of Cheltenham, UK, We
see Godfar from being
averse to moneygives power to get wealth. Power to get wealth
is available with God. So what do we need to do? We need to remember
God and recognize His plan for wealth in the hands of godly men and
women.
So get out there and be the best capitalist taskmaster you can. And
remember when you put your soul up for auction on E-Bay, drive a hard
bargain with God. After all, hes a capitalist too.
John Stanton is a Virginia-based writer on national security affairs
and Wayne Madsen is a Washington,DC-based investigative journalist
who writes and comments frequently on civil liberties and human rightsissues.
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