The Free Market, and the Conservative Christian Community

THE SMALL SOUTHERN TOWN where I for some reason live has long since been invaded and conquered by an army of right wing Christians. These are people who vote republican, the more right wing extreme the better, and claim allegiance to Joshua, son of Joseph, whom they have misnamed "Jesus Christ", a name he never could possibly have called himself, since it is from the Latin, not the Aramaic. Strange, this seemingly incompatible and unholy alliance between the money changers and the faithful flock. The person these folks actually embrace, unbeknownst even to themselves, is the one and only Adam Smith, of "The Wealth of Nations" fame. The invivisble hand of the free market distributes all wealth according to its proper location, according to hard work and proper, moral bahavior, said Smith in 1776. This process makes some people wealthy, and renders others poor, but always according to natural, and thus legitimate forces of the great Christian god of capitalism. Smith also said that govenment action on behalf of the working poor is always justified, but government action on behalf of business owners is never justified, but our conservative Christian colleagues seem somehow never to mention this. We do things backwards in modern America, or rather, the conservative Christian community does. The economics of the modern day republican conservative Christian stalwart is the very mirror opposite of the doctrine spoken by Jesus, and contained in the very Bibles they sanctimonioulsy carry on their persons, but never seem to find time to actually read. My seventy and eighty year old friends over at the senior center seem to think that Jesus was imself a card carrying free marketer, who was content to let the wealth accrue to the ambitious, and to allow the working poor to fend for themselves, and heaven help the man who even whispers the word "labor union." When they sit in their many and various churches and pass the collection plate, one wonders whether they distribute the money among the community's poor, or whether it might by chance enter into the kingdom of the bank accounts of the already enriched, or perhaps the most reverend minister of the Word of the Lord, who doubtless ordains that the the time share condo and Cadillac of the righteous shall be well lubricated, and replete with all manner of godly accessories. One wonders, but the answer is probably right in front of us all, if only we care to have eyes that see.