“It was the best of times. It was the worst of times,” wrote Charles Dicken in A Tale of Two Cities. These famous opening lines certainly reflects the reality many experience today in a time when the poor are getting poorer and the rich, richer. This terrible divide cannot exist without consequence, politically, socially, or morally.
As prices at the pump doubled and inflation is the highest in more than 40 years, the fossil fuel industry – oil, gas, coal – is reaping in windfall profits, and not just here at home. UN Secretary General António Guterres stated “This grotesque greed … is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people, while destroying our only home.”
Stalled now in the Senate is the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Act, which would give the President authority to issue an Emergency Energy Declaration. A Dallas Federal Reserve study showed that 59% of oil industry executives wanted to maintain “capital discipline,” in other words putting profits before people by not increasing production. Exxon’s CEO Darren Woods is paid $22 million. Obscene, truly obscene.
Prayer for the Day
We hear familiar stories O God, that tell us how to serve you,
And we nod in agreement thinking we would cross the road;
It’s easier when the stories are about times that are distant,
And we don’t have to draw the connections to us today
Bestow your grace on us, enabling us to recognize
The poor ad hungry as our neighbors requiring justice
In the name of the One who transforms our lives,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen
Thoughts for the Day
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”
- Mahatma GandhI, transformer of lives (1869-1948)
There is nobody in this country who got rich on their own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate….
- Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senator, Massachusetts
O Lord, you God of vengeance, you God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O judge of the earth; give to the proud what they deserve!
O Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult?
They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.
They crush your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage.
They kill the widow and the stranger, they murder the orphan,
And they say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
Psalm 94: 1-7