An Aggressive And Rapidly Growing "MCUSA"

Evelyn De Morgan's 1909 painting, The Worship of Mammon, is on the cover of McCarraher's widely read book on modern capitalism. 

All around us we can see signs of a hostile takeover of the Christian movement. Mennonites, along with members of all denominations, have metamorphosed into something Jesus may have difficulty recognizing as his body and embracing as his bride. According to authors like Eugene McCarraher, we and our fellow Protestant and Catholics neighbors have become enmeshed in the cult of Mammon, becoming what we might call "Mammonite Church USA." 

Meanwhile, Christians continue reciting the same Apostles Creed, praying the same Lord's Prayer, preaching from the same Holy Bible and singing the same hymns exalting God as Sovereign and Jesus as Lord--as though nothing had changed since the first century founding of the Christian faith. 

How has this leaven of Mammon so permeated and deformed us? How have followers of Jesus been seduced into embracing a gospel of gain, a creed of greed, a community of shrewd capitalists not essentially different from the rest of their pagan neighbors?

This seductive and viral heresy is based on some of the following "Ten Amendments" (displacing Moses's Ten Commandments) as introduced and amplified here:

It is I, Mammon, the market-driven, wealth-amassing, earth-exploiting Sovereign of the Capitalist Age, who will deliver you from want and offer you the truly good life of comfort, convenience and consumer wealth. Therefore,

1. You shall have no other goals before me.

2. You shall devote the best years of your life, give the primary share of your attention, and pledge your ultimate loyalty and allegiance, to me above everything else.

3. You shall invest in compound interest yielding savings and wealth-multiplying stocks early and often throughout your working life. 

4. Six decades shall you labor and do all your work, but in the seventh you shall enter a well deserved and carefully planned retirement, having laid up for yourself more than enough to live well, travel extensively and enjoy a life of ease.

5. Honor your financial advisors and your money management consultants to ensure that that you will live long and well in the land and have an ample estate to leave to your children.

6. You shall make sure that you have accumulated more assets and gained more wealth by the end of each year of your working life than you had the year before.

7. When giving to charity, never do so at the risk of jeopardizing the achievement of the prior (#6) goal.

8. You shall not steal, but certainly make the most of being a part of a nation that has robbed native Americans of their lives and their land and has benefitted enormously from the labor of slaves and of oppressed workers at home and abroad.

9. You shall not bear false witness, yet always make sure you take advantage of every loophole possible to circumvent government regulations and reduce or eliminate tax liability.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, but coveting a lot of other things is commendable, since the economy is dependent on everyone spending beyond their means for luxury homes with multiple bedrooms and baths, fashionable clothing made by oppressed workers to fill our walk-in closets, environmentally destructive cruises and other exotic vacations for our entertainment and pleasure, and frequent dinners at 5-star restaurants.

*****************************************

Meanwhile, Jesus's message to each of us remains the same, "It's me or Mammon. You cannot serve both."

Kyrie Eleison. 

Time-Tested Truth In A Season Of Spin

Besides the familiar ten commandments, there are 36 commands in the Torah to show hospitality to refugees and migrants--more than to observe the Sabbath or any other law.

Ungodly Socialism Versus God-blessed Socialism

At the very beginning of his ministry Jesus formed a
community of followers who shared all things in common.

"May God's will be done on earth as in heaven."                       -from the Bible 

Socialism: a social and economic doctrine that calls for public rather than private ownership or control of property and natural resources. According to socialism, everything that people produce is in some sense a social product, and everyone who contributes to the production of a good is entitled to a share in it. -from the Britannica

Any mention of socialism, or of people owning things, or doing things, communally, is likely to evoke a negative reaction these days. And given some really bad examples of socialist economies in recent history, this is understandable.

For instance, many brutal anti-capitalist, communist or socialist regimes have caused untold harm and suffering, and their policies have clearly stifled motivation and creativity on the part of their citizens. The Soviet Union under Stalin, China during the Cultural Revolution and North Korea, under Kim Jong Un and Nicholas Madura's Venezuela especially come to mind. 

Other kinds of mammoth, socialist-run systems are tax-funded and dictatorially-run military forces intended by nation-states for self-defense, but which have been responsible for unimaginable death and destruction throughout history. These are far from benevolent and democratic institutions.

But there are also many exemplary forms of "socialism" that are commonly accepted as a part of industrialized democratic nations, all of which have some blend of capitalist and socialist elements. Postal service, universal public education, road and highway systems, sewage and garbage removal, public universities, departments of public health, and programs like our US social security and Medicare systems are just a few examples. 

Multitudes of non-governmental services and agencies within these societies also operate on a not-for-profit basis and for the public good. Many are faith-based organizations such as monasteries, convents, voluntary service units and an untold numbers of charitable organizations that serve the common good.

Then there are entire faith communities patterned after the miraculous and generous sharing inspired by God's Spirit on the day of Pentecost. These include Hutterite and Bruderhof communities and similar families of faith. And congregations of all faiths routinely provide mutual aid to their members and reach out with childcare and many other services to members of their community and beyond.

Even more fundamentally "socialist" are scripturally-based institutions like marriage and the family. Spouses pledge their lives and pool their fortunes in a uniquely collaborative and cooperative covenant, and in all families wealth is held in common and is used for the common good. Children are provided care regardless of their age or their ability to earn, as are any other family members in need of care in cases of illness or an accident.

But the purest example of a socialist-style paradise is, well, Paradise. None of us can imagine living in a God-governed "new heaven and a new earth" in which there would be inequalities based on some people gaining personal advantage over others. Everyone is fully committed to God and to the common good and there is no competition for power or wealth on the part of anyone.

That's heaven, and citizens of God's worldwide, heaven-ruled regime are to begin now to demonstrate ever more of that reality right here on earth.

After all, we ask for just that every time we pray the Lord's Prayer.

The Kind of Campaign Speech I'd Love To Hear

 What happened to "Ask not what your country can do for you..."?

I am still waiting to hear this kind of campaign speech, as follows:

My fellow Americans, the only way a country can become truly great is for its citizens to become truly good. So in the spirit of John F. Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you...” here are ten good things you can do for your country:

1. Make friends with people who are different from you. Foster understanding by celebrating good things from the diversity of your cultures, traditions and faith convictions. 

2. Be generous with your neighbors in need. Government programs must do their part, but each of us needs to generously volunteer our time and resources to help those less fortunate across the street and around the world.

3. Live a life of honesty and integrity. Show up on time at your work or school every day. Do your share and more. Never defraud your workers, employers, government agencies, insurance companies, or any other persons or institutions. 

4. Obey all legitimate laws, and work to change unjust ones. For example, if you are asked to wear a face covering and socially distance in public, do so without complaining. Be law-abiding not just for fear of being punished but simply because of who you are and the good example you want to set for others.

5. Respect all life from the womb to the tomb. Honor the unborn, and do all you can to spare the already born from the ravages of abuse, hunger, disease, war and poverty.

6. Save lovemaking for the married love of your life. Be faithful to your spouse and take responsibility to bring up children in loving, stable and nurturing environments.

7. Take special care of the planet’s soil, air and water. Reduce wasteful consumption by reusing and enjoying more of what you already have, recycling everything you can, and by relying less on forms of  energy that pollute the atmosphere and waste scarce resources. 

8. Don’t harm your body with tobacco, illegal drugs, or other harmful substances. Take personal responsibility for your health by eating right, exercising every day and maintaining a good level of emotional and spiritual well-being. The best kind of national healthcare is one in which each citizen first takes responsibility for maintaining their own good health.

9. Honor your parents, grandparents and all aging and dependent persons. Care for them as you would want to be cared for yourself, and don't simply abandon them or assign them to government funded nursing homes in their old age.

10. Avoid all forms of media that promote pornography, denigrate women, enflame bigotry and racism and glorify violence--and make sure to protect children from these destructive influences. Spend less time with TV, movies, video games and the Internet and more time in wholesome interactions with real people.

With God’s help, we could truly make ours a great country and the whole world a better neighborhood. And in the process we could save untold billions in law enforcement and court expenses, in health care costs, and in  prison and social service programs. 

Best of all, none of the above would require special legislation or an increase in tax dollars, only more personal responsibility by people like you and me.

The above "speech" is adapted from a July 11, 2011 blog post. 

Needed: A Hundred Walkers For This Sunday's "100's For 100's Walk"--Will You Join Us?

 

Click here for our SOS Facebook page.

The Daily News-Record contacted the chair of the Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale yesterday about doing a DNR article on Sunday's "Hundreds for Hundreds" event. This makes the SOS Walk an even greater opportunity to highlight the desperate needs of refugees and to promote support for Mennonite Central Committee during its 100th Anniversary. 

A hundred walkers raising an average of $100 each would really help get this year's Relief Sale efforts )scaled down due to the COVID-19 pandemic) off to a great start, and help make this a year in which the Sale raises more money than ever for needs around the world. Relief Sale Chair David Rush even dreams of a "Thousand for Thousands" campaign!

Whatever we do, we should do in response to the prophet Micah's call to "do justice, love mercy, and to Walk humbly with our God". 

And with our world neighbors in need.

If you can't do the physical Walk, simply donate here https://vareliefsale.com/donate/

A 35th Anniversary Picnic With Gemeinschaft!

DATE
Friday, August 28 or Saturday, August 29, 2020

TIME
4:00 PM – 6:30 PM
Curbside meal pickup at Park View Mennonite Church

You are cordially invited to join us for a Picnic with Gemeinschaft Home, an online fundraising event, in honor of our 35th Anniversary.

Rather than the usual large, indoor gathering for our annual banquet, we are providing a complimentary picnic meal, with curbside pickup service, and a special video broadcast for attendees to enjoy from the safety of their homes. It will feature interviews with current residents and with past supporters, along with a brief talk by Brian Moran, Virginia's Secretary for Public Safety.

The event will take place over two nights, and it is your choice which evening you would like to attend. The picnic meal will feature a summer barbecue fare, with the option of chicken, beef, vegetarian, or vegan.

There is no cost to attend, but we suggest a minimum $35 donation toward our 2020 Campaign of raising $220,000 for a Women’s Treatment Facility.

RSVP NO LATER THAN SATURDAY AUGUST 22, 2020, BY CALLING
540-434-1690 OR VISITING gemeinschafthome.org/picnic TO SUBMIT YOUR RSVP ONLINE.

Walk, Don’t Run, To Your Nearest Relief Sale--Guest Post by Jim Bishop

This "Bishop's Mantle" piece by columnist and photographer Jim Bishop appeared in today's Daily News-Record, and is posted here with his kind permission.

“I’m walkin’, yes, indeed, 

I’m talkin’, ‘bout you and me . . .”

-Fats Domino

Harvey Yoder of Harrisonburg probably doesn’t have this 1957 Fats Domino song ricocheting down the cobwebbed corridors of his mind while out on his daily constitutional, but there’s a determined look on his face to keep time with his pace.

The 81-year-old pastor, family counselor and community activist is walking at least a brisk mile every day for a hundred days with one purpose – to promote a “Hundreds for Hundreds” campaign to raise awareness of and funds for the 54^th annual Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale, scheduled for Oct. 2-3 at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. All funds raised go to support the worldwide relief, service and peacebuilding programs of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), which is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year.

But more immediately, he and his planning group have set up a “Sharing Our Surplus” (SOS) walk on Sunday, Aug. 23, starting at 6 p.m. at Community Mennonite Church, 70 S. High St. in Harrisonburg.  The 2.3-mile walk will be self-guided (maps will be provided) with individuals and family units departing at staggered times. Walkers are encouraged to wear masks and practice social distancing during the event.

MCC representatives will be present with information on refugee and other needs and to collect contributions by cash, check or credit card. 

“This effort is one way to support MCC’s response to the worldwide refugee crisis,” Harvey said. “COVID-19 has only added to this dire situation, and monetary gifts are needed more than ever. It’s also a way to give an early promotional push to the relief sale that has its own set of issues to contend with, due to restrictions placed on major public events.”

If unable to participate in person on Aug. 23, fret not. Persons can walk their own route at a time that best suits them, then send a donation (make checks payable to Virginia Mennonite Relief Sale) and mail to SOS, 601 Parkwood Dr., Harrisonburg VA 22801. 

Registration for the walk is not required but would be helpful to planners and may be done through a “Refugee SOS” Facebook page: https://facebook.com/events/s/hundreds-for-hundreds-fundrais/602016113787339/?ti=icl

Gifts can also be sent effortlessly and securely on-line at https://vareliefsale.com/donate.

Whatever course one chooses, Harvey is hopeful that many people will “come together to share our surplus with the world’s most vulnerable population.”

Like Yoder, relief sale chair Dave Rush of Harrisonburg is a man with a plan to loosen the pandemic’s potential grip on the relief sale. He believes that, with a major, generous response from the public and yeoman efforts from a host of volunteers, this year’s relief sale has the potential to surpass last year’s record $400,000 raised. 

“It’s disheartening to have to make major readjustments this year, when MCC is in the middle of their 100^th anniversary year of helping people ‘in the name of Christ,’” Dave said. “We were planning some special reflections to celebrate all the relief, development, education and peace efforts over the years. Instead, MCC has been forced to cut back certain programs while the pandemic rages on.  For this reason, we are especially hopeful that we can come together and raise significant funds despite the obstacles.”

A decision has been made to conduct this year’s main auction online; persons can bid from the comfort of their home through the sale’s website (vareliefsale.com). All items will be on display Thursday, Oct. 1 through the end of the auction Saturday, Oct. 3.

Planners are hopeful that the many unique food options, always a sale highlight, will be offered again this fall, but most will be sold on a drive-through basis at the fairgrounds, including barbecued chicken, fresh Mississippi catfish fry, Brunswick stew, a wide assortment of baked goods, kettle-cooked potato chips and more. 

Another activity that will be tricky to pull off this year is the “My Coins Count” fund-raiser, when area churches and businesses collect coins and currency in large water jugs, usually during Sunday morning worship services. The funds raised are divided between MCC and local causes through Virginia Mennonite Missions. Last year’s drive raised $24,804.

Congregations will not be deterred by COVID-19.  For example, from 10 a.m. to noon every Thursday until the sale, children and parents of Community Mennonite Church are invited to bring their money for “My Coins Count” to the church building.  A CMC pastor, wearing a mask, will be outside with a plastic jug to receive their “noisy offering.” Other congregations are devising their own creative ways to participate in this event.

“No doubt about it, this will be a relief sale unlike any other,” Dave said. “We will still embrace the basic purpose of the sale – to raise sorely-needed money for MCC to help ‘the least of these,’ as Matthew 25 notes.”

The relief sale is certainly one way to walk a mile in the shoes of the less fortunate, and some don’t even have shoes to begin with. 

Let’s get ready to do some serious walking.

****************************************************************

Please join our SOS "Hundreds for Hundred" campaign! 

https://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2020/07/join-me-for-100-mile-prayer-walk-for-mcc.html

To All Of God's Children: Here Is Abba's Final 'Will And Testament'

Expect some big surprises when God's will is read.

As executor of my older sister's estate, I met with other members of our family after her funeral last year to read her will. My sister, a missionary nurse much of her life, had few assets to leave behind, but some thirty of us met together for this significant occasion.

There were no surprises. The two nieces with whom she shared a duplex and who provided special care for her as she aged were to have all of her limited tangible assets, and her congregation, Pilgrim Christian Fellowship, which had generously helped with funding for her nursing care in her final months, were to have any money left after funeral and other expenses were paid. Meanwhile, the nieces kindly urged all of us to take whatever keepsakes we wished, so all of us became her heirs in that respect, though the greatest blessings my sister left behind were intangible ones.

Jesus's Sermon on the Mount begins with what could be considered God's final 'will and testament,' with Jesus as the divinely appointed executor. His Eight Beatitudes are all about God's true beneficiaries, and about the incomparable blessings members of God's family inherit. These eight declarations could be called "Sure Signs of God's Shalom," signs of a salvation that is not merely a ticket to paradise, but the certification of full citizenship in the worldwide kingdom, or kin-dom, of heaven show-cased right here on earth. This shalom community is one in which there is to be "nothing marred and nothing missing."

Here are some of the characteristic of such a community:

Blessed are those who acknowledge their utter poverty before God, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 

Membership in this heaven-governed family is not based on merit, money or power. It is the possession of the least of these, the marginalized, the impoverished, the poor in spirit.  

Once when I was out with some friends for breakfast the waitress asked each of us whether we wanted coffee or tea, that is, asked each of us except me. I actually wanted neither, but was curious about why I wasn't offered the choice, until someone pointed out that I had not turned my cup up in its saucer, as in signaling I wanted it filled.

This is our first step in experiencing "seligkeit," the German word for salvation. Selig is the word for blessed, and Jesus makes it clear that it is the destitute who are to experience the full measure of God-blest-ness. As the needy persons we are, we hold out our cup as beggars, admit our brokenness and  make room for the incoming of God's shalom.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 

In a recent CBS news "On the Road" segment, Steve Hartman narrates the story of a nine-year-old boy who had been horribly abused as a child and was adopted by a loving set of parents. From the beginning the boy became obsessed with wanting to adopt unwanted and abused dogs at the local animal shelter, and his parents allowed him to take in and care for a number of them.

One of their concerns was that their new son seemed unable to cry. Then one day one of his beloved dogs became very ill and died in his arms, resulting in his sobbing and crying for the first time in years. His parents welcomed this as a great turning point in his young life.

In this second step in God's stairway of grace we are able to deeply mourn what breaks God's heart, including feeling deep sorrow for all our own wrongdoing, for all of the ways we and our fellow human beings have failed to love God and show mercy to our neighbors in need.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Just prior to Jesus giving this inaugural address to his followers, he had been put to a severe test in which he was offered immediate control of all the world's kingdoms if only he would give up establishing God's reign in God's way and would instead collaborate with the principalities and powers of evil to gain control. Thus he could experience a short-cut means of inheriting the earth and avoid the path of suffering for which he was destined.

The meek are not passive or inactive, but are like impressionable children, eager to follow and imitate  the upside-down, counter-cultural Kin-dom of which Jesus is Lord. Unless we become as children, with no claim to our own power, position or possessions, we cannot become the heirs of the earth that is forever and always the Lord's.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right, for they will be satisfied.

Jesus is clearly steeped in the Hebrew Bible, and amplifies the message of the ancient prophets and their passion for justice and mercy, as in Micah's "What does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"

Here again it is helpful to remember Jesus's recent temptation, after a long fast, to use his miracle working power to "turn stones into bread." While he is moved to compassionate and supernatural action when he blesses and multiplies a few loaves and some fish to feed a hungry crowd, we are to be motivated to crave for righteousness and justice above all else.

As we can see, these blessings build on each other, and find their climax in God's children being able to courageously endure suffering and persecution as Jesus himself did, as in the last of the Beatitudes. The blessing of "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" in the eighth is identical to the first. Each of those two is in the present tense.

More on the rest of the inheritance later.

Should We Post The Beatitudes In Public Places?

Plaque of the 8 Beatitudes, St. Cajetan Church, Lindavista, Mexico
(Wikipedia)

I often hear people lamenting the fact that the Ten Commandments are no longer displayed in our public schools, court houses and other public spaces. 

To be sure, I'm all for having such timeless truths get as much attention as possible, yet I wonder whether Christians shouldn't be just as eager, if not more so, to have Jesus's foundational "Eight Blessings" get that kind of visibility, the so-called Beatitudes (as found in Jesus's "Sermon on the Mount" in Matthew 5-7).

Both the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) and the Beatitudes (the Eight Blessings) are revered as a part of a divinely inspired message meant to be a fundamental part of the faith. Each was given from a mountain to an awed crowd impressed by the power and authority of what they were hearing. Each was an introduction to an expanded set of teachings defining a new era in God's rule on earth, the first through a new nation of recently freed Israelite slaves, the second to communities of Jesus followers all around the world committed to God's will being done "on earth as it is in heaven."

I think of Jesus's eight sayings as being sure signs of shalom, shalom being the Hebrew word that carries the sense of "nothing marred and nothing missing," a state of optimal fulfillment and wellbeing:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside, and after he sat down and the disciples had gathered around, Jesus began to teach them:

Blessed are those who are poor in spirit: the kin-dom of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who are mourning: they will be consoled.

Blessed are those who are gentle: they will inherit the land.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice: they will have their fill.

Blessed are those who show mercy: they will be shown mercy.

Blessed are those whose hearts are clean: they will see God.

Blessed are those who work for peace: they will be called children of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of their struggle for justice: the kin-dom of heaven is theirs. Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and utter every kind of slander against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; they persecuted the prophets before you in the very same way.

These words are spoken in the context of Jesus having just endured an intense time of testing in the wilderness in which Satan had promised him all of the influence he had over the world's principalities and powers if only he would be willing to collaborate with him. In the Beatitudes Jesus shows who will really "inherit the earth," not be the rich and powerful but the poor and the marginalized. 

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the crowds listening to Jesus's inaugural address were amazed at the authority with which he spoke.

We should be as well.

Your thoughts?

Here is the source of the version of the Beatitudes cited above.

This Dark History Needs To Be Canceled Next

This death-dealing WW I era cannon located at the former Harrisonburg High School was fired off as a part of a Memorial Day event last year.

Many of us are becoming ever more aware of the dark stain of racism on our history. We look back with a renewed horror over the genocide of native Americans, the brutal exploitation of African slaves, and the systematic denial of the rights of African-Americans. How could so many of us people of privilege have been so blind to these realities--and so bland in our response?

In this time of soul searching we rightfully look for ways to remove the symbols of this blight on our past, ask which monuments we should replace, whose life stories we should memorialize, and what kinds of repentance and restitution we need to be seriously engaging in.

And while we are all too slowly learning these lessons, should we also be asking what our current blind spots are, what kinds of similar evils we will later look back on with profound regret at having condoned, justified and even embraced?

Here's one pressing example--war making and militarism.

At the risk of distracting from our need to focus on racism, I pray that in the not too distant future whole generations will rise up and ask, How could any decent human beings have ever armed themselves with swords, spears, guns and bayonets and engaged in the systematic and wholesale slaughter of their own species? How could we have devised and perfected ever more deadly weapons capable of blowing human bodies to bits and of blasting, burning and obliterating whole populations? And how could we have allowed ourselves to be deceived into believing any this was in any way justifiable, honorable and/or noble?

I am not suggesting we disrespect the memories of the millions who have died in our past wars. Far from it. Rather that we engage in a worldwide effort to defund, dismantle and discredit the barbaric systems that have caused the deaths and devastation caused by war, just as we have delegitimized practices like cannibalism, slavery, racial discrimination, torture, inquisitions, witch trials, public hangings and burning people at the stake.

Aligning ourselves with Jesus and the prophets will give us the ability to reject the insanity of the twin evils of militarism and racism and to dream of a future in which swords will be shaped into plowshares, wolves will lie down with lambs, and we will study war no more.

Martin Luther King, Jr., was widely criticized for seeing the connection between these twin sins as he courageously opposed US involvement in the Vietnam war and the disproportionate number of young black men who were being sacrificed in that bloody invasion.

Now is the time for God's people to be sure they stand firmly on the right side of history, and to embrace the kind of justice and mercy that never needs to be erased.

A Virtual Sunday School Lesson On Inequality

The populations of the US and Canada (on the left side of map), and Japan (on the far right), with one chess piece each to show relative numbers of people, control a vastly disproportionate amount of the world's wealth, as represented by the pennies on the map.

In the absence of having regular Sunday School at their church during the pandemic, I've enjoyed having a monthly video class with two of our grandsons.

Today's lesson was based on Genesis 1: 26-31 and Matthew 14:13-21 in their Message version of the Bible. In the first passage God mandates us humans, described as "godlike" and "reflecting God's nature," as being responsible for the care of all creation, including the abundant variety of food sources on the planet. In the second, Jesus has his disciples share their loaves and fishes with a large crowd of hungry people, blessing their gift by multiplying it so everyone had enough, and with 12 baskets full of food left over.

Based on information I found online I had them first place a total of 30 chess pieces on the earth's continents to represent the approximate distribution of the world's people, as follows:

US and Canada: A King (1)

Europe: A Queen, Bishop, Knight and Castle (4)

Asia (not including Japan): A Knight, Castle, three Bishops and twelve Pawns (17)

Japan: A King (1)

Central and South America: A Queen, Knight and Pawn (3)

Africa: A Castle and three Pawns (4)

I then had them take 60 pennies, representing the world's wealth, and imagine how they would see God wanting these distributed by those made in the Creator's "image and likeness." They agreed, of course, that everyone should share equally, but I then had them place the pennies on the map according to the information in the simulation game I found online, as follows:

US and Canada: 19 pennies

Europe: 19 pennies

Asia (not including Japan): 8 pennies

Japan: 8 pennies

Central and South America: 4 pennies

Africa: 2 pennies

I needed to point out, of course, that these are very approximate comparisons, and that there are vast inequities within each continent or part of the world. My aim was simply to show that an earth created with more than enough resources for everyone nevertheless has ever more millions on the verge of starvation--while many of the rest of us enjoy far more than our share.

We closed with these wise words from the the Proverbs (Message translation), a book of instructions for young people on how to become good, God-fearing adults:

Mercy to the needy is a loan to God,

    and God pays back those loans in full.

Proverbs 19:17

Generous hands are blessed hands

    because they give bread to the poor.

Proverbs 22:9