American Politics Journal

Jesus, CEO?
by Alan Bisbort

"There's too many religions. Somebody's going to hell."
-- Redd Foxx

Dec. 31, 2001 -- HARTFORD (APJP) -- I write this in the wake of the Yuletide holiday, as the church bells next door to my house continue to peal "Anchors Away" and "Onward Christian Soldiers." George W. Bush's self-proclaimed "Crusade" seems to have taken hold, at least on the home front. In the war zone, though, the soldiers are doing their duty with extreme efficiency and are, no doubt, wanting to come home as soon as possible.

But God may have other plans -- George W. Bush's God.

Bush is rattling the rafters with religious righteousness abroad, and the silence from Democrats over his expanded war plans will surely be mistaken for genuflections from the flock or, in the case of Sen. Joe Lieberman's inexplicable hawkishness, Hosannas in the highest.

All this aside, few noticed one good thing that happened during these recent religious wars. Quietly -- like a prayer -- Bush's faith-based initiative is as dead as the Taliban. "Not even the least controversial piece of Bush's faith-based initiative -- new tax incentives to spur private donations to religious charities -- passed Congress this year," wrote the Boston Globe on December 23rd.

If we've learned nothing else during the dark days since September 11th, it is that religion should be kept as far away from government as it can possibly be kept.

My own personal ambivalence about "religious initiatives" has resurfaced, and I wonder if others find themselves in the same spiritual boat. That is, I attend the Congregational Church on my town green but, since September 11th, I have attended it only once, to muse upon the death of my wife's wonderful grandmother. I find that I have no impulse toward that sanctuary these days. It's been pounded out of me.

On Christmas Day, for instance, I was driving with my infant son. We soon found our tiny fuel-efficient Echo tailgated by a gigantic gas-guzzling behemoth with flags festooning both rear view mirrors. From my vantage point -- less than one foot from our rear bumper -- it looked like the lead vehicle in a Third World dictator's phalanx. Not wanting to risk my son's life, I pulled over and let the SUV pass. The driver burned rubber passing me, then flipped me his middle finger. I could not help but notice the "God Bless America" sticker on his rear bumper as he went his merry way. I wish I were making this up.

I'm no atheist, or even an agnostic, and I am glad the Taliban is dead. I am probably typical of a lot of Americans, in fact, but I am willing to at least admit the following: include me out of this holy war between Christianity and Islam, between Judaism and Islam, between Islam and Hinduism. Let God sort out the players.

Meanwhile, the real holy war in this country is taking place at our one-faith-fits-all Mecca: Wall Street.

Typical of the reverence with which we hold our stock floggers and speculators is a current best-selling tome called Jesus, CEO. It's one of those motivational books intended to assuage the consciences of job-slashing, cutthroat corporate scumbags. These sorts of books assume a veneer of religion, but they conveniently forget that Jesus threw the moneychangers out of the temple, distributed goods equally, preached peace, simplicity, humility. He was no CEO.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth," Jesus said. "What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?...Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor...How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." They, of course, killed Jesus soon after he uttered that last one.

In the week before Christmas, and in keeping with the spirit of the holiday, 700 people were laid off at Fleet Boston, 9400 at Motorola, and so on, across the nation. In 2001, nearly 2 million jobs had been cut in the corporate sector, the biggest rise coming (of course) since September 11th. What used to be taboo -- layoffs during religious holidays -- is now the norm, thanks to "no-nonsense" thugs like Jack Welch, whose own "straight from the gut" memoir is currently a bestseller, too. Welch, the former CEO of GE, is treated with the same reverent deference accorded the Dalai Lama, but a quick perusal of his Jack will show that the emperor has no soul.

My family got a taste of Welch's punch just before Christmas last year. That's when my sister faced a layoff at Georgia Power, the usurious utility that ineptly provides electricity to the Atlanta area. She had, however, been a good corporate soldier, uncomplainingly taking a pay cut the year before, and she assumed her job was safe. So well regarded was she that, when members of her staff lost their jobs, she took time to console them and help them find other jobs.

Guess what? The soulless Scrooges on the corporate board laid my sister off one week before Christmas. She was one year shy of having enough time in for retirement. Now, more than one year later, she still hasn't found a job and is having to raise her two daughters off her savings while she continues to hunt for a job. Maybe if she thinks of it as "God's will" the sting won't be so bad.

But until then, please pardon my family if we don't seek comfort or inspiration by perusing Jesus, CEO or Jack Welch's blockbuster. We're knee-deep in bullshit about family values and personal responsibility as it is. Any inclinations we might have had toward such things have been pounded out of us. We'll just say a quiet prayer that peace will return in 2002.