Amen brother. Channel that rage…have you heard about Josh Frank and the Pentecost Project centered around the tax rebate? It’s in its infancy…maybe you could help shape the vision. Get some collective creative juices flowing.

yeah. i’ve seen it. i saw where you were blogging on it to. i think it’s a great idea. unfortunately my tax “refund” will be going to pay for my personal taxes this year which are twice as high because i get taxed twice as a small business owner while walmart pays jack.

[...] after I finished my taxes this morning and submitted them online, I caught this video over on Josh’s blog and wanted to repost it.  Of course there are all sorts of issues bound up with a video like this [...]

josh i love this. when are we going to hang out man. i’ve got a cigar & a beer with your name on it.

How can we do more to pull out of the corrupt system and start living into something that would look like new life? Seeing how its all connected, what if Christians simply said no to facets of the system that are the most corrupt: like Visa?

I think if we could all get out from under the yoke of credit card debt, simply said no to buying into the system that tells us we must be apart of it (i.e. the commercial where everything stops when someone tries to pay with cash), we could better speak to others to do the same.

Just one idea for reconstruction. Maybe you already are doing this.

I completely agree that it is not one person, or political group, who is responsible for a bad economy, but the whole culture and mindset of many of the american systems.

But, if I’m a conservative, my problem with the educational system has very little to do with how much money we either are or are not spending on it. As a public school teacher, I can assure you, we waste more money every year in education than we do in the Iraq War. Not that it justifies the war, but just saying my issues have to do with principle and philosophy, not spending.

It is only liberals who think you spend enough money to fix something.

Peace.

You know something has gone deeply wrong when people lift up money/manna as our “saviour”: when our president, after 911, says, “go shopping”. And when our country, and individual citizen are drowning in debt, our government give us money back THAT WE DON’T HAVE and says “go shopping”! Our economy has been propped up by paper columns, and it can’t go on. Just wait until the baby-boomers start retiring in a couple of years.

The timing of the “Jesus for President” (dead-on book) tour really couldn’t be better. I wonder if we couldn’t get Wendall Berry to join the tour…

hey jeff . . . go to itunes store. and search for wendell berry. 2 should come up. download the one on membership and community. i think you’d like it.

britt.
fair enough on your conclusion. although i think it can be both. the education system is broken on a variety of levels. but it doesn’t help that money gets siphoned off for a war. and on the outside looking in at guys like boortz and hannity . . . there seems to be some apparent contradiction in griping about education and then being fan boys for war. again, not disagreeing with you. just think it might be both.

bush.
where you at?

dustin.
thanks for joining in. as for me and my house (so typical of a joshua right? . . . also a bad joke) we’re doing what you suggested and it has helped immensely.

I would say the application of it to your personal tax is certainly in keeping with the vision of the Project, as your use of it is not propping up materialism, but paying a necessity.

…that is, unless we talk deeper like you just have in the above post about the absurd amount of money the US of A is throwing at the I-rack. In that case, your taxes are funding indulgence.

just to make you more angry. i’m such a jerk. haha

Great post, lots of passion. We need more of that in America.

The only way a capitalist system will actually listen to the people who are addicted to it are when the chains of addiction are cut.

Americas economy only “works” because people buy into the idea of working to consume and then working more because they consumed too much (a.k.a. debt slavery).

What if we actually started living within (or, gasp, beneath) our means, what would that look like? how would it effect the system?

Hey, this has nothing to do with the post, but I was just curious what programs you use for your design. All Adobe or other stuff? I really like the way you use the watercolor-style images.

well said. We are to blame for a lot of it, and we should be careful to acknowledge that.

Thanks for posting this…glad you liked it.

>>> I don’t want to hear another conservative bitch about our education system when they’re financing 720 million dollars a day for the Iraq War.

I can’t believe this is even an issue with the GOP. Unfortunately, a very narrow minded view of economics and purpose has overridden logic, emotion, justice, and compassion. However, I think our fight on this accord may be best faught at the local level.

Love your designs.