Rhetoric Race and Religion
by Tiffany Buchanan
While preparing for class recently, I read an article by Walter Brueggemann “The Liturgy of Abundance, the Myth of Scarcity” which takes a Christian theological analysis to the notions of abundance and scarcity. This article roots the historical biblical concept of scarcity in pharaoh’s desperate need to maintain power over resources. This becomes important to consider because over 75% of Americans self-identify themselves as “Christian” according to the CIA with over 2 billion Christians worldwide. It is important to assess the dominant American theological paradigm guiding our collective social interactions around economics and resources.
As I read the Brueggeman article my mind immediately started wandering and making connections with a CNN article I had recently read on the Occupy Wall Street movement and its global shifts to Europe, Asia and Australia with focused protests surrounding corporate power, grinding poverty and government cuts. Brueggeman asserts that money has become a type of narcotic and consumerism specifically has moved beyond being a market strategy to become a kind of “demonic force” in American culture. The mindset of scarcity is a fear based social lens and belief system assuming that there is “not enough” for everyone of which Occupy Wall Street has taken direct issue with.
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