Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for January 18, 2011

Corporate Fundamentalists?

Aren’t those the republicans?

This cartoon is also true of many religious fundamentalists, sad to say …

Churches smurches…it’s a great cartoon.

Churches smurches…it’s a great cartoon.

@Nabuquduriuzhur: If the IRS knows about it, it’s not Charity, it’s a Tax Writeoff.

“I tell you, They already have their reward.”

Great strip Wiley… BUT I predict a commentary bombardment is imminent. Heading for shelter… Deep shelter.

Clark Kent, That heaven doesn’t exist. But that doesn’t mean heaven doesn’t exist.

Traditional views and beliefs are ruining a good thing.

People only think of the Almighty in December (and for most of us, mid April). My Almighty did good this December. And yours? I was at Harvard commencement when the school of business marched in carrying golden dollar signs. I looked at my love with her puny law degree and thought, “You’d better have picked right.”

^If she goes into politics with that law degree, she’ll join a branch of the business/financial world.

I’m curious, Clark Kent – why would someone who so brashly states ”there is no god, devil, heaven or h€ll” be so shy about spelling out “hell”? Are you hedging your bets? Or too pious to spell out the name of the one thing you do believe in? Or simply implying that the deity isn’t the Almighty Dollar, but the Almighty Euro? Enquiring minds want to know….

Wow. Talk about going partisan in a hurry! :)

I saw it just as a tweak at the overwhelming greed exhibited by corporate bodies–they are dedicated to one thing and one thing only–MONEY.

I don’t think their ‘official’ political standing has a bleeep thing to do with it.

Holy cow,it’s too early for this. Some things don’t have to have a party label attached, people.

The caption could just have easily said, “Congressional Fundamentalist”

I was just going to say “AMEN!” and let it go at that but…..

Wiley you should know by now that if the cartoon was nothing but a guy looking at the sky and saying …’lovely day’ that you’d have a torrent of people blaming the Repubs for pollution and the Dems for excessive regulation.

The Bible already commented on this deity and named him…”Mammon”. Nothing new under the sun, I suppose.

So we need to revise Wall Street: Greed is Go(o)d.

Not for nothing was Gordon slyly named after a lizard.

Well said, Wiley. Comedian Lewis Black described the two party system best when he said it’s a bowl of sh!t looking at itself in the mirror.

As for religious “fundementalists” you seem to have the media definition down pat, Clark, et al, But you folks have no ideas what the fundamentals are. They are certainly not the ones espoused by television folks who are desperate to keep their life styles as opposed to spreading the Gospel. Like them, you want to pick and choose the Christian message for your own goals so you really have nothing to attack them for.

Wow!!!!!

We want corporations to multiply their dollars, else why bother?

The problem is short versus long. In the long, the health of the outside is important to the profit of the inside.

For many years, I have observed that the one true god in our society is the “Almighty” Dollar. After all, there is that “trust” comment on all our money? I remember seeing Immoral Roberts on TV asking for $8 mil “or god is going to take me”, I immediately thought: wait a minute, why did he not say give me $8mil or god is going to REFUSE to take me home? Interesting that when these folks ask us to send money to god, they give us THEIR address. :)

Aircraft. The only Christian Goal is to tell the truth that Christ is savior and King and then live like it. That we alkl have failed and fallen short and the the Holy Spirit can indwell us and reconnect us with the God we miss.

Again, the proofs of a genetic need for God, the realization of at least 6 dimensions about which we know nothing and the simple fact atheism is a religion that says it doesn’t believe in religion making it a contraction in itself, lead any thinking person to c conclusion of much greater truths than we can grasp. The requirement of 100% fulfillment of Biblical prophesy and it actual fulfillment in Christ as well as recorded historical events such as the fall of Babylon under a king named 500 years before it occurred, the various predictions of a global economy, world-wide communication, the return of Israel, the reports of more quakes and wars by that global communications net and many more, can lead only to the conclusion that someone greater than us “wrote” the Scriptures through his followers and wee need to pay attention.

As for dogma, there’s church dogma and real truth and those are sometimes not the same, I agree. But that’s human failing. Not God.

And am i the only one to call Wiley on it: He’s a businessman , too!!!!

I’m with you Sandfan

The corporate fundamentalists may worship the idol of the dollar, but there are plenty of other idols out there: appearance and health, food, possessions, self-indulgence, pleasure, sports, romance (mostly for women) or lust (mostly for men)–the list is endless.

Clark Kent said, about 9 hours ago

The big religious clowns know that there is no god, devil, heaven or h€ll. They cynically take poor peoples money and give false promises of the “everlasting”.

I tried to resist, but I cannot.

I haven’t found too many religious leaders who are cynical. At least in the Catholic Church, although some are misguided or tend to react as anyone else does when scandal threatens, there are some very holy people leading us. And they believe, and try to live up to God’s call, despite being sinners (and most, the media notwithstanding, are not sexual deviants).

As for taking poor people’s money, last I recall, most bishops, and most pastors, don’t have that big a salary–and the Pope gets none at all, beyond room and board.

Its pretty apparent that a large number of you don’t understand capitalism or human nature. FishStix got it absolutely correct, without “corporate greed” there is no progress or development. Wiley says it’s not about Republicans or Democrats..but it IS about class warfare. Why would you demonize those who bring us improvements to our lives ? do they not deserve the rewards for their efforts ?

fotodik: I have nothing against rewarding those who bring improvements to our lives. But that’s not how Capitalism 2.0 operates. People who create real improvements–people who make real goods and services–are generally paid a fixed (and rather low, and sinking in real dollars over the last 30 years) wage, while the people who play with imaginary wealth (y’know, the folks who’ve engineered bubbles in Tech Stocks, Real Estate Derivatives, and Oil Futures… and coming soon to a casino–I mean, exchange–near you, Carbon Futures!) reap fortunes when their bets win, and get bailed out when they lose. This is not Capitalism as described by Adam Smith; this is Corporate Socialism… and it’s what we have today.

“80% of charitable donations, year after year, are given by conservatives.”

I’d sure love to see a citation for this “statistic”. Neither my church, or any other charity has ever asked my political leaning when accepting a donation. Neither has the IRS on my 1040.

So, how would the IRS know such a thing?

Fundamentalists of ANY stripe and for ANY cause take the fun out and go mental.

Wiley, that certainly is a big spoon you have today

DING!

Here’s my idea of the perfect afterlife - call it heaven, hell, or whatever you want:

Instead of getting what you’re hoping for after you die, you get what you fear you deserve.

Isn’t it odd that is some places, fortune-telling is against the law, but it’s legal for some guy to stand in a pulpit and tell you he knows what’s going to happen to you when you die?

After the ten commandments, 99% of the laws of Moses focused on everyone giving their wealth and “best” of everything to the priests (rabbi) and the “good guys” who came along later only demanded 10% of everything “followers” owned. The FBI calls that “protection”, and it’s illegal.

I think I’m going to surprise some people who do know my political worldview…

I think ‘big corporations’ are generally a-political. Which ever party will more greatly benefit them is the one that they support.

Notice how many politicians get jobs at the corporations that they were supposed to have oversight of while in office. It just so happens that more Dems end up in high office level jobs at that corps than do Reps… but both do.

That being said, I have little positive to say about “Big Business” in general. Few elicit the values that I adhere to. By that’s not uncommon today in general.

Oddly enough, today’s generally accepted measure of success is the amount of one’s wealth and/or political/financial influence and/or fame.

My measure of success is being a person of good values that lives consistently with those values and effectively spreads those values to others, especially their own children. That is something far more difficult to achieve in this day and age.

Maybe that’s part of my “religious fundamentalism.” I don’t know. If so then I’m fine with it. I’d rather be referred to in negative terms and do good then be regarded in positive terms and do malice or ill (whether purposely or unintentionally).

prayers to the (false) almighty, will not be heard, but prayer to the true Almighty through Christ name, will be heard.

As far as whether more liberals or conservatives volunteer more… I don’t know that they’d be a clear cut winner, especially or unless activism is considered volunteer work. Then liberals will win outright. But I think,in real terms, it will be quite even between liberals and conservatives and maybe even lean liberal (though there are several variables being ignored and unmeasured).

The reality is most liberals DO mean well and want to see good things occur. It just so happens many of their policies work antithetically to their intentions.

The other issue is effectiveness of volunteerism.

Money given to the right institution that is effective in their work can be far greater an act than putting in a little time volunteering, which tends to be mostly ineffective in one’s own singular act.

However, charities need those small time volunteers so I’m not saying don’t do it. But if one person gives a few million dollars to a charity, that person can be far more effective than the one volunteer who gives a few hours in a year. Those few million dollars tend to effect far more people in need.

However, we still need those volunteers who put in a few hours here and there to ensure that those millions of dollars are effective.

NebulousRikulau Genius_badge said, about 12 hours ago

@Nabuquduriuzhur: If the IRS knows about it, it’s not Charity, it’s a Tax Writeoff.

“I tell you, They already have their reward.”

What Nab said. Any donation I’ve ever made has never been reported to the IRS, and I gave away quite a lot. I don’t do it for the write off. I do it to help people if I can. And I volunteer. And yes, I’m liberally minded. Put that statistic in your pipe and smoke it for a bit.

My question would be this: If conservatives tend to be less wealthy than liberals in general (as proven by every study), but give the vast majority of charitable contributions… why?

The rhetoric is that they are selfishly rich, stingy people who like seeing others suffer. Yet that example I gave is quite the opposite… they have less and give more.

But they want less taxes taken from them!

Yes. But it’s not because they want people to suffer. It’s because many have realized that charities do a tremendously better job at helping others than does the government and with far less waste. If one has more money to give, and that giving is more effective… then that’s the opposite of wanting people to suffer.

^^ Defunctdoormat…

I think you more accurately reflect the traditional definition of a liberal. I am thankful that you do as well.

The modern political practice of liberalism, however, is to make it more difficult for charities to function, especially religious ones, and to make it tougher to contribute to them (by taking more and more money away in taxes).

The offset is that the government will then take over those programs. Which is insane narcissism, thinking that the government knows better and will do better despite every bit of history proving otherwise.

As such, modern liberalism tends to do more harm then good… even though, often times, the intent is to do good. An accurate measure is results, not intent.

Gimmie dollars, dinars, pesos, let me see their smiling faceos, gimmie money, money, money.

Spot on, Wiley! Thanks

dtroutma, You must consider that, in ancient Israel, the ‘church’ was the state. Tithes were the equivalent of tax. Whether the ‘tax’ was used in a worthy manner is debatable, but a 10% income tax sounds reasonable to me.

fear not comicgos…the Democrats are killing the dollar as fast as they can, and it will be worthless before you realize it…

DjGuardian said,

”My question would be this: If conservatives tend to be less wealthy than liberals in general (as proven by every study), but give the vast majority of charitable contributions… why?”

It’s because they’ve been brainwashed by religion to think that they can buy their way into heaven.

Well drawn and clever.

“those who bring us improvements to our lives” – you mean like the last 2 years of foreclosures, unemployment and banker/corporate bailouts? Ask all those folks who lost their homes or jobs how their life has improved.