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Morning .</title></head><body>
<div>Here's something you may want to forward to your friends, to get
them thinking about capitalism vs Christianity. A Catholic
priest in Houston whom I know has already forwarded it to his
friends.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Bill</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br></div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>From: "Michael Moore"
<maillist@michaelmoore.com></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Subject: For Those of You on Your Way to
Church This Morning ...a note from Michael Moore</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Date: Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:50:43
-0400</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Reply-To: maillist@michaelmoore.com<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>For Those of You on Your Way to Church
This Morning ...a note from Michael Moore<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Sunday, October 4th, 2009<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Friends,<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I'd like to have a word with those of you
who call yourselves Christians (Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Bill
Maherists, etc. can read along, too, as much of what I have to say,
I'm sure, can be applied to your own spiritual/ethical values).<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>In my new film I speak for the first time
in one of my movies about my own spiritual beliefs. I have always
believed that one's religious leanings are deeply personal and should
be kept private. After all, we've heard enough yammerin' in the past
three decades about how one should "behave," and I have to
say I'm pretty burned out on pieties and platitudes considering we are
a violent nation who invades other countries and punishes our own for
having the audacity to fall on hard times.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I'm also against any proselytizing; I
certainly don't want you to join anything I belong to. Also, as a
Catholic, I have much to say about the Church as an institution, but
I'll leave that for another day (or movie).<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Amidst all the Wall Street bad guys and
corrupt members of Congress exposed in "Capitalism: A Love
Story," I pose a simple question in the movie: "Is
capitalism a sin?" I go on to ask, "Would Jesus be a
capitalist?" Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell
short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1% to
have more financial wealth than the 95% under them combined?<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I have come to believe that there is no
getting around the fact that capitalism is opposite everything that
Jesus (and Moses and Mohammed and Buddha) taught. All the great
religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority
of the pie and leave what's left for everyone to fight over. Jesus
said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into
heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother's and sister's
keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly.
He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry,
you'd have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>I guess that's bad news for us Americans.
Here's how we define "Blessed Are the Poor": We now have the
highest unemployment rate since 1983. There's a foreclosure filing
once every 7.5 seconds. 14,000 people every day lose their health
insurance.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>At the same time, Wall Street bankers
("Blessed Are the Wealthy"?) are amassing more and more loot
-- and they do their best to pay little or no income tax (last
year Goldman Sachs' tax rate was a mere 1%!). Would Jesus approve of
this? If not, why do we let such an evil system continue? It doesn't
seem you can call yourself a Capitalist AND a Christian -- because you
cannot love your money AND love your neighbor when you are denying
your neighbor the ability to see a doctor just so you can have a
better bottom line. That's called "immoral" -- and you
are committing a sin when you benefit at the expense of others.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>When you are in church this morning,
please think about this. I am asking you to allow your "better
angels" to come forward. And if you are among the millions of
Americans who are struggling to make it from week to week, please know
that I promise to do what I can to stop this evil -- and I hope you'll
join me in not giving up until everyone has a seat at the table.<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Thanks for listening. I'm off to Mass in
a few hours. I'll be sure to ask the priest if he thinks J.C. deals in
derivatives or credit default swaps. I mean, after all, he must've
been good at math. How else did he divide up two loaves of bread and
five pieces of fish equally amongst 5,000 people? Either he was the
first socialist or his disciples were really bad at packing lunch. Or
both.</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><br></blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>Yours,<br>
Michael Moore<br>
<a href="mailto:mmflint@aol.com">MMFlint@aol.com</a><br>
<a href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/">MichaelMoore.com</a><br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="cite" cite><a
href="http://www.michaelmoore.com/visitor/register">Join Mike's
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</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
<div>Bill Crosier<br>
paa@crosierbiomed.com 713-641-4941<br>
Progressive Action Alliance
http://progressiveactionalliance.org/<br>
KPFT - Radio for Peace - 90.1 FM Houston
http://kpft.org</div>
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