Who'd have thought that the title for one of my sermons, even one to be preached on Independence Day weekend, would ever be lifted from a speech given by Madeleine Albright—she who served as our country's Ambassador to the United Nations during Bill Clinton's first administration (1993-1997) and as our Secretary of State during his second (1997-2001). Who'd have thought it, for I've never considered Albright to be counted among those idealized rulers spoken of in today's First Lesson, those rulers who govern not by might but by God's spirit. No, heretofore I've always thought of her as someone who practiced a rather straightforward Realpolitik—as someone whose practice of statecraft was grounded in her nation's military strength and economic might rather than in her own philosophical and religious ideals. After all, Albright's the one who once said, in a 1996 interview on CBS's 60 Minutes, that, even in the face of the deaths from starvation of countless numbers of Iraqi children, continuing the world's economic sanctions against Iraq was (quote) "worth the price" (unquote).
So, who'd have thought it. Yet there it stands, my title for today: "The Mighty and the Almighty"—lifted straight from the title of an address Albright gave just a little over one year ago (3/30/04) in, of all places, the Marquand Chapel at Yale Divinity School [published in the magazine of the Yale Divinity School: Reflections, Vol. 91, No. 2 (Fall, 2004), pp. 4-9].
Well, tomorrow, July 4th, is a day for reflecting on our national heritage, and today, July 3rd, like every other Sunday of the year, is a day for reflecting on our duty as disciples of Jesus, as disciples of the person who, in today's Second Lesson, from Matthew, speaks of offering the peoples of the world, on behalf of God, the gift of a yoke that is easy, the gift of a burden that is light.
Now, as I was recently reading the speech that Albright delivered at the Yale Divinity School, I found, to my amazement, that a number of her thoughts exemplify precisely the kind of religious reflection that I believe we all need to be engaged in on this Independence Day weekend, on this particular 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
For example, I think it's important for us to take to heart the great skepticism that Albright expresses over the way in which many politicians throughout our history have invoked "God" in order to buttress various pursuits of theirs that in reality have been quite worldly. She says: "I am especially wary when God is invoked as a teammate in the clash of one nation against another..." [p. 6]
Let me cite just one of the startling historical illustrations that Albright offers. It's the message that Vice-President Dick Cheney sent out on his Christmas card in the year 2003. That was the first Christmas after the Bush administration's invasion of Iraq. Cheney's Christmas greeting, which speaks of God and alludes at its beginning both to a teaching of Jesus in Matthew [10:29-31] and a well-known gospel hymn, read as follows: "If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?" [p. 6] Wow! I wonder what empire Cheney could possibly have had in mind!
Albright relates that Elie Wiesel once asked a panel in which she was a discussant to name the most unhappy character in the Bible. "Some said Job, because of the trials he endured. Some said Moses, because he was denied entry into the Promised Land. Some said the Virgin Mary, because she witnessed the crucifixion of her son. [But] Wiesel [himself] said he believed the right answer was God, because of the pain [God] must surely feel in seeing us fight, kill, and abuse each other in the Lord's name." [p. 8]
Albright continues: "We can hope that God is on our side. But we can only admit, if we are honest, that we fall far short of what God has asked and of what our own consciences instruct. Believing as many of us do in a Divine Being [who is] both merciful and just, we must hope [that] the balance between the two is tilted heavily in the direction of mercy." [p. 8]
For: "We [can] be ensnared by the temptations to use power to dominate, not simply to help; to value American lives more highly than the lives of others; to squander wealth and consume the world's resources rather than share and be good stewards of the gifts given to us; ... and to boast over and over again how good we are, after being taught [by Jesus] that there is none good but one, that is, God." [a reference to Mark 10:18; p. 8]
Albright notes that President Bush has spoken of the need to "rid the world of evil" [p. 8]. She comments, however that the form in which the majority of the world's population encounters an "axis of evil" each day—that form is not "terrorism." No, for most people the form in which they encounter an "axis of evil" in this world is the everyday oppressiveness of "poverty, ignorance, and disease." It is these evils of poverty, ignorance, and disease, she observes, that "cause far more avoidable deaths than [does] terror and are at the root of [even] more anguish and loss of hope." [p. 9]
Albright's statement that "poverty, ignorance, and disease" are the primary "axis of evil" that humanity needs to oppose sets the stage quite well for this week's principal world event—namely, the 31st annual summit of "the Group of Eight" (aka "G8"), which is to be held this coming Wednesday through Friday at the Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland. Each year around this time the heads of state of the eight nations that together possess two-thirds of the world's wealth meet to discuss economics and politics. These nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The chairman of this year's summit is Prime Minister Tony Blair, and it is he who has designated as the two principal issues for discussion "the Poverty and Disease of Africa" and "Climate Change."
Now, yesterday two epic events took place that were focused on influencing the goals and outcomes of this year's meeting of the G8.
One of these received the larger part of the world's attention—namely, yesterday's series of "Live8" concerts, organized by charity-rocker Sir Bob Geldof. A concert took place in each of ten venues: in the UK, both London and Cornwall; in the USA, Philadelphia; in France, Versailles; in Germany, Berlin; in Italy, Rome; in Canada, Barrie, Ontario; in Japan, Chiba; in Russia, Moscow; and in Africa, Johannesburg. The purpose of these concerts was to train the spotlights of the world on the G8 summit and to pressure these world leaders, whose nations now spend more on pet food than on international development, to do much, much more to reduce the extreme poverty and disease that exist in Africa and in many other places. The ten concert sites drew live audiences totaling nearly two million people, and then, too, it's estimated that over one billion people around the world tuned the concerts in on television. Here in New York and throughout America, the concerts were televised live on both MTV and VH1. And even I, who never watch either of these two particular channels, tuned in for a couple of hours.
Yesterday's second event that strove to influence the outcome of the G8 summit was not nearly so glitzy as the "Live8" concerts but had much greater substance to it. It was the rally of more than 225,000 people that took place in Edinburgh, Scotland, just 40 miles from Gleneagles, the largest rally in Scotland's history. Its theme was: "Make Poverty History." And this rally sought to call the attention of George Bush, of the other G8 leaders, and of peoples around the globe to the fact that every day some 50,000 people die needlessly from causes related directly to extreme poverty. Yes, you heard me correctly—some 50,000 people die needlessly from poverty-related causes, each and every day. And over half of these are children who live in Africa. Yes, nearly 30,000 African children die needlessly from poverty-related causes, each and every day! Now that's the result of a real "axis of evil."
A leading supporter of "Make Poverty History" is the Reverend Jim Wallis, and he has written, "For the first time, the world has the knowledge, information, technology, and resources to end extreme poverty as we know it, but what is still lacking is the moral and political will to do so. We believe that generating such moral will is the vocation of the religious community."
So to help galvanize the moral will of this community of faith, I've included in your order of service this morning a statement by the organizers of this "Make Poverty History" event. It's a flier that explains in full this program's stated goals—goals with which I am in full agreement. Please take this flier home with you, and read it sometime today or tomorrow, while this sermon is still fresh in your mind. I believe you'll find it a helpful reference point when toward the end of this week you begin reading about the results of this G8 summit and undertake to evaluate those results and our need for further action.
The "Make Poverty History" program is supported by major organizations and coalitions in over 70 countries, including many religious groups. Here in America, a leading coalition within this movement is called "The ONE Campaign." It includes organizations like Bread for the World, CARE, Oxfam America, and World Vision. And this campaign has also pulled off the coup of joining together in a most unlikely partnership the likes of George Clooney from the left and Pat Robertson from the right!
The ONE Campaign seeks to remind us that there are ONE billion people around the world who live on less than ONE dollar a day and that our own US government spends far less than even ONE percent of its budget on overcoming world poverty and the global scourge of AIDS. And this ONE Campaign fully commends to this week's G8 meeting the platform of the Make Poverty History program that I've provided to you in today's bulletin.
Now, back to Madeleine Albright and the concluding part of her speech. In light of this week's upcoming G8 summit, I have found what she says there in her conclusion to be quite arresting.
The biblical text that's in Albright's mind is Matthew 19:24, where Jesus says: "Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." And applying this text to rich nations, like those of the G8, she writes: "Nations are neither baptized nor promised salvation. But if they were, is it fair to ask whether a rich nation would be comparable to a rich [person], no more likely to reach Heaven than a camel to walk through the eye of a needle? We [Americans] are a generous people. And I have said many, many times that I am proud to be an American. But our country does rank dead last among industrialized nations in the proportion of our wealth that we share with the developing world....
"...[I]sn't it our duty to destroy the illusion that persists among too many people that misery and want are inevitable parts of the human condition? Isn't it our responsibility to forge a global coalition that will ... defeat the forces of deprivation that destroy ... lives ...? Aren't we obligated to make the case that the disparity in the world between the people of plenty and the plenty of people without hope is fully and fundamentally wrong, and that there is no excuse for not doing more to enlarge the circle of prosperity and thereby enrich and save human lives?...
"If we truly believe that [every human being counts] ... and [if we truly] act upon [that belief] as a nation and in our own lives... [then w]e will live up to our own founding ideals. We will take a small step forward in meeting the demands of religious faith. And we will more fully earn the right to ask—though never demand or simply assume—that God Bless America." [p. 9]
And to these thoughts of Madeleine Albright, I say, "Amen!"