October 13, 2011

Jesus and the 99%

Am sick & in bed today, so please forgive the lack of eloquence here. However, I was reading a book by Corssan and came across this: "The Roman Empire was characterized by an abysmal gulf separating the upper from the lower classes. On one side of that great divide were the Ruler and the Governors, who together made up 1 percent of the population but owned at least half of the land. Also on that same side were three other classes: the Priests, who could own as much as 15 percent of the land; the Retainers, ranging from military generals to expert bureaucrats; and the Merchants, who probably evolved upward from the lower classes but who could end up with considerable wealth and even some political power as well." On the other side, Crossan goes on to say, were the Peasants, the ARtisans ("below the Peasants in social class"), and then the Degraded and the Expendable classes.

Jesus, as a carpenter, was in the Artisan class, in "the dangerous space between Peasants and Degradeds or Expendables." The gospels clearly set Jesus' ministry & message of the kingdom of God as an alternative to the kingdom of the Rulers, that 1 percent who oppressed the other 99 percent.

Just sayin'.

Now back to resting and drinking my fluids.

Source: John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography.  p. 21

1 comment:

HarpoMarxist said...

You know what, i'm from the UK and I've gone down to the Occupy London site and spoken to the people there and there are people of different classes, cultures, ages all passionate to do something. This rallying cry of "we are the 99%" is something that everyone worst hit by this outright robbery by big business can get behind and i'm glad to see it reflected here too.