A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Ben Folds show I was at. I've been thinking a lot about his song Jesusland lately, particularly after seeing the video. I really like how Folds addresses wealth disparity in the context of Jesus, National Icon. It reminds me of what Bill McKibben wrote about in his article The Christian Paradox.

Since the days of Constantine, emperors and rich men have sought to co-opt the teachings of Jesus. As in so many areas of our increasingly market-tested lives, the co-opters—the TV men, the politicians, the Christian “interest groups”—have found a way to make each of us complicit in that travesty, too. They have invited us to subvert the church of Jesus even as we celebrate it. With their help we have made golden calves of ourselves—become a nation of terrified, self-obsessed idols. It works, and it may well keep working for a long time to come. When Americans hunger for selfless love and are fed only love of self, they will remain hungry, and too often hungry people just come back for more of the same.

I don't know if Folds is critiquing for the sake of change or just observation but McKibben is hoping to somehow reclaim what it is to be Christian; I am right with him. I am just wondering how it can be done. Some days, reclaiming it seems possible and other days it does not. Today, I'm hopeful.