We have heard a great deal about efficiency lately.
The current administration has made “efficiency” a buzzword that raises lots of concerns by the way it is being applied. It has led to the gross dismissal of thousands of civil servants who seem to have been only guilty of finding the eye of Sauron upon them as Elon deemed them a nuisance or interference to his personal ambitions.
David Weatherspoon
Let me use a theological lens to discuss why this effort to emphasize efficiency by Elon Musk and Donald Trump is such a problem. Walter Brueggemann, one of the great theologians and biblical scholars of our time, has taught for years that when you read the Bible you are looking at a text that is set in the context of a predatory economy where those in power are trying to extract wealth from vulnerable people, and those in power are engaged in unfair practices of accumulation at the expense of the vulnerable.
Pharaoh in the Old Testament and Rome in the New both reduced people to whether they efficiently produced and consumed in ways that kept them indebted to those in power while padding the coffers. Censuses were created so the empire could efficiently note those it wished to tax and enlist.
Brueggemann goes on to say resistance to the acquisitiveness of the empire can be seen in a neighborly economy that finds value in all and shares resources among the people and does not unfairly tax the vulnerable to the benefit of the wealthy and powerful. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Sabbath was the direct practice of resistance of saying no to the Pharaoh, “You cannot make us work and strip earnings from us.” It was inefficient to the desires of the Pharaoh. In sabbath, people claimed their worth and dignity and set themselves apart from the accumulation-efficient practices of Pharaoh. In this neighborly alternative, the worth and value of people are not found in what they produce and consume. People have worth and value because they are.
“When we allow mythologies like the ones Musk and Trump are fabricating to take hold, people are reduced to producers and consumers.”
Many of the programs the Trump administration has cut provided aid around the globe and assisted with life-giving essential needs, including food assistance, HIV/AIDS programs, clean water and so forth. One Associated Press story details 20 such programs.
The point is these programs were practicing a neighborly economy. They were programs that employed people and resources to care for the needs of our own nation and the needs of the global community. Perhaps not all were deemed efficient by the powers that be, but they were neighborly and necessary.
When we allow mythologies like the ones Musk and Trump are fabricating to take hold, people are reduced to producers and consumers. They scream, “Make more bricks!” In that ethos, we once again become a predatory economy whose only function is to extract wealth from vulnerable populations and transfer it into the greedy and bloated pockets of the billionaires and their personal edifices.
Musk has dared even say the problem with our nation is too much empathy. He’s said we need to “defund the poor” and called them parasites. That is predation at its most disgusting of levels.
May we resist their extraction methods and embrace a neighborly economy that shares wealth among all.
David Weatherspoon serves as a pediatric chaplain at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital where he has ministered since January 2023. He previously served seven years as a pediatric chaplain at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital. Prior to moving to Memphis, he served 10 years as college chaplain at Franklin College in Franklin, Indiana. David and Diana Hadley are co-authors of the book, The Peace Class: A Study of Effective Cheek-turning, Neighbor-loving and Sword-to-Plowshare Conversion. David and his family are members of First Baptist Memphis.
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