Thinking About Heaven
- Stephen Chavez
- 7 days ago
- 1 min read
An old Negro spiritual has this line: "Everybody talkin' 'bout heaven ain't goin' there." The sad reality is that while most people have idealistic conceptions of what we'll experience in the afterlife—no hunger, no violence, no disease, no poverty, no war—very few feel motivated to work for those realities in the communities where we now live.
Take, for example, the majority that currently controls the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Federal Government. While they claim the values of the Judeo-Christian ethic, they have consistently voted to take food assistance, medical care, voting rights, and immigration services from society's most vulnerable citizens. They claim to be on a crusade to root out "waste, fraud, and abuse"; but why is it primarily people of color, the working poor, and marginalized people who are most affected?
In the meantime, the gap between rich and poor grows exponentially. There are nearly 24 million millionaires in the United States (roughly equivalent to the population of Florida), 902 billionaires (a number that has doubled in the last 12 years), while 36 million people live in poverty (more than 10 percent of the U.S. population). Yet most U.S. companies and corporations receive government grants and tax breaks. Nobody suggests that they are getting too much.
When we get to heaven we won't have to worry about the wealth gap, or the discrimination and prejudice regularly visited against minority populations. Everything will be peace and light.
So why shouldn't we start now by insisting that our human institutions reflect heavenly values?
Stephen Chavez,
Director of Church Relations
