Pinky and the Brain: How Does My Faith Call Me to Respond?

"Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?"
"The same thing we do every night, Pinky—try to take over the world!"


Hi, my name is Traci, and I'm a pal of Lauren's.  We tend to ponder over topics similar to those documented already, so I think that's why she added me as an author to this blog.

Anywho, so typically the story of the boy (or girl) throwing starfish into the ocean tends to give me the warm and fuzzies inside.  However, I've recently been feeling quite hopeless and overwhelmed by sins of injustice in our society, and I now have a jaded sense of regard for this otherwise optimistic, albeit somewhat trite, vignette.

A few days ago, my politically-and-current-event savvy significant other shared with me that he had read an article claiming that the recent wars against various countries in the Middle East have not been waged out of fear of nuclear weapons nor out of a self-appointed sense of duty to save countries from evil dictators, but instead to concentrate the power of wealth into the hands of a very, very few.  Supposedly, prior to 2000, only seven countries without a Rothschild family-controlled central bank were Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, Libya, Cuba, and Iran.  After 9/11, of course, Iraq and Afghanistan were slashed from that list, and now in 2011, only three remain: Iran, Cuba, and North Korea.  Or so the story goes.  Also, supposedly, the net worth of the Rothschild family is in the $200+ trillion range -- so talk about the 1%, or, er, uh, 0.0000000000001%

Now, I say the supposedly's with great emphasis, because I'm not sure how credible these sources that make these claims are.  After trying to peruse the interwebs to validate this information, I found that it was more often than not regurgitated onto somewhat dodgy, conspiracy theorist-laden depositories, likely in order to satiate the appetites of such audiences.  Often the author is not cited, and if he or she is, the same story has been plastered over and over again on different domains.  But, of course, that's what you would expect if the mainstream media outlets are ultimately controlled by these Illuminati-like ruling elite.

So lately I think my subconscious has been performing little thought experiments -- to the point that I had gone on central bank and Rothschild rants after having a little too much to drink, I might add.  What if this really is true?  What if there really is a small group of people attempting to take over the world... and are succeeding?  How do I respond as someone who believes in and wants to follow a Jesus who would have spoken out against this?  (And by "this", I mean the concentration of power to the few, not literally a super-secret family controlling the world's central banking systems -- I mean, even conspiracy theories notwithstanding, we still have governments and corporations wielding too much control over our lives right now, making too much money doing so, and hurting too many people doing so).

Although I might be able to help people I encounter in my life in small ways, the bigger, systemic injustices are still not going to be addressed.  Is there even any meaning to it all?  Even if I can ameliorate someone's pain and suffering for the remainder of their entire lifetime (not just a moment or a few moments), I'm at the point where I just want to throw my hands up and exclaim in a melodramatic exasperation, "What does it even matter?!"

Through the lens of this Lenten season, I recognize that my sentiments of helplessness merely highlight my weakness and the truly lack of control I have over anything in this world.  And, I suppose, what likely will be the case is that I am ultimately only going to be comforted through faith that the goodness of an omniscient and benevolent God will eventually overcome whatever sin and madness pervade our society today.  But I so want to see the Kingdom here on Earth, and I want to do something instead of just "have faith" and pray.  My pride unfortunately equates my desire to do something to my actual capacity to do something with measurable consequence in my own lifetime.

So that's pretty much my rant/reflection/whatever you want to call it.  If you sometimes feel this way, too, raise your hand.  According to C.S. Lewis (thanks, Lauren!), that might make us friends. =)