âBeastly economics â is the name we are using to describe what John the prophet and pastor uses to describe the economics of empire in
Revelation 13.
Beastly Economics is an economic system that is rooted in the âimage of the beast,â and based on the religion of empire which John describes as being both material and spiritual in nature. For Johnâs part, the economics of empire, where a tiny few get all of the wealth and power, while the rest fight for scraps under the table, is not a spiritual sickness, as though it could be made well: it is a fundamentally different spirituality from the one rooted in the âimage of God.â
Johnâs apocalypse unmasks a pattern in human society, revealing the beastly nature of systems of economic inequality. This is not an economics that generally works well for everyone, but then some misfortunates happen and people go through a difficult time; no, beastly economics is an economics predicated on the necessity of inequality: some get all, the rest get the scraps. As we often say in the Freedom Church of the Poor:
Poverty isnât a sign of a broken economic system, it is a sign that the system is working as it intended.
Let me be clear, this isnât the latest in radical marxist thought, this is a prophetic word and spiritual insight rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition going all the way back to this imprisoned pastor writing a letter we call Revelation in the first century!
This is why it is so important to me that we understand the book of Revelation in its ancient context. Rather than thinking that John was pretending to write to his seven congregations living with the daily threat of poverty and imperial occupation, but in reality, he actually had us 21st century people in mind, we recognize that his one and only concern are the people in his congregations. Not only is it ludicrous to think the text is really about us, it conveniently undermines the real power of this text.
Following this Revelation-as-Prediction, the phrase the mark of the beast has been turned inside out and used for âparanoid fantasiesâ of Preachers and Politicians alike; all using the Mark of the Beast as a symbol for a wicked person as the anit-Christ or non-believers. As though Revelation is some gotcha text for whoever those in the church donât like next.
I literally just read a tweet from a pastor today that said:
Wake up! Do you realize that we are smack dab in the middle of the Book of Revelation? If you think youâre following Jesus, I got news for you, you are going to get caught on the wrong side!
Instead, when we read Revelation, not as a book trying to predict the end of the world, but as a pastoral and prophetic letter to poor and marginalized communities trying to resist the Roman empire, we see that this isnât some code word for staying away from bad people or getting âcaught on the wrong side,â it is a damning critique of an oppressive economic system that bears the mark of Casaer Augustusâs face on the coinage it uses to create wealth for some and debt and slavery for others.
This symbol or âmarkâ (Greek: charagma) of Caesar as the âson of godâ according to the Roman imperial myth, also refers to mark of the empire forcibly burned into the prisoners of war, slaves, and religious devotees of the religion of empire. This mark, John tells us, seeks to re-make, or âre-markâ if you will, all us from the outside in made in the âimage of the beast.â In other words, an economics that deforms and degrades the body and the soul, slandering the good creation of God, creating a scarcity rooted in the exploitation of the human and more-than-human world.
Perhaps Revelation is about us if you happen to look around at the poverty in America and around the world and you want to talk about âbeastly economicsâ and empire being on the wrong side of God. Those pre-existing patterns that continue to oppress and form us have a long history in human society.
âWe must not consider it unpatriotic to raise basic questions about our national characterâŚFor the evils of racism, poverty and militarism to die, a new set of values must be born. Our economy must become more person-centered than property-centered and profit-centered. Our nation must depend more on its moral power than on its military power.â (p. xiii)
Recently, I came up against something similar during an interview about this chapter on Beastly Economics from our book
We Cry Justice. After sharing similar thoughts the interviewer said, wasnât I worried that I was being too harsh on capitalism. He pointed out that some people might be offended by what we are saying throughout
We Cry Justice? Like King noted, some might think weâre being unpatriotic by questioning
the evils of racism, poverty, militarism, climate devaation, and religious extremism.
What do you think? Are we being to harsh on capitalism? Are we being too hard on exploitative economic systems that create and maintain poverty?
No, I do think weâre being too hard on capitalism. Capitalism is being to hard on us. I have no sympathy for a system that some humans created and use to their own benefit at the expense of peopleâs lives.
I do not think we are being to hard on what Revelation sees as a âsystem of death.â
I donât think weâre being too hard when we call the system of beastly economics to account for its sins.
When we ask why should Jeff Bezos be able to fly to the moon whenever he wants, when the people who work for him canât even go pee when they want. When they canât have a union if they want. When they have to work to the point that their their physical and mental well-being suffers.
Are we being too hard on a system that allows for a beach home, and a mountain home, and an RV, an a boat, and a beautifully renovated weekly home, while neighbors sleep on benches when theyâre not chased off by Police? Under bridges and in cars until society can find ways to take even that away.
Here in Greensboro there is the
Hiatt Trailer Park that houses mostly poor immigrant families. Many of these families have been living there for 20 years and the trailer park has been there for 50 years. Now the owner has passed away and the granddaughter, Lynn Anderson, who owns a real estate company inherited that land too. Seeing an opportunity for another sale, she sold the land to a developer who has set the date of eviction for all the residents so it can begin building new properties. When asked by the residents if she would sell the land to them, Anderson has repeatedly refused to consider it.
âThese people have protested on our land,â Anderson said. âWhy should I work with them? You donât treat people like that and expect to work togetherâŚ. They have moved on from me helping them, so no. At this point I have done everything that I can possibly do to help these people and theyâre not interested in my help.â -Lynn Anderson
I guess these people who have very little, who are about to lose their homes after more than 20 years, are just being too harsh. Who knew capitalism was so fragile?
Beastly economics then names not just an unjust, oppressive economic system, but a distorted theology and spirituality that refuses to see that of God in all people. This is why beastly economics will leave its mark on:
Rev. 13:16 ââŚit causes **all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave,** to be marked on the right hand or the foreheadâŚâ
As Freedom Church, we must refuse to allow ourselves and others to be made in the image of the beast, continue to lift up the dignity and leadership of the poor, and relentlessly name beastly economics wherever we see it. We do this through these meetings, through teaching, preaching, writing, mobilizing, singing, and through the arts. Thatâs why Iâm so excited to hear more about the We Cry Justice Art project and what Ebony Watkins has done here.
