Reading notes

Bill Moyer interviews Joseph C. Hough, former dean of the Vanderbilt Divinity School and currently President of the Faculty and William E. Dodge Professor of Social Ethics at the Union Theological Seminary:

HOUGH: There is a definite intentional move on the part of political leadership in this country. In the direction that I think is not at all compatible with the prophetic tradition in Islam, Christianity, or Judaism. And that is the obligation on the part of people who believe in God to care for the least and the poorest. That central teaching, that sacred code, I think, is very well summed up in Proverbs [14:31] where the writer of Proverbs says, “Those who oppress the needy insult their maker.” …

If Tom Delay is acting out of his Born Again Christian convictions in pushing legislation that disadvantages the poor every time he opens his mouth, I’m not saying he’s not a Born Again Christian, but as a the Lord’s humble fruit inspector, it sure looks suspicious to me. And anybody who claims in the name of God they’re gonna run over people of other nations, and just willy-nilly, by your own free will, reshape the world in your own image, and claim that you’re acting on behalf of God, that sounds a lot like Caesar to me. …

I’m getting tired of people claiming they’re carrying the banner of my religious tradition when they’re doing everything possible to undercut it. …

Hough’s term “the Lord’s humble fruit inspector” has really stuck with me. I don’t think Jesus would have given us the measure “by their fruit you shall know them” if he didn’t intend us to use it in our assessment of where and who we are — and whom we’re among. Its usefulness seems to lie in its moderation, a path between the one extreme of being judgmental, and the other of being gullible.