Class Envy?

In a recent post David Sessions of Patrol magazine made the observation of a subtle shift in phraseology in the ongoing debate between the social justice crowd and those that feel it's nothing but class warfare. Read It Here He pointed out that conservative Christians have begun calling it "Class Envy", changing it ever so subtly from a clash of economic arguments to an accusation of the sin of envy.

So just for yucks I looked up the definition of envy and here's what I found. Envy is "a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another's advantages, success, possessions, etc." Is that what the four million people who sank into poverty last year are feeling? Or the 14 million unemployed? Do the homeless, the hungry, the young people burdened with unpayable student loans because there were no jobs when they graduated, or the middle aged who can't get medical insurance because of pre-existing conditions, are they simply covetous?

Because if that's true that makes the problems real easy to deal with, we simply tell the poor, the unemployed and uninsured, the young people that feel the American Dream that was there for their parents is no longer attainable, the elderly who often have to choose between eating and refilling their prescriptions, we tell them to shut their lousy, whiny mouths, quit sinning, and get a job. Problem solved, we don't have to take action, and we come away with a clean conscience, brilliant!!

But what if we said "This must not stand!"? What if we got up out of our pews and stood with the 99%, the Occupy Everything folks, maybe started an Occupy Jesus movement and took our faith back from corporate christianity and became relevant to the troubles around us instead of spending precious time and treasure lobbying against gay marriage? Would that stem the tide of young people leaving the church because we're not relevant? 

Is there anybody left in America who doesn't know where we stand on evolution or school prayer? Is it too much to ask the folks attending the Values Voters Summit to give it a rest and work on poverty? I wonder how many new believers we'd get by showing them we care that their children eat before bed versus urging them to support the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell?