IN MAMMON WE TRUST
By Al Staggs
From the book In Mammon We Trust
Most of the god-talk only serves as a mask
since it is money that drives every one of us.
The dollar is always the bottom line
and it is the tally sheet of who we are
as individuals and as a society.
The dollar is the great motivator,
the Great Spirit that causes us
to rise early and go to bed late,
thinking about our bank balances
and our debts, or what we’ll have
when we retire from our current labors
to support ourselves and our families.
If God were a part of our nation’s economic plan,
there would be no poverty,
millions of children would not go hungry,
everyone would have access to health care.
The real crisis in our Dollar Theology
is that most of us don’t even care
about the fact that a tiny faction
in our democracy has rigged capitalism
into a distorted socialism for the rich.
So let’s eradicate the lie
that is inscribed on our coinage
and put instead the inscription,
In Mammon We Trust.
Let us be honest in our evil
and truthful about the actual god
of this richest of earthly empires.
