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.