First things first, Mr. President

Last night, President Obama gave a speech in front of Congress outlining his main goal for America: jobs. For over a week, the media had been drumming up the speech as essential to his presidency, pivotal, and defining. Now, I must admit, I didn't watch the full speech. I watched the first ten minutes online, read several reactions to it, but I didn't watch the full speech. So, I have no right to comment on the specific proposals he seems to have vaguely laid out. Rather than challenging the specific proposals, I would like to challenge the whole basis of the speech: namely, the notion that "jobs" should be the primary focus of our government.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying jobs aren't important. They are. For centuries the Catholic Church has emphasized the fact that work is an essential part of the human experience. Even the Carthusians, the most contemplative of all orders, still make time for work. The Church teaches that work has been ordained by God as yet another means of coming into contact with Him. Through our own work, we can take part in the work of the Creator. Even in menial jobs we can experience an "ordering" of creation that brings us closer to God.

The true tragedy of the current rash of unemployment is not the fact that so many Americans cannot afford much beyond the necessities of life. The true tragedy is that without work, man becomes stagnant and does not have the opportunity to take part in the creative work of God. He loses the fulfillment that work brings with it.

The true solution to unemployment, though, is not in new tax cuts/ spending. No, the true solution to lack of work is a reordering of the priorities of society."Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." Mt. 6: 33. A society must be ordered to God first, and then things such as food, clothing, and leisure will follow. Jesus' words in this passage have a two fold meaning. First, He is referring to a miraculous means of providing for the necessities of life. As Christians, we cannot discount the fact that if we trust in God, He will provide for us in unseen and sometimes miraculous ways. Many of us have experienced this - unforeseen generosity of strangers, checks arriving without notice beforehand, etc.

However, of more interest in our discussion about jobs and government is a second meaning to the phrase, "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you." What Jesus is also saying in this passage is that when you order things first towards God, the order of all other things follows suit. So, if we put God first as a nation, then we will understand what the best solutions to unemployment are. For instance, if intimate union with God is the end of our society, then we will also structure our economics in such a way that it will be ordered to intimate union with God. So, rather than creating business for the sole end of profit for the owners, we will create business where the profit is ordered to bringing others into union with God. If work is an essential part of having a relationship with God, then part of the profit of these businesses will go once again into creating work for people.

If we're going to solve the jobs crisis, then the very first thing we have to do is solve the spiritual crisis of the country. Thus, we cannot make room for things in our society like sexualization of art (in music, picture, and video), unlimited desire for money, homosexuality, abortion, and violence. Instead, we have to be first seeking "the kingdom of God, and his justice." This is the reason I ultimately did not listen to President Obama's speech, since I know that THIS solution is nowhere to be found in modern day politics. Even amongst Republican, the emphasis is always on the material economy and not the spiritual economy. If we want to see a turnaround in the material economy, we have to turn around the spiritual one first. Then, "all these things shall be added unto you."