Per David Buehler, who got it from Krista Tippett, comes this:
[Speaking to a BBC program,] Rowan Williams said a return to the medieval tradition when monarchs ritually washed the feet of the poor would serve to remind politicians and bankers what should be the purpose of their wealth and power. ...
''What about having a new law that made all Cabinet members and leaders of political parties, editors of national papers and the hundred most successful financiers in the UK spend a couple of hours every year serving dinners in a primary school on a council estate, or cleaning bathrooms in a residential home?'' he suggested.
An idea for next year.
3 comments:
Why not have the clergy do this, too? Instead of the usual FUndiegelicals with Cadillacs or Volvo voter pastors or Champagne socialists you'd have people who practiced what they want the rest of us to do.
ANd get rid of the tax breaks.
In churches that practice foot-washing, of course, the clergy do wash a lot of feet. Depending on the ritual, sometimes quite a lot. Often very poor, very old, very beaten-up-by-life feet. I've washed many myself.
And what tax breaks do you mean? People talk about it all the time, but the only thing I'm aware of is that our housing allowances gets treated like military housing, for the same reason -- that we have little or no choice in where we live.
But the military do something useful and put their lives on the line to do it.
Clergy...not so much.
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