Missouri's General Assembly is preparing to pass the deceptively titled Right to Work and Paycheck Protection bills. These bills are an attack on workers and an offense to the God of justice.
As a Christian, I believe that Jesus is the full and perfect revelation of God, who is love. And Jesus teaches me by example that love is willing and actively working for the good of all people. In the gospels, for instance, when Jesus sees a multitude of hungry people, he has compassion on them and feeds them abundantly with bread and fish.
Daily, inspired by Jesus and empowered by his Spirit, I strive to show compassion toward those in need and to advocate for justice for those who are exploited and oppressed. God is the God of justice, who is working through others for a just world. The Hebrew prophet Isaiah exhorts: "Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause." And Jeremiah says, "Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed."
And so my faith in Jesus Christ, who embodies the God of justice, demands that I speak out against the deceptive and destructive Right to Work bills in the assembly. This legislation is not what it purports to be. According to independent research, if these bills were to become law they would be ruinous to workers. The facts are that RTW states, including Oklahoma, do not attract new business. Nor do they spur economic activity or expand employment. Moreover, workers in these states make much less money than workers in pro-worker states.
The real aim of anti-worker legislation here and elsewhere is to reduce wages (except for occupants of corporate offices and board rooms), eliminate health insurance and other benefits and remove regulations that ensure worker safety — all for the purpose of generating maximum profits and compensation and benefits for the owners and investors in anti-worker enterprises.
Like all human beings, Missouri workers are made in the image of God. They are not production costs to be reduced or expenses to be eliminated. And workers should be treated justly and with respect. They should not be stripped of their God-given rights and dignity, emptied of all productive capacity, impoverished and then discarded like useless machinery.
RTW legislation is right for the billionaire Koch brothers and their American Legislative Exchange Council, which drafted it and directed our Assembly members to secure its passage into law. But it is wrong for the working people of Missouri and wrong in the eyes of the God of justice.
Members of the Missouri General Assembly, hear the word God speaks through his prophet Amos: "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream." And obey. Do right, not wrong.
The Rev. Kenneth L. Chumbley is an Episcopal priest in Springfield.
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