The New Gilded Age

This past week I spent time in what is one of the poorest places on earth - a Palestinian refugee camp - and in one of the wealthiest places on earth - the newly rebuilt downtown Beirut with its stellar skyscrapers.
       I also read an article in The New York Times about a new "gilded age" in the world, where a tiny portion of people hold the vast majority of the world's wealth. Estimates say that  the divide between the richest 1% of the world and the 20% of the poorest is growing faster today than ever in history.
       So when Barack Obama spoke in his State of the Union address this week about "class warfare" and proposed that people earning more than $1 million pay 30% income tax I reckoned it would strike a chord (for good or bad) with many people. And it has.
       And so we have the phenomena of both The Tea Party in the U.S. (fiercely capitalist, no new taxes, let the poor fend for themselves) and the Occupy Wall Street people (curb capitalism, raise taxes on the wealthy, get rid of corruption on Wall Street). The divide is reflected in a U.S. Congress which is paralyzed by this new Gilded Age (of which congressmen are among the richest 1%!); it is reflected in religious institutions which align themselves on one side or the other; and it is seen in local governments which have needed to adjustment to new economic realities (e.g. a growing lower class needing social services).
       I am not a proponent of a new Gilded Age, with its robber barons and extremely wealthy industrialists as was the case in the 19th century. What is needed is for people of faith (most especially followers of Jesus) to LEAD BY EXAMPLE, to voluntarily redistribute our wealth to those less fortunate. I am not advocating for a welfare state run by the government; I am strongly pleading with the Church to more and more be the "safety net" for those who are less able to care for themselves.