Corporate

This week the Supreme Court made a decision that unleashes businesses and other corporations to financially support the political process. The argument being that it violates the free speech amendment to limit any individual in their support for political candidates. A corporation has been in-corporated, or made into a body, and so the protection applies equally to businesses and human beings. The argument against such a ruling, other than decades of precedent, is that such a practice tips the playing field in favor of those corporations that can afford to financially support their candidate. I am troubled by the decision, and worried of the direction this could further take the political process. I much prefer how Obama's campaign was boosted by small gifts from a lot of people (a LOT of people). At the same time, I realize that corporations and their lobbies have a history that long precedes the decision of influencing (shaping, demanding!) political decisions. But how far reaching is this new decision?

The decision and discussion I've heard makes me think about bodies in general. What does it mean to be "made into a body"? What makes up a body? What can and can't an incorporated body do differently from a wiggly, wet human being birthed from a tired, achingly happy woman?

The church talks about the Body and the body a lot. We eat the body of Christ; we pray as one body; we welcome the baptized into the Body of Christ, the Church; we are separated into congregations, districts, synods, denominations, that come together to worship and make decisions as a body. (Am I even spelling this word correctly anymore? Can I tell you how many times I've written b-o-y-d just now? Body! Why are there not two d's?) That coming together is Christianity, not the fighting over polity, or the demanding stance of personal salvation, or the ten steps to making prayer make you rich. Christianity happens when we come together into a body to take part in Christ -- through worship, eating, and returning to wherever we are. And when we are not there, the body remembers us. We are a part of it through those who are gathered.

Then there is our own body. The one that without we could have no corporations of any kind. In the West, the body has been divided up by philosophers over so many centuries we're not sure if we should relate to our bodies or separate our less-defined souls from our bodies or are our bodies all we really are? And for women, bodies have been divided even more: how should we conceive, give birth, nurse and wean the other bodies that come from us and our union with another body? To whom do we listen and trust when we have questions about our bodies? Why do we have questions anyway -- after all, it's my body right? Shouldn't I just know? Or can I not even know who I am without the reflection of another who can help me see myself? To the last question, I hear only a resounding, yes. To the question of how a corporation has the right to free speech, I have no idea.