MARC BATKO'S SITE
I am a free lance translator of liberation theology. In 1993, Westminster Press published a collection of essays by Dorothee Soelle that I translated from German as "On Earth as in Heaven". With this web page, I hope to make available a number of translations focused on changing consciousness toward global international perspectives and dethroning the false gods - the market, self-righteousness and vulgar materialism. Connections will be shown to groups, movements and other websites.
Link to my translations:
Ernesto Cardenal's "The Revolution Today and Tomorrow."
Rufus Ulrich Keller's
"Deadly Progress and the Shadows"
Dorothee Soelle and Luise Schottroff's "A New Heaven and a New Earth"
Jurgen Klute's "There is No Apolitical Church!"
Friedrich Schorlemmer's "Conversion and Social Renewal"
Jurgen Klute's "Celebrating a Feast to Yahweh in the Wilderness (Exod 5,1-6,1)"
Friedrich Schorlemmer's "Thy Kingdom Come"
Friedlich Schorlemmer's "Life Is Not In Vain"
Edward Schillebeeckx's "All Humanity is the Elect People of God"
Jurgen Moltmann's "The New Creation of All Things"
Hans Kessler's "Dams Against the Flood of Information and Goods"
Gustavo Gutierrez's "Without Poverty, There Is No Liberation Theology"
Franz Hinkelammert's "Neoliberalism"
Wolfgang Sachs' "Ecology, Justice and the End of Development"
In his poem "The Egg", Gunter Grass declared that we are born in an egg and our whole life project is to break the shell. When the market is accepted as total and/or absolute, our lives become corrupted and a monoculture gains acceptance. Under the aegis of practical necessities or practical constraints, efficiency supplants human rights, short-term interests prevail over long-term perspectives, the corporation living above the law is stylized as the only creator of jobs and development. Without humility and a sense of our interdependence, learning from other cultures is precluded or trivialized, ethics becomes a luxury and quantitative criterion dominate qualitative criterion. Democracy, community and diversity are goals that call for our engagement and passion. The micro-economy seizes the university.
Jesus taught that there is nothing that goes into us that defiles us, only what comes out of us: wars and threats of wars. For example, the car is not evil but if the whole culture worships the car and football and politicians become instruments for car sales, our culture is distorted. We must claim life from its expropriators! The horse must be put before the cart! The part must not be confused with the whole! Means must not be confused with ends!
Instead of breaking the shell, we are tempted to confuse democracy with manufactured consent, celebrity culture for authentic culture and appearance with reality. As in Plato's allegory of the cave, we mistake the screen with reality and denounce those who criticize our adulation. As Dostoevsky warned, we are tempted to surrender our freedom to the Grand Inquisitor for his promise of happiness.
Antibodies are part of our bodies; criticism is part of pluralist life. The last will be first, the ignored will be respected. As slavery and exploitation of women were overcome through changing consciousness, we can overcome the false rule of corporations and short-term profiteering!
I welcome your comments. E-mail me at:
mbatko@mailcity.com
Other interesting websites are:
Adbusters, for cultural criticism
A page describing corporate raider Charles Hurwitz
Food First, with a link to National Commission for Democracy in Mexico
Jewish-Christian dialogue
Friends of the Earth