<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sunday, October 18, 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Father Richard Rohr points to the creation of winners and losers as a sure sign that an \u201cempire consciousness\u201d is at work: <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is an overall paradigm that I\u2019ve been calling \u201cempire thinking,\u201d which is a zero-sum game. And in a zero-sum game, one can only win by causing another to lose. Unless that assumption is stated very clearly, we don\u2019t realize how often it\u2019s at work. It will not really be a game where I have a wonderful skill to share or a gift to be highlighted. I just have to defeat the other side. We could also call it the win-lose worldview. I want to say as strongly as I can that the win-lose worldview, the expectations of the zero-sum game, are absolutely dominant in the minds of most people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This game of winning and losing is a tragic way of defining reality. A zero-sum game demands losers. Surely it isn\u2019t true that the only way we can really \u201cwin\u201d in life is to make certain that others lose? It\u2019s amazing how we take some kind of happy delight in this. Just look at the enthusiasm communities have for their sports teams! We like that framing of reality. At this point in our history, we like winners and losers so much that, whereas Descartes said, \u201cI think, therefore, I am,\u201d the American mind now says, \u201cI win, therefore, I am.\u201d That is not an exaggeration. \u201cI win, therefore, I am\u201d is at work in our economics, politics, global policy, social media, religion, and even our personal relationships! We\u2019re not considering the other side of that equation: Whenever we think that way, there have to be losers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Christianity quickly adopted that interpretation of the gospel, though the four Gospels in no way validated it. After several centuries of persecution by the Roman Empire, most Christians felt quite happy, excited, and even liberated when the Roman emperor Constantine made Christianity the established religion in 313 CE. We moved from the bottom to the top, from the losers to the ultimate winners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ascending, top-down religions love a top-down, win-lose worldview. Protect the top, make sure the top is winning, and it just so happens that a lot of other people lose. Unless we\u2019re transformed by grace, we can\u2019t even recognize that we\u2019re doing it. Without grace, we really don\u2019t know how to think in terms of \u201cwin-win.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n That type of win-lose thinking is associated with a high degree of Christians today, and it\u2019s not even really our fault. No one ever taught us to think differently. Presenting heaven and hell in the first grade offers a nice, dualistic explanation to keep little children from misbehaving\u2014but does it have much to do with the teachings of Jesus? I don\u2019t think so. But when we frame reality and the whole world that way, that\u2019s the way we frame the gospel. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Insisting on Winners and Losers Sunday, October 18, 2026 Father Richard Rohr points to the creation of winners and losers as a sure sign that an \u201cempire consciousness\u201d is at work: There is an overall paradigm that I\u2019ve been calling \u201cempire thinking,\u201d which is a zero-sum game. And in a zero-sum game, one can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27758"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27761,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27758\/revisions\/27761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}