"Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.
Did not God choose those who are poor in the world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom
that he promised to those who love him?"
And compare to a recent headline in Time Magazine:
Does God want you to be rich?
..For several decades, a philosophy has been percolating in the 10 million-strong Pentecostal wing of Christianity that seems to turn the Gospels' passage on its head. Certainly, it allows, Christians should keep one eye on heaven. But the new good news is that God doesn't want us to wait.
Known (or vilified) under a variety of names -- Word of Faith, Health and Wealth, Name It and Claim It, Prosperity Theology -- its emphasis is on God's promised generosity in this life. In a nutshell, it suggests that a God who loves you does not want you to be broke.
Its signature verse could be John 10:10: "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." In a Time poll, 17 percent of Christians surveyed said they considered themselves part of such a movement, while a full 61 percent believed that God wants people to be prosperous.
I have heard more than one person express the desire that God burden them with fantastic wealth, but I prefer the cross already laid out for me.
3 comments:
Hello JimBob and all,
RE: "Does God want you to be rich?"
How about, does the Creator want some people to suffer and starve while some wallow in luxury and ignore the plight of others? What about "serving mammon" (money and materialism) instead of truth, justice, and your fellow souls? How about the rich man and the eye of a needle? Talking about the blind leading the blind...
Also, what does this say about religious organizations that hoard great wealth and keep ancient secrets from those they expect to believe their leaders are infallible. What would the Creator say about creating organizations that accumulate resources so that living people (and other lifeforms) go without. Wouldn't harlotry be a good symbol for rich and powerful religions?
Here's some pivotal knowledge (wisdom) so people can stop focusing on symptoms and obfuscatory details and home in like a laser on the root causes of and solutions to humanity's seemingly never-ending struggles.
Money is the lifeblood of the powerful and the chains and key to human enslavement
There is a radical and highly effective solution to all of our economic problems that will dramatically simplify, streamline, and revitalize human civilization. It will eliminate all poverty, debt, and the vast majority of crime, material inequality, deception, and injustice. It will also eliminate the underlying causes of most conflicts, while preventing evil scoundrels and their cabals from deceiving, deluding, and bedeviling humanity, ever again. It will likewise eliminate the primary barriers to solving global warming, pollution, and the many evils that result from corporate greed and their control of natural and societal resources. That solution is to simply eliminate money from the human equation, thereby replacing the current system of greed, exploitation, and institutionalized coercion with freewill cooperation, just laws based on verifiable wisdom , and societal goals targeted at benefiting all, not just a self-chosen and abominably greedy few.
We can now thank millennia of political, monetary, and religious leaders for proving, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that top-down, hierarchical governance is absolute folly and foolishness. Even representative democracy, that great promise of the past, was easily and readily subverted to enslave us all, thanks to money and those that secretly control and deceptively manipulate all currencies and economies. Is there any doubt anymore that entrusting politics and money to solve humanity's problems is delusion of the highest order? Is there any doubt that permitting political and corporate leaders to control the lives of billions has resulted in great evil?
Here's a real hot potato! Eat it up, digest it, and then feed it's bones to the hungry...
Most people have no idea that the common-denominator math of all the world's currencies forms an endless loop that generates debt faster than we can ever generate the value to pay for it. This obscured and purposeful math-logic trap at the center of all banking, currencies, and economies is the root cause of poverty. Those who rule this world through fear and deception strive constantly to hide this fact, while pretending to seek solutions to poverty and human struggle. Any who would scoff at this analysis have simply failed to do the math, even though it is based on a simple common-denominator ratio.
Here is Wisdom
Doctrine of Two Spirits...
Peace...
Seven, I don't mind folks posting, as long as they actually adress the substance of the original post. While your long-winded screed is related, you fail to notice that I am also skeptical of the Prosperity Gospel, countering it with a bit of Scripture from this Sunday's readings at Mass.
If the Church were complicit, as you fantasize, I imagine that the canonical Gospels would look different, validating the conspiracy you claim. Instead, the Church is filled with hypocrites, trying, and frequently failing, to uphold the teachings of Jesus and the wisdom revealed to the Apostles by the Holy Spirit. There is no grand conspiracy, only weakness and lack of courage to live our professed Faith.
St. Francis of Assisi and Blessed Teresa of Kolcatta exemplify the Church's extension of Christ's teachings. If only every christian were so bold and selfless, one may opine, but only do so at a mirror, so you can examine yourself with such ruthless standards.
Jimbob,
"I prefer the cross laid out for me"
Perfect!
Hmmm. I wonder how our friend 7 star got ahold of both of us for his identical ruminations?
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