My first thought seeing this cover was: um, given my life, obviously not.
And then I thought about that inconvenient story regarding "the rich young man":
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'"
He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to (the) poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. (Mark 10:17-22)
Geez, and they say Catholics don't read the Bible.
Time cover story here.
--I.C.
6 the midrash:
Hello Ironic,
Great posting. Here's another aspect of this most important topic.
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...
To take this a step further, what would the Creator say about forming organizations (corporations, religions, governments, political parties, etc.) that accumulate vast wealth and resources while living people and other lifeforms suffer as the direct result? What does this say about the complete hypocrisy of all 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...
Great blogging. Really enjoyed your post about Being rich...
I would be honored if you would check out my site. I am a musician and all my music is free on my site. Anyway, just wanted to share.
-Sean
___________________________
www.SeanDietrich.com
"All my music is free."
"How about, does the Creator want some people to suffer and starve while some wallow in luxury and ignore the plight of others? "
--No. It's called preferential option for the poor. Or solidarity. Or basic human stewardship.
"What about "serving mammon" (money and materialism) instead of truth, justice, and your fellow souls?"
--Yep, pretty sure God is against that too. Check the Old Testament.
"To take this a step further, what would the Creator say about forming organizations (corporations, religions, governments, political parties, etc.) that accumulate vast wealth and resources while living people and other lifeforms suffer as the direct result?"
--Once again, God's on record as anti-injustice. The book is called Amos. There are a few other prophets that would fit the bill as well.
"What does this say about the complete hypocrisy of all religions?"
--Nothing can I can see. The teaching is in the religion (at least, it is in Christianity and Judaism). It is followed by some adherents, and not so much others. That doesn't make the *religion* hypocritical, just some of its sinful followers hypocrites.
Couldn't follow the rest of your argument, Seven star hand, but I appreciate that you want to keep religious folks honest. Go check out Catholic Social Teaching. You may like it alot!
*******************************
And thanks, Sean. Most musicians know the meaning of poor as well!
Why did I just pubyehave a feeling Joel Osteen was going to be at the center of this story?
Excuse the extra letters. That should have read, "Why did I just have a feeling Joel Osteen was going to be at the center of this story?" but my 'puter is doing strange things and won't delete either.
Pray it doesn't happen again.
IC, Seven Star Hand left an identical rant on my post about the Time article. He didn't stop long enough to notice that I was scoffing the idea of the Prosperity gospel.
Our wealth is our Faith, which is more needed in abundance these days.
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