When did greed become a good thing to Christians?

[greatauntoftriplets]

I ask this on a personal level, having witnessed an outpouring of greed as we chose possessions from the home of my late mother, and which is being sold. Another poster here at DU experienced the same thing over the weekend at his grandparents' house, and called the process "looting". It was a damn good call.

Apparently, my good Catholic sits-in-the-front-pew-every-Sunday Communion minister sister is so hot to get her hands on the good pieces, as well as her share of the money from the house sale, that she has turned into an extremely unpleasant person. 95 per cent of it directed at me, the one who lived with and took care of our mother.

Isn't one supposed to use the teachings of Christ in terms of how you treat people?

:rant:

[snacker]

1. My father always said:

"Beware of the people who sit in the front pew at church!"

[B3Nut]

I often had to sit in a frontish pew or seat

since I was and still am a worship musician, but that was to make it easy to jump back up and man the bass or Hammond. I definitely agree with the sentiment otherwise, having seen far too much of that crap. Usually the bigger the show they make, the more fake they are. Makes me sick.

Todd in Beerbratistan

[Sammy Pepys]

2. Yeah, but....

...it's pretty mucha given that being Christlike takes a lot of work, and not everyone succeeds at it.

[LiberalVoice]

3. Reilgion breeds hypocrisy. nt

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Dont you know that money is how god rewards the pious?

[unblock]

5. at least since calvin, i think

and many other religions have similarly insisted that god rewards his favorites with riches in this life.

[glitch]

6. Crusades? nt

[supernova]

7. People get wierd

about the breaking up of a household of a family member. I can't figure it out, but the "Mine!" "Mine!" "Mine!" impulse is very strong. Something about wanting to hold on to that person through their possessions I think. Then, with time, you realize it isn't only impossible, but also a stumbling block to healing.

Why is your minister in on this with you? Did your mom leave a bequest to the church?

[greatauntoftriplets]

16. Good catch...I had left out one word.

My sister is a Communion minister at her parish church.

[dogday]

8. If you love your money, you cannot love your God nt

If you put your faith into money, then you are denying God.... It's pretty simple really....

[coalition_unwilling]

11. All private property is theft . . . It's really simple, really

The afore-mentioned comes from a 19th-century French anarchist Proudhon.

[IsItJustMe]

9. I have been hearing tele-evangelicals for years now tell you to send them

money and a prayer on paper and they will pray over it for your prosperity. It's a business. Preaching is business believe or not. Preachers make pretty damn good money. They usually go with the church that pays the best.

[truebrit71]

10. Because the whole "camel through the eye of a needle"...

..is just metaphorical when you actually might get your hands on some cash....

[sendero]

12. You're just now noticing this?

It's been that way since the 80s at least, perhaps before.

Here is how it works. Enterprising person discovers there's a lot of $$$$ in "god". He dons the cloth and starts asking for $$$. Now, here's where it gets tricky. Even though Jesus preached a life of helping the poor and the bible condemns greed probably more than any other sin, some really bright men of the cloth siezed on some biblical text. "And you will recieve abundant life".

No doubt these words are in the bible, almost any idea you might wish to promote can probably be found (out of context) somewhere therein. But these folks interpret "abundant life" to mean "money", which it almost certainly didn't mean.

Now add to that a large population who use the church as basically a business networking system, who are just itching to hear a theological endorsement of their greed, well, it's a match made in heaven, or hell depending on how you see it.

I'm not a Christian myself, but if the Christian god ever actually strikes America, it won't be about the homos (who are barely mentioned in the bible) or abortion (also not partiularly of interest to Jesus), it will be for all the fake Christians who cannot hide what is in their heart from god.

[Swamp Rat]

13. From the very beginning.

[Cary]

14. Objectivism

:puke: :puke:

Third rate ideology enthusiastically incorporated into 4th rate minds.

[newportdadde]

15. Same thing happend to my parents.

My mother took care of her mother-in-law on a daily basis. Now she didn't require constant care but we checked in each day, worked with her pills, took her to the doctor because she couldn't drive. The day she died, that night, my father and I went over to the family farm to check cows who were close to calving and all of the lights in the house were one, my aunt was over there at midnight ransacking the house.

Long story short I got to watch as two aunts(both multimillionares) fought my father and another brother and sister over 30k bucks.

The one thing that gives me comfort personally was that as she was dying with her real daughtes there she asked for my mother and wanted nothing to do with them. Thats how I know in my heart my mother did the right thing taking care of her all those years while the rest abandoned her.

There are a lot of hypocritcal Christians out there, my aunt is one of the biggest.

[harpo]

its all about the "mega churches"..that's when they started "mega greed"

[AndyA]

17. Greed is not a good thing to Christians. It's one of the

SEVEN DEADLY SINS.

No matter how much money you have, you cannot buy your way into Heaven.

[TlalocW]

18. A lot of "christians"

Take great comfort in the part of the Bible (and I may be off here) where Jesus gave an equal amount of money to two slaves. One used the money wisely and earned more while one buried it to protect it. That's where they get the idea that God will reward you with business success when it was really a broader lesson of using your resources wisely.

TlalocW

[demosincebirth]

19. We all forget about the Beatitudes. Thats what Christianity is about.

[Selatius]

20. Read Acts in the Bible. Tell that to your folks.

Maybe they will run into this little piece:

The community of believers were of one heart and one mind. None of them ever claimed anything as his own; rather, everything was held in common. With power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great respect was paid to them all; nor was there anyone needy among them, for all who owned property or houses sold them and lay them at the feet of the apostles to be distributed to everyone according to his need.

Acts 4:32-35

It sounds startlingly close to this modern day statement: From each according to ability, to each according to need.

Of course, if they bought Hell's version of the Bible, it wouldn't be in there, but I give the benefit of the doubt to people you know. :sarcasm:

[northzax]

21. oh, since roughly Easter Monday, CE 33

I'd say.

[catmandu57]

22. Yep, forever

but to be fair it's not only those who profess to be christians, it's just that those professing to be followers of christ aren't supposed to be that way.
Human nature being what it is, will overpower any religious belief.

[cantstandbush]

23. It always has been. This nation was founded on both greed and they

like to say as a Christian nation. It's capitalism and Christianity.