Christians Worshiping Greed
With all the talk about the economy, it seems time to consider one of the seven deadly sins:
Greed.
What comes to your mind when you think of greed?
Old, white men with hardened hearts counting their money while their own flesh and blood go with out food or shelter?
Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But, there is a stereotype that personafies greed as evil, soulless people, not content with anything in life and who extort money from the poor.
But, that is not greed. That’s a lie that has been told to us.
I think greed looks something like this:
Which is very surprising because it looks a lot like hypocrisy, which I imaged as this:
Any church in America will tell you that greed is a sin. Greedy people will lose their souls for attempting to gain the world. However, what do we need to know about greed that is left out of christian sermons?
For example, with little investigation, it is obvious that the most generous, most charitable and the most socially conscious people in the world are the wealthy. They are the ones with the resources necessary to help others.
Yet, in our Sunday christian sermon we hear that anyone striving to join this group of wealthy philanthropists will be damned.
“For the Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.”
But is it? Think about yourself in a time when you’ve made a decent amount of money for your lifestyle. I bet you were pretty generous, giving gifts to family members, helping out friends who aren’t well off, and you may even employ people, giving them a way to provide for their families.
So maybe greed isn’t so bad after all. I mean, even though they preach about it being a deadly sin it hasn’t kept churches from enjoying some riches:
Sophie Tucker, vaudeville actress in the early 1900’s once quipped:
“I’ve been rich, & I’ve been poor. Rich is better.”
Yes it is, Sophie. Amen to that.
So if you’re a christian who wants to be rich, who wants to have fancy cars, who wants to live like a rockstar, Do it. Do not think it will cost you your soul. It won’t. In fact, it will probably save it.
July 15 2009 10:37 pm | Uncategorized