catapult magazine

You have no idea how much your approval means to me. You really have no idea.

“Where your treasures are, there so will be your heart.” Is the accumulation of wealth wrong? How could we say that our hearts long and groan for the kingdom of God if we continue to surround ourselves with more and more?
Christ showed over and over again how wealth was directly related to one’s salvation: the rich young ruler (he didn’t say, believe), the parable of Lazerus and the rich man (here the rich man is a Jew, thus was promised his salvation as a birth right, yet he was sent to hell. Why, not because of wealth, but because he removed himself from the pain of the man he passed). And the old testament ties wealth continuously with the down fall of Israel.
Maybe this question is a hard one to answer because we live in America. What I mean by this is that we have no clue what poverty is, places where we would not dream to fly over. A poverty that is unimaginable to us.
The idea of wealth and oppression has come up, and there are ties. But here in America we are so far removed from those ties that we don’t even know they exist.

I find this a fascinating conversation. I would agree with others that the accumulation of wealth isn’t wrong in and of itself, but that how you use that wealth, and your attitude toward it is paramount. For instance, right now I am teaching at a very elite school in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Our students and their families hold a very high percentage of all the wealth in the country. While this in itself seems somewhat unjust, what is even more disturbing to me is their attitudes. They don’t even know they live in a poor country. They honestly have NO idea that their country is crowded, poor, or hungry. That, I think, is atrocious. While this is extreme, I think the same situation translates itself into most American contexts as well. I personally believe that if you are aware of your wealth and the disparity between yourself and others, as a Christian you will want to analyze the situation and try to seek justice within it. The problem, as I see it, is often recognizing one’s own wealth, and then being creative and obedient in serving the poor with it.

hi. i’m going to sort of play the devil’s advocate (hypothetically) here.

i think it should be obvious that the way we make our money should be in line with the commands of scripture (eg. in ways that don’t exploit the poor, or steal from others, or abuse God’s creation, etc). whether we in our society tend to make our money that way or not is a whole other conversation.

in regard to the question of whether a person in this day and age can be a christian and be rich simultaneously, i’m hesitant to offer the pat and automatic response that having money is not the sin, but loving it and hoarding it is the sin. (bear in mind i’m not pretending i’m not implicated in this next part) but hypothetically let’s say a rich man has a lot of money, and he doesn’t love it, and he doesn’t hoard it, then why doesn’t he give it to somebody who needs it instead of putting it in the bank or trying to invest it and make more of it? how can you see your brother in need and not help him? or: sell everything and give to the poor. but in our money-loving society we’re trying to find ways not to take these statements at face value, to say we don’t love money while having a little love affair in our hearts.

here’s a thought provoking passage from james 5, which i’ve never heard a real good sermon on, and is incidentally quite an accurate description of north american society, if you consider our lifestyle on the backs of the third world countries.

“now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. your gold and silver are corroded. their corosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. you have hoarded wealth in the last days. look! the wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. you have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. you have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. you have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.” (NIV)

lb.

Maybe part of what Grant was originally asking is this: recognizing that money itself is not evil, but also recognizing that injustice is wrong, can we, in good conscience, live a life full of material posessions at a time where so many people in the world go hungry, unclothed, and unhoused?

This simpliest way that this can be stated:
“Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. …
But woe to us who are rich, for we are receiving our comfort in full. Woe to us who are well-fed now, for we shall mourn and weep.” some guy.
Luke 6:20-25

Excellent verses to bring up about this point. Though I don’t want to make the Luke 6:20-25 section completely irrelevant to what we’re talking about, I do think it’s not just referring to material wealth.

The meaning of “wealth” is part of my question, though. Wealth is not bad itself; we define it wrongly, though, when we think we’re rich by having lots of money while the woman who gives only two mites is woefully poor and wretched (this seems to be the message of ‘blessed are the poor, woe to the rich’; it turns our values upside down as to who is the greatest). The Bible seems to redefine what we think about being rich by putting it in the context of The Kingdom where God values things differently than we do.

I think we run the risk of pitying the poor as if they are beneath us rich Americans when we carry guilt for our wealth. Rather, we should recognize our own poverty in our riches and then not have any desire to hold onto it. If we desire the wealth of the Kingdom, we will give to the poor. Our desire is still for riches, but not for the riches of the kingdom of the earth.

But, then, I would question what we would mean by giving our money away. The Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas has a small section in one of his essays that talks about the pleasure we give ourselves in giving a beggar several dollars out of our pockets on the street as if we’ve helped the poor, when really all we did was alleviate our conscience. It’s almost a paying for their silence so that we don’t have to do the actual really hard work of establishing and maintaining an ecclesiastical/governmental/communal system in which these people can be truly helped.

Jesus told the rich young ruler to give away all he had and follow Him. Nobody really does that though, do they?

i’m seriously thinking about it. i’m absolutely sick of stuff and debt. i find it crippling and there seems to be very little i can do about it.

I understand where you are coming from. Often times in life we take serious looks at ourselves and say, “Am I truly living it or am I deceiving myself?” The great thing about the rich young man was that he at least was willing to ask, “Am I doing it?” I think that one of the struggles when that question is asked is that humans are quick to try and react to it. I think that if you are serious about wanting to take action against your materialistic wealth that the most important thing to do is to remember not to act out of emotion, but to think it through. I have tried to sell everything that I own several times, and I have ended up buying everything back. So again, if you are serious about it, I think the best steps to make are slow ones. Try looking through your closet and anything that you have not worn or used in the past year (remembering seasonal differences) give away. I got rid of over half of my clothes that way. We must remember that just doing without is not the answer to our problems, but not having the desire is the answer, and acting on that is will give you peace. If the rich young man had been willing to go home and sell everything that he had, there would have been at least two thing that would have been needed. The first is time. It take a lot of time to begin to learn what you need and what is comfort and to seperate yourself from them. And the second is accountability. If we are not being held accountable we will make foolish decisions much more often by reacting not acting. There is a great book called, “Rich Christians in an age of Hunger,” by Sider, Ronald J. It gives many practical ways that you can learn to live modestly. Good luck.

Wise words. Thanks.

Are you still trying?