GOD vs. Greed
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Third, let's look at the role of the Church : Just how 60% of the world's wealth got to be concentrated in the hands of 6% of the world's population is a long a complicated story, some of which we will explore below.� One of the most startling things you discover when you take a closer look at the tremendous imbalance in the world between the very few rich nations and the many poor nations is that the few extremely rich nations are the Christian nations of North America and Europe.� Now, what has been the role of Christianity in all of this?� Why have a handful of Christian nations become so rich and powerful and the rest so poor and weak?� Maybe the world has come to this because - despite all our church-going, all our prayers, all our baptisms, all our altar calls, and all our professions of faith - we show by our actions and our inactions that we don't really believe what the Bible and especially the Gospels teach, best summarized in the words of Luke 3:11�:� "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise". This catastrophe is occurring day after day while millions of middle-class and wealthy people in countries like America enjoy thousands of times more wealth than the poor.� Are these people being told that the price which Jesus set for the salvation of those with means is helping those who are without means (the homeless, the jobless, the uninsured, the hungry, the unjustly imprisoned, the sick, the addicted, the oppressed, the outcast, and those not fortunate enough to have been born in the more prosperous parts of the world)?� Or do they believe instead what the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, taught�?� In a famous speech in 1630, John Winthrop proclaimed :"By divine Providence, some (�like middle to upper class Americans�) must be rich, some poor; some high and eminent in power and dignity, some mean and in subjection."� Even Americans who may not identify with these sentiments on the individual level tend to embrace them on the national level, imagining that God has blessed and will continue indefinitely to bless America with fantastic wealth, and that he has apparently ignored, if not cursed, vast portions of people in other parts of the world.
![]() "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." The "Golden Rule" is not unique to Christianity. � � Judaism teaches,� "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man." � {�Hillel, Shabbath�31a.}� � Islam teaches, � "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." {�Hidith�} � � Even Buddhists, some whom deny the existence of any God, teach, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful."� {�Udana-Varga�} Can the Gospel's teaching be limited to coats and clothes? I don't see how. And if it extends to other things, is it limited to things? I don't see how. It seems to me that what is true of things is true of other benefits that we enjoy in abundance where others are deprived of those benefits. So if we have more or better health, insurance, employment, talents, opportunities, advantages of culture, environment, or whatever, we who believe in this central teaching of the Gospels should be willing to share those benefits with those deprived of them. This web site is not striving to promote any church, denomination or person,� but only Christ, and what he himself identified as the heart of his teaching, � i.e. that we must strive to love God above all, that we strive to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves,� and that we particularly try to love and rescue those of our neighbors who are most in need of help and love. | |||||||||||
The CHURCH & African Americans: � � � � The matter of the teaching of the church regarding slavery over the centuries is so important that I devote a separate page to that topic. Please view that page at church&slavery.html;. .
"This little museum (now) is of great importance in the history of slavery because over a period of two centuries, through its doors, millions of slaves entered it to be baptized before being sent off on their arduous journey to the colonies in the Americas. The bulk of the slaves exported to the new world departed the shores of Luanda (in Angola). . .
The vast majority of Americans love Norman Rockwell's paintings and profess to fervently believe in the Bible's Golden Rule.� Yet, a century and a half ago, some 550,000 young Americans perished pointlessly in a war between brothers, just because people in our nation's "Bible belt" gave lip service to the Scriptures and to its golden rule, but proved by their words and deeds how little impact those Scriptures' teaching actually had on their lives and on their political decisions.� Far from persuading their congregants to "go and do like the good Samaritan", so-called Christian preachers actually gave their blessing to those who brutalized their dark skinned neighbors, instead of loving them.� The Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church, for example, proclaimed in January, 1861: "African slavery is a wise, humane and righteous institution approved by God. "�*2 � "The Roman Catholic Church had taken no position
on slavery either before or during the war. �
'By their silence,' one Catholic writer explained ' our prelates
(i.e. hierarchy) divorced this burning political question
from church affairs.'�" "During the colonial time, the Roman Catholic Church was the state religion in French possessions.� All other churches were suppressed.� The [enslaved people] were compelled to be baptized.� Since the Africans cherished their custom and ways of life, this led to conflict and rebellions. . .� the economy of Orleans Territory [which became the state of Louisiana] was based on the cruel system of chattel slavery.� Africans and Native Americans were considered property.� At the top of society were a few rich [enslaving] owners and at the bottom were masses of [enslaved people].� Individual families and joint corporations owned [enslaved persons]. . .� But one of the biggest [enslaving] owners was the Roman Catholic Church.� The Jesuits, Capuchins and Ursulines had plantations run by [enslaved] labor and all three engaged in the [enslavement] trade." Following the Civil War, the Vatican was asked for an authoritative statement on slavery, in reaction to the passing of the 13th amendment to the U. S. Constitution (which banned slavery in this country).� In 1866 the highest authority in the Catholic Church, short of the Pope, i.e. the "Holy Office" (of the Inquisition), which rules on matters of orthodox faith and teaching, declared�:
"Slavery, considered as such in its essential nature, is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law.� There can be several just titles of slavery and these are referred to by approved theologians and commentators of the sacred canons (of the Catholic Church).� It is not contrary to the natural and divine law for a slave to be sold, bought, exchanged or given. Frederick Douglass was an extraordinary man, who not only managed to throw off the shackles of slavery but went far beyond the conventional wisdom of his enslavers.� In his autobiography, he contrasted the Christianity that characterised America's Southern "Bible Belt", and the Christianity of Christ : " I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion.� To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. ![]() What I have said respecting and
against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the
slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible
reference to Christianity proper; for, between the
Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I
recognize the widest, possible difference-so wide, that
to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity
to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked.� To be the
friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the
other.� I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity
of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding,
women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical
Christianity of this land.� Indeed, I can see no reason, but
the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land
Christianity.� I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers,
the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. " I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the South is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes-a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds, and a dark shelter under which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slave holders find the strongest protection. Where I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me... I... hate the corrupt, slave holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land." Are America's Churches more faithful today than they were in Germany a generation ago, or in America's deep south a century ago?� We would hope so.� Many of today's Germans appear to be ashamed of that part of their "heritage". � And yet, a great many southern white Americans who consider themselves "Christians" still wish the Civil War had been won by those who wanted to keep their black brothers and sisters in bondage.� And, along with many of their northern brethren, they still resent being forced by federal laws to do out of fear what they are not yet prepared to do for their black brothers and sisters out of love or fairness.� In fact, some of those whose predecessors clashed with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at every turn, are now trying to dismantle the hard won affirmative action program and they have the gall to use this visionary prophet's own words against African Americans struggling to make up for centuries of unspeakable oppression!� If you haven't read that preacher's visionary "I Have a Dream" sermon lately, we invite you to be inspired by it right now by clicking on the link to your left.
Despite a Civil War and a great deal of effort on the part of many "Liberals like Jesus"
since then, there continues to be a tremendous amount of
antipathy in today's southern white Christian establishment
to efforts to deal with the long term effects of centuries of
slavery, i. e. affirmative action, and reparations, decent housing and neighborhood schools, justice for black farmers, justice for black prison inmates and for blacks falsely accused of crimes, voting rights for black "felons", among others.
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� � � � See http://www.catholicism.org/catholicism-south.html *4 The Narrative of his life (until he escaped from slavery) by Frederick Douglass *5
� � � � (many of the quotes above, as well as the earlier ones
about the way religious bodies dealt with the
issue of slavery in America, all come from the
chapter "Religion on the American Frontier"
in the book entitled Centuries of Christianity
published by Harcourt, Brace and company of New York, in 1959.)
� � � � Here is an additional link to a very interesting lecture by Dr. Terry Matthews on � Slavery & Religion in the South � � � � Since these lectures date from 1995, we can't guarantee that the links on that site still work. | |||||||||||
The CHURCH & Native Americans : As a schoolchild, were you taught to revere Christopher Columbus as the heroic discoverer of America?� Have you grown at all in your knowledge of the true history of the founding of "America"?� America was discovered by Native Americans thousands of years before Christopher Columbus stumbled onto the "West Indies" on his way to the "East Indies".� What would Europeans of the sixteenth century have said, had Native Americans landed in England, France, Italy, Portugal or Spain and proclaimed to have "discovered" Europe, and proceeded to invade it?
Just imagine white people overhearing Africans, Asians, or Hispanics talking that way about displacing America's white population!� Many of us feel threatened when all immigrants are doing is taking menial jobs that most of us wouldn't ever want to take ourselves!�) � � � � A wise Native American asks : "Do you call yourselves Christians?� Does then the religion of Him whom you call your Savior inspire your spirit, and guide your practices?� Surely not.� It is recorded of him that a bruised reed he never broke.� Cease, then, to call yourselves Christians, lest you declare to the world your hypocrisy.� Cease, too, to call other nations savage, when you are tenfold more the children of cruelty than they." Recommended reading : Sex, Race and Holy War excerpted from the book American Holocaust by David Stannard Genocide of the American Indian Peoples
I must confess that I have not read the book Mein Kampf, myself.� But in it "Adolf Hitler gave the genocide of the Native Americans as the concept that gave him the idea he had for Eastern Europe, ridding them of undesirables to make room for the master race.� Hitler's mistake was that he believed that American would be on his side, since he was only doing what we had already done. . ."
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The CHURCH & Europe's Jews : I have studied the controvesial issue of the church's role in the Jewish holocaust for many years and have written exensively on this matter. The following paragraphs are but a tiny excerpt from my http://JesusWouldBeFurious.Org/RCscandal.html web site, where - among other things - I answer the excuses Catholic apologists regularly use to defend their church's indefensible behavior.
� � � � Looking back on this period, the Roman Catholic historian, Gordon Zahn, came to the sad conclusion, "The German Catholic who looked to his religious superiors for spiritual guidance and direction regarding service in Hitler's wars received virtually the same answers he would have received from the Nazi ruler himself." �( from German Catholics and Hitler's Wars Zahn, Gordon c. 1962, Sheed & Ward L.O.C. 62-9102) �
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What have we learned ? The Reverend Sydney Smith, (1771 -1845) offered this insight about his experience of what is now known as "India" : � � � � We asked at the outset :"If our God is so wise, then how could he let this world get so messed up�?" or "If our God is so good, then how can he let so many suffer so much ? "
� � � � God help Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and the long line of other fundamentalist charlatans, when they have to answer to God for all of the innocent people whom these deceitful salesmen have led astray�! � � � � In 2003, a formerly very Conservative Republican congressman who had become governor of the state of Alabama was inspired to promote tax increases on the wealthy interests of his state in order to promote the common good of the needier citizens of his state, on the grounds that this is the way he read the Bible.� His efforts failed, thanks in part to the opposition of the local leadership of the Christian Coalition.� Much of his inspiration was derived from the work of a local Christian scholar, Dr. Susan Pace Hamill. � An Argument for Tax Reform, Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics, published in the Fall, 2002, Alabama Law Review.� � � � � While running for president in 2007, the former governor of Arkansas, Republican Mike Huckabee did something very unusual for a Republican politician. He "criticized executive pay, sympathized with labor unions, denounced �plutocracy,� and mocked the antitax group the Club for Growth as �the Club for Greed�. " [ http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/30/weekinreview/30kirkpatrick.html?pagewanted=print ] |
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