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I myself see numerous conflicts between the message of Jesus and the doctrines of free market capitalism. The accumulation of massive wealth? Greed is good? My house is a house of prayer? It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle?
How do you as a Christian reconcile your Christian beliefs with your free market capitalist beliefs?
I myself see numerous conflicts between the message of Jesus and the doctrines of free market capitalism. The accumulation of massive wealth? Greed is good? My house is a house of prayer? It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle?
How do you as a Christian reconcile your Christian beliefs with your free market capitalist beliefs?
...by learning to work my way into living as completely off the grid as humanly possible while remaining a law abiding citizen....being self-sufficient. Living off the land...having all of my NEEDS met by God, trusting totally in Him every day...without all the "stuff" ! would be quite awesome.
Communism doesn't work under human government either. There are more have-nots under communism than under capitalism.
As Christians we are not to question God as to what type of government He has placed us under. We are, as Paul wrote, to work with our hands to provide for our families. Whether it be a communist or republic is not the question.
Not sure what you mean by "free market capitalist" -- but, scripture is pretty clear that money itself is not evil, but, "the love of money is the root of all evil". The 'love of money' would seem to encompass 'greed.' In that context, anything that gets between us and God is a problem, whether money, possessions or anything else.
Some seem to suggest that simply 'having money' is inherently evil, but, in what other realm would the Spiritual Gift of 'giving' operate? There are several examples of people in scripture who were extravagantly wealthy (Solomon, David, Abraham, Nicodemus and others), yet, were considered righteous or 'men after God's heart.'
The teaching about a camel passing through 'the eye of a needle' is expanded by the fact that there actually was a 'trade-route pass' called "The eye of the needle." In order to pass through it, a merchant would have to unload his camel and walk through. The parallel is perhaps that we all stand before God 'naked' (Heb 4:12), with no merit given/taken for the earthly possessions in our care. We are, however, be accountable to God for our stewardship of those possessions.
I myself see numerous conflicts between the message of Jesus and the doctrines of free market capitalism. The accumulation of massive wealth? Greed is good? My house is a house of prayer? It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle?
How do you as a Christian reconcile your Christian beliefs with your free market capitalist beliefs?
A system of economics that minimizes government intervention and maximizes the role of the market. According to the theory of the free market, rational economic actors acting in their own self interest deal with information and price goods and services the most efficiently. Government regulations, trade barriers, and labor laws are generally thought to distort the market. Proponents of the free market argue that it provides the most opportunities for both consumers and producers by creating more jobs and allowing competition to decide what businesses are successful. Critics maintain that an unfettered free market concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, which is unsustainable in the long term. In practice, no country or jurisdiction has a completely free market. See also: Deregulation, Classical economics, Keynesian economics, Marxism, Monetarism, Chicago School, Austrian School.
However, I am not in favor of a fully-free market, I do believe in some government regulation.
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My house is a house of prayer?
What does this verse have to do with this? This simply means that churches, synagogues, and such should not also be marketplaces. I cringe when I see mega-churches that have a Starbuck's in its lobby!!
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How do you as a Christian reconcile your Christian beliefs with your free market capitalist beliefs?
Easy, Jesus doesn't say either way, He never explicitly supports any socio-economic model, as long as we help our fellow man and our hearts are in the right place.
However, I am not in favor of a fully-free market, I do believe in some government regulation.
What does this verse have to do with this? This simply means that churches, synagogues, and such should not also be marketplaces. I cringe when I see mega-churches that have a Starbuck's in its lobby!!
Easy, Jesus doesn't say either way, He never explicitly supports any socio-economic model, as long as we help our fellow man and our hearts are in the right place.
Many liberal theologians reject the idea of a theocracy, where the government bans alcohol, pornography, homosexuality, couples shaking up etc, because God supposedly condemns these. Does it not make sense then that the government is unjust and establishing a theocracy, if based on religion, they take money from people who work for it and give it to people who don't, who prefer to sit on their butts, take drugs, get drunk, and lay about all day watching TV. There is nothing in the New Testament that commands a particular type of economic system or governmental system. IE Neither democracies, republics or dictatorships are condemned. Neither capitalism, socialism or communism is condemned. It is up to individual Christians to practice their faith.
The church-folk always say that the government should not help anyone. If the church were taking care of the poor, would we have homeless people? Yet our Constitution says that one of the things government is instituted for is to provide for the "general welfare" of its citizens. By this I mean, using taxes to keep "the commons" up - to pay for fire departments, police, infrastructure and a general education so that you do not have masses of illiterate citizens. Without providing for these things, there will be no market for capitalism because the libertarian view is no better than anarchy. There is something seriously wrong with the far right. They are against sharing the wealth and prefer to enable the bankers to suck all the money out of the economy and pay fewer taxes than the middle class and poor. This is rightly called a plutocracy or fascism. A fascist nation is where the corporations are allowed to bribe those in power to pass laws that enable their theft and abuse the working people. Why the right wing middle class would be for this can only be due to gross ignorance and having been deceived. Another problem is that many/most Democrats in power are guilty of doing the same things - they are just as guilty of making our country a lawless place. In reality there is only one party. The two-party choice is mostly just pretense because in most cases, just as soon as a Democrat goes to Washington he/she is quickly sucked into the corruption where only money talks. We have lost our nation. It's only a matter of time until we are completely enslaved and abandoned by our Representatives because with only a very few exceptions they have all sold us out to the highest corporate bidder. I don't care who wins the presidency. Our current President talked a good game, but he is operating outside of the power given to an executive by ordering drone attacks on people who are on a hit list. Our police are becoming more and more militarized and I honestly believe that in a short space of time this country is going down in the flames of chaos, anarchy and civil war. We have no incentive to stop the military industrial complex or the prison industrial complex. The only thing we sell to other nations are weapons. The whole world lies in wickedness and violence and a great fiery flood is on the horizon. That's the way I see it and I believe Jesus described the very last days in that way. We are speeding towards Armageddon.
I myself see numerous conflicts between the message of Jesus and the doctrines of free market capitalism. The accumulation of massive wealth? Greed is good? My house is a house of prayer? It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle?
How do you as a Christian reconcile your Christian beliefs with your free market capitalist beliefs?
in america , being a free market capitalist seems to be a prerequisite to being a christian
The church-folk always say that the government should not help anyone. If the church were taking care of the poor, would we have homeless people? Yet our Constitution says that one of the things government is instituted for is to provide for the "general welfare" of its citizens. By this I mean, using taxes to keep "the commons" up - to pay for fire departments, police, infrastructure and a general education so that you do not have masses of illiterate citizens. Without providing for these things, there will be no market for capitalism because the libertarian view is no better than anarchy. There is something seriously wrong with the far right. They are against sharing the wealth and prefer to enable the bankers to suck all the money out of the economy and pay fewer taxes than the middle class and poor. This is rightly called a plutocracy or fascism. A fascist nation is where the corporations are allowed to bribe those in power to pass laws that enable their theft and abuse the working people. Why the right wing middle class would be for this can only be due to gross ignorance and having been deceived. Another problem is that many/most Democrats in power are guilty of doing the same things - they are just as guilty of making our country a lawless place. In reality there is only one party. The two-party choice is mostly just pretense because in most cases, just as soon as a Democrat goes to Washington he/she is quickly sucked into the corruption where only money talks. We have lost our nation. It's only a matter of time until we are completely enslaved and abandoned by our Representatives because with only a very few exceptions they have all sold us out to the highest corporate bidder. I don't care who wins the presidency. Our current President talked a good game, but he is operating outside of the power given to an executive by ordering drone attacks on people who are on a hit list. Our police are becoming more and more militarized and I honestly believe that in a short space of time this country is going down in the flames of chaos, anarchy and civil war. We have no incentive to stop the military industrial complex or the prison industrial complex. The only thing we sell to other nations are weapons. The whole world lies in wickedness and violence and a great fiery flood is on the horizon. That's the way I see it and I believe Jesus described the very last days in that way. We are speeding towards Armageddon.
The color here hurts my eyes so much!! Heartsong, the point is most Republicans, "Right-wingers," and "church-folk" do believe in helping others, we just don't like to be forced to by government. Government is too big, has become too powerful, too in control by special interests and thugs, too wasteful, corrupt and ineffecient. What government gives, it can take away. The more responsiblity and power we give it, the more centralized power becomes, the more tyrannical it becomes.
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