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One of the reasons why Christianity is such a world wide religion embraced by so many is
because it teaches that God loves us and created us to have free will upon earth.
It also teaches that our works do not give us grace. Our simple love and acceptance of God
and our obedience to God is what gives us eternity in heaven. In other words, Christianity
warns us that the pursuit of money and earthly pleasures does not please God. God, we
are taught is love. God is forgiveness, God is merciful and we are to "Turn the other cheek"
because we must allow God to seek revenge against our enemy.
Jesus, God's human form we are taught was born to set a teaching example. I am not saying
by this thread that Christianity is true, or right or anything. I am just trying to explain a western
thought concept of religious philosophy that many of the world's poor believe in.
I think the OP confuses poverty with living an unjust life. Most of the greatest gospel singers
are black. Black slaves fell in love with Christianity when they were enslaved and powerless.
The most hilarious thing now is the alt right GOP embraces Evangelical Christians because they
are the largest voting bloc. This has led to a new recent phenomenon of mega churches that
preach a type of so called fundamentalist philosophy that God provides the just and good a
financially secure life of wealth. In the past, pastors of most churches led very humble lives
where they depended on charity of their congregations to pay their bills.
Black Americans are as active churchgoers as American Catholics and American Evangelicals.
American Mormons and many other churches such as Methodist have embraced and sponsored
foreigners for immigration. Most of the immigrants were sponsored in the poorest of nations.
This is because traditional western philosophy religion teaches that "We are our brother's keeper".
In other words, that wealth is meant to be shared with charity in order to please God. I just
have to laugh at the new "I'm rich and you can be too if you are a good Christian" mantra of
today.
Some of the most loving and serious church bedrock attendees/members are people who dedicate
their lives to prison ministry. They volunteer to go inside the worst prisons, to minister and teach
those serving life sentences or found guilty of the worst sort of crimes. They feel commanded to
do so because their religious views tell them that God created them as he created those who made
the poor awful choices in life to be sentenced to prison. They believe God wants to save the souls
of the most lost and condemned in society. They believe that God's mercy extends to the least of
our society, that mercy upon their souls is what God commands. They do not do so with the belief
that God will reward them with eternal life for being brave enough to minister to convicts.
They believe that the path to heaven and eternal life is a difficult one to take. They, like the Buddhist
monks who teach Karma and Karmic law, believe that suffering can only be lifted by helping the poor.
The philosophies and religion are much different, but the similarities are to reject the delights of the
world as they are fleeting and fake.
Minority neighborhoods are as rich in families as they are often entrenched in poverty. The cultures
of poor minorities outside of church is often one of trust. They often have extended generations
living under one roof. Grandparents who can babysit. Wives who save their money along with other
wives. The wives may get together once a month to pool their savings to give to one of the wives
who in turn gives it to her husband to start a business. They do this because they cannot get a loan
at the bank. Many young black Americans who work will often be sharing their paycheck with a
parent or grandparent. Many elderly black Americans are financially supported by their younger
relatives. This does not make for wealth accumulation, but they do attend church regularly and
their small churches are the same sort of congregations that made up white American evangelical
churches all thru the 20th century.
For profit prison system is the largest entity responsible for mass jailing of black and minority men.
Before the for profit prison system was introduced, our jail populations were considerably lower.
Most people over the age of 45 -50 living in the United States realize that it is really super easy to
get arrested nowadays. Before 1990, a previous convict who was released from prison determined
to not reoffend could often find a job paying enough to keep some sort of roof over their head.
Ronald Reagan, when he was in charge of California and then president, made a huge sweeping
change for the worse for our poorest and most disadvantaged. Nixon was the catalyst, he lit the
fuse and Reagan made the rich become ultra rich because he removed the safety net that the poor
depended on. Homelessness was not out of control back then like it is now. The chronically
infirmed were housed and fed via institutions and safe houses that were paid for with taxes.
The poorest Americans were historically able to find some sort of institutional housing in the past.
Before the New Deal was introduced, people who could no longer work depended upon family to
feed and keep them as there was no social security. During the Vietnam war era, it was the poorest
of the poor mainly who were drafted and sent. Most people at the time could afford some sort of
college education. If you were college educated and drafted, you probably went to Vietnam as an
officer. I realize I am all over the place with this post, but poverty in America is nothing new. The
gap is all that has widened, between the very rich and the very poor. And the numbers.
I dont disagree with a lot of what you are saying but, I guess have you read Girard? Christianity turned the scapegoat mechanism upside down, its a compelling narrative the victim POV, we are memetic creatures it goes to our evolutionary biology, is almost like the Bible was social media before social media, in terms of your brain stem.
I dont disagree with a lot of what you are saying but, I guess have you read Girard? Christianity turned the scapegoat mechanism upside down, its a compelling narrative the victim POV, we are memetic creatures it goes to our evolutionary biology, is almost like the Bible was social media before social media, in terms of your brain stem.
I have not read Girard, I have no idea who that is.
I used Christianity as an example because I know from past posts on this board from the OP
is an immigrant, from Asia if I am not mistaken. I had a long term relationship with an Asian
immigrant who I met in college when he first arrived in the U.S. He asks many of the same
sort of questions that the OP does about poverty, minority arrests and high single parent
issues that we have in the U.S. He was not raised Christian, or really anything else and
during our discussions I slowly realized the specific philosophies of Christianity are not
commonly held in Asian countries.
So I was trying to explain a complicated U.S. history as best I could from my perspective.
Last edited by Tylerrose; 03-05-2021 at 07:42 PM..
If you make 10 orphans compete a hot meal, you could brush off the 9 who go hungry with "If that guy could make it, why can't you?" - but that doesn't change the fact no matter what, only 1 of them would eat that day.
I’m pretty sure those 10 orphans would be happy to be born in America, and have tons of opportunity to eat, considering we’re the fattest country on plenty earth.
The most obese demographics in America are also the poorest.
Also, you do know America has the highest percentage of immigrants and blacks of any developed country right? This includes Canada, Australia, Germany, UK, etc. America has been the world’s charity since its inception.
Problem is the system is built to keep many people down. It’s like a pyramid. Yeah anyone can go up, but the further up you go the less space there is.
Except there is no such thing as 10 orphans competing for a hot meal.
The wealth is not a pie. Wealth is created and anybody can create wealth for others.
Yep, the number of rocket engineering positions is unlimited. Someone also has to sweep the streets, and if I'm not mistaken, you have quite literally argued that starvation wages for that piece of work is just fine with you.
Problem is the system is built to keep many people down. It’s like a pyramid. Yeah anyone can go up, but the further up you go the less space there is.
American wealth is not a pie. Jeff Bezos isn’t robbing you of getting an educating and learning a marketable skill.
American wealth is not a pie. Jeff Bezos isn’t robbing you of getting an educating and learning a marketable skill.
So you think everybody can have the equivalent of CEO position at GM? Cause thats the silly argument you are making. That everybody can be 'Indian Chief'.... cause there is no limit for anybody if they only work hard enough. I say Beautiful Sunshine!
Good paying blue collar jobs (not high skill technician jobs that require lot education) have disappeared over past few decades. Most people are stuck with low paying service jobs and lucky if they can get one with 40hr plus benefits that pays the skyrocketing rents of 2021.
Oh and if you think education is the answer, I know few people that can tell you how they were forced to train their replacements from India that would work cheaper and are at the mercy of their work visa. Another big lie that education guarantees you anything. Its only worth something if there if you are only game in town. If there are educated people that work cheaper, tough luck Charlie.
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