Make wealth history
Two things I ask of you;
do not deny them to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that I need,
or I shall be full, and deny you,
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
or I shall be poor, and steal,
and profane the name of my God.
- Proverbs 30.7-9
Poverty is no good thing. But wealth is decidedly dangerous: for one's soul and for the planet. If you are reading this, you are wealthy.Earn less. Consume less. Be less productive. Live more.
Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.
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4 comments:
Byron
Our problem is we are faced with politicians who think the solution is theft rather than generosity. Only the Spirit of Christ through the gospel can change people so they live according to these wise words.
According to some recent press articles, Copenhagen will turn out to be little more than handing cash to a den of sticky-fingered totalitarian thieves. What are your thoughts on this?
Pretty confronting post - "if you are reading this, you are wealthy". Thanks, we need to be confronted like that.
Mike, I'm planning on posting some thoughts on Copenhagen soon. Summary: while I am convinced that there is a very significant need for governments to restrain evil through the regulation of carbon-production, I am quite pessimistic about the likelihood (politically) of a robust outcome and also quite sceptical about the effectiveness (economically, socially and ecologically) of trying to reduce our impact through increasing the reach of the market into more spheres of life.
By the way, good taxation is not theft, if that is what you are referring to. It is a blessing for which I thank God.
Ouch. I resemble that.
Actually I love the title. Earlier today I was trying to recall any Evangelical social justice works that addressed power disparity. I can't think of anything. Most of it works out of notions that want to help the poor but do nothing about the power imbalance of their wealth. I'm not sure what the answer is, a move towards a shared humanity perhaps. But you have the right starting point - Lord have mercy on me too.
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