Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Well, the Bible does say "it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven", so I'm somewhat at a loss to see how any wealthy person can claim to be a Christian - they are certainly not following the tenets of Jesus' teaching, which tells them to give away all their possessions!
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The context is
extremely important on both of those.
The first is a cultural context: in the Patriarchal times, wealth was seen as evidence of God's favor on the person (think Solomon), and therefore direct evidence of that person's righteousness. From that context this is as much a comment on how righteous a person had to be to get to Heaven on their own. But of course Jesus' whole point in being here was so that folks wouldn't
have to make it on their own righteousness. There's also the factor, alluded to in an earlier post, that wealth tends to, lets call it "distract" a person from considering spiritual things. People who are "fat and happy" (metaphorically speaking) tend not to think about such things.
Jesus did tell a few people to sell/give away all their possessions, but it wasn't a general teaching. He also said that the worker is worthy of his hire.
The point there (as I understand it) is more to stop regarding the material things and wealth as "ours" and regard it more as having been placed in our keeping -- a stewardship role, which is effectively relinquishing claim over them in favor of accepting responsibility to the true owner for caring for and using those things properly. Rather a different thing altogether.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tompe
Your wish to fulfill your desire is a form of egoism. I am thinking about the philosophical discussion of altruism. Doing something because it is a responsibility might also be problematic in the same way that altruism is problematic.
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Ah I see what you're saying ... though I must admit that it sounds like one of those philosophical
finger-puzzles that can be used to largely dismiss
anything. In the circumstance I was referring to, the responsibility is a self accepted one -- not one forced from the outside, also unlike taxes -- frankly, given recent events here in the U.S., I'm beginning to wonder how many of those who
impose the taxes actually
pay those taxes themselves.
On the topic of education and affluence, I'm personally acquainted with a fair number of folks who are (certainly by general world standards) reasonably "wealthy" and quite well educated (PhD level) who embrace a Christian faith.