Money Is Good

People are always misquoting scripture that money leads to evil. No, Jesus tells us it is the love of money that gets us into trouble. There is no blessing in being poor, despite how congregations want to pay their pastors, or vows of poverty. Vows of poverty are means to help a person keep a clear view of the major work and identity. And, Jesus did not say in the Sermon on the Mount (Plane) it was blessed to be poor; no, one is blessed to be poor in spirit, because they recognize their dependency on others, especially God.

In scripture is money is viewed as good, it helps us live the abundant life Jesus promises and the lack of it is evil causes God’s people pain. Oh for awhile folk in biblical times believed that money was God’s way of rewarding good folk here on earth and poverty was God punishing bad folk (we did the same in this country when we promoted was is called the protestant ethic). But the wisdom writers in the books: Psalms, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon (?) and Job but these ideas to rout. They realized a lot of bad folk made out very well economics and a lot of really good people didn’t have squat.

Money is good. Most of the founding fathers of this country were men of wealth which allowed them the time to work on the fundamental principles to guide the country. Money allows us to care for folk and do many good works. Money allows us to do research to improve the lives of people in general. Money is a good thing.

Money becomes bad when we pursue it at the cost of all others things. Money is evil when it becomes greed and we want more than our share of God’s benefits at the expense of others. Money is bad when we use it to judge the value of human beings based upon the amount of it they have. I’m glad that more women made into the billionaire class in Forbes list but the one touted the most is the one who made her billion with vanity wear; nice enough for self esteem if yours is shallow, but hardly world shaking.

Folk have accused me as being anti-money when I rail against its misuses. But it is the misuse that angers me, money is good. I like money and what it allows me to do. I’d like more of it. But not too much because then it would be a distraction. It is a case of more is not better, it is just more.

Folk with a lot of money have a lot of responsibility. Remember Jesus’ parable about the talents where money was given in various amount to various people. The one who didn’t do anything with it was the bad guy and the moral Jesus drew was, “to whom much is given, much is required.” It also said it was harder for a rich man to go through the eye of a needle than to enter heaven. Theologians and folk who have studied the story may point out that story talks about a small entrance in Jerusalem, but the point remains, money can be a terrible distraction.

Unearned money in this country and others seems to be a special problem. We love prize TV shows and lotteries. But there are a ton of instances where this money has destroyed lives. And there are stories where it has done great good for the getters of it and what they did with it.

Our country has certainly succumbed to that distraction. The ridiculous distribution of wealth and the government that has allowed and enabled it attests to that reality. And as a rich country it has also seemed to lead us astray in our national priorities and international relationships. Look at the happiest countries in the world; they are much less materialistic and feel secure economically.

Money is good. We need a government to allow it to do the good is was given to us for. We need people to understand this and elect folk who share that value.