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GOD vs. Greed
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Third, let's look at the role of the Church : Just how 60% of the world's wealth got to be concentrated in the hands of 6% of the world's population is a long a complicated story, some of which we will explore below. One of the most startling things you discover when you take a closer look at the tremendous imbalance in the world between the very few rich nations and the many poor nations is that the few extremely rich nations are the Christian nations of North America and Europe. Now, what has been the role of Christianity in all of this? Why have a handful of Christian nations become so rich and powerful and the rest so poor and weak? Maybe the world has come to this because - despite all our church-going, all our prayers, all our baptisms, all our altar calls, and all our professions of faith - we show by our actions and our inactions that we don't really believe what the Bible and especially the Gospels teach, best summarized in the words of Luke 3:11 : "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise". This catastrophe is occurring day after day while millions of middle-class and wealthy people in countries like America enjoy thousands of times more wealth than the poor. Are these people being told that the price which Jesus set for the salvation of those with means is helping those who are without means (the homeless, the jobless, the uninsured, the hungry, the unjustly imprisoned, the sick, the addicted, the oppressed, the outcast, and those not fortunate enough to have been born in the more prosperous parts of the world)? Or do they believe instead what the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, taught ? In a famous speech in 1630, John Winthrop proclaimed :"By divine Providence, some ( like middle to upper class Americans ) must be rich, some poor; some high and eminent in power and dignity, some mean and in subjection." Even Americans who may not identify with these sentiments on the individual level tend to embrace them on the national level, imagining that God has blessed and will continue indefinitely to bless America with fantastic wealth, and that he has apparently ignored, if not cursed, vast portions of people in other parts of the world.
 "Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." The "Golden Rule" is not unique to Christianity. Judaism teaches, "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man." { Hillel, Shabbath 31a.}Islam teaches, "No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself." { Hidith } Even Buddhists, some whom deny the existence of any God, teach, "Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful." { Udana-Varga } Can the Gospel's teaching be limited to coats and clothes? I don't see how. And if it extends to other things, is it limited to things? I don't see how. It seems to me that what is true of things is true of other benefits that we enjoy in abundance where others are deprived of those benefits. So if we have more or better health, insurance, employment, talents, opportunities, advantages of culture, environment, or whatever, we who believe in this central teaching of the Gospels should be willing to share those benefits with those deprived of them. This web site is not striving to promote any church, denomination or person, but only Christ, and what he himself identified as the heart of his teaching, i.e. that we must strive to love God above all, that we strive to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves, and that we particularly try to love and rescue those of our neighbors who are most in need of help and love. |
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The CHURCH & African Americans: The matter of the teaching of the church regarding slavery over the centuries is so important that I devote a separate page to that topic. Please view that page at church&slavery.html;. .
"This little museum (now) is of great importance in the history of slavery because over a period of two centuries, through its doors, millions of slaves entered it to be baptized before being sent off on their arduous journey to the colonies in the Americas. The bulk of the slaves exported to the new world departed the shores of Luanda (in Angola). . .
The vast majority of Americans love Norman Rockwell's paintings and profess to fervently believe in the Bible's Golden Rule. Yet, a century and a half ago, some 550,000 young Americans perished pointlessly in a war between brothers, just because people in our nation's "Bible belt" gave lip service to the Scriptures and to its golden rule, but proved by their words and deeds how little impact those Scriptures' teaching actually had on their lives and on their political decisions. Far from persuading their congregants to "go and do like the good Samaritan", so-called Christian preachers actually gave their blessing to those who brutalized their dark skinned neighbors, instead of loving them. The Alabama Conference of the Methodist Church, for example, proclaimed in January, 1861: "African slavery is a wise, humane and righteous institution approved by God. " *2 "The Roman Catholic Church had taken no position
on slavery either before or during the war.
'By their silence,' one Catholic writer explained ' our prelates
(i.e. hierarchy) divorced this burning political question
from church affairs.' " "During the colonial time, the Roman Catholic Church was the state religion in French possessions. All other churches were suppressed. The [enslaved people] were compelled to be baptized. Since the Africans cherished their custom and ways of life, this led to conflict and rebellions. . . the economy of Orleans Territory [which became the state of Louisiana] was based on the cruel system of chattel slavery. Africans and Native Americans were considered property. At the top of society were a few rich [enslaving] owners and at the bottom were masses of [enslaved people]. Individual families and joint corporations owned [enslaved persons]. . . But one of the biggest [enslaving] owners was the Roman Catholic Church. The Jesuits, Capuchins and Ursulines had plantations run by [enslaved] labor and all three engaged in the [enslavement] trade." Following the Civil War, the Vatican was asked for an authoritative statement on slavery, in reaction to the passing of the 13th amendment to the U. S. Constitution (which banned slavery in this country). In 1866 the highest authority in the Catholic Church, short of the Pope, i.e. the "Holy Office" (of the Inquisition), which rules on matters of orthodox faith and teaching, declared :
"Slavery, considered as such in its essential nature, is not at all contrary to the natural and divine law. There can be several just titles of slavery and these are referred to by approved theologians and commentators of the sacred canons (of the Catholic Church). It is not contrary to the natural and divine law for a slave to be sold, bought, exchanged or given. Frederick Douglass was an extraordinary man, who not only managed to throw off the shackles of slavery but went far beyond the conventional wisdom of his enslavers. In his autobiography, he contrasted the Christianity that characterised America's Southern "Bible Belt", and the Christianity of Christ : " I find, since reading over the foregoing Narrative that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. 
What I have said respecting and
against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the
slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible
reference to Christianity proper; for, between the
Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I
recognize the widest, possible difference-so wide, that
to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity
to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the
friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the
other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity
of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding,
women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical
Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but
the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land
Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers,
the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. |
