Christianity is Incompatible with Capitalism

Well, someone could wonder how is it possible that Christians and Jews could have different scriptural bases for the management of interests on loan ...

Actually, as you say, it's about interpretation within a wide grey area.

Something is clear: the Old Testament prohibits to ask interests on loan conceded to poor persons.

Leviticus 25

From this passage we can infer that:

1. to ask interests on loans was a common practice and it wasn't prohibited by the scriptures
2. this was prohibited with reference to poor persons in conditions of necessity

The second point is absolutely tremendous as for interpretation:

since it requires to know why a person has become poor ... because of misfortune ... or because of wrong behaviors?

If a person loses all his money spending it with prostitutes and then, once he has become poor, asks a loan to a Christian ... is that person in the category of the genuine poor persons so that I have not ask for interests ... or since he deserves his condition, he is not "poor", but in a certain sense even "evil", so that I can ask for interests?

Substantially, in Christian banking and financing system, since it's not that easy to judge the causes of the condition of poverty, to ask moderate interests on a loan is considered always licit.

 

I don't think you gave an accurate description of capitalism. Capitalism doesn't actually require the accumulation of wealth, the most integral part to capitalism is freedom. Christianity gets along just fine with freedom.

 

To me, Christianity and capitalism are compatible.

However, I say this involves TRUE Christianity as embodied in the actions of this woman:








http://www.occupydemocrats.com/texa...homeless-its-my-religious-freedom-to-do-so-2/



Texas Woman to Police: Stop Fining Me For Feeding the Homeless, It’s My ‘Religious Freedom’ To Do So!



Joan Cheever, a Good Samaritan, author, lawyer, and chef, has turned the tables and has found an inspiring use for the Texas ‘religious freedom’ law- to defend her efforts to help others. She has made it her mission to give out meals to the homeless, operating a food truck, the Chow Train, in the city of San Antonio, where she serves three-course meals to the needy every Tuesday and lunches on Sunday. When disaster strikes, be it hurricane or tornado, and towns are devastated in the wake of nature’s wrath, she travels around the country to wherever she is needed most and cooks delicious food for those of us could really use a pick-me up.

So it was a very unpleasant surprise for Ms. Cheever to be slapped with a $2000 fine, ostensibly for operating a food truck without a permit, by the San Antonio police. It’s very questionable that the authorities are taking issue with the truck all of a sudden, as she began her mission ten years and hadn’t had any problems before. In response, she’s contesting that the police are violating her religious freedom, defending herself with the same laws that were used to discriminate against LGBT Americans in Indiana, Arkansas, and yes, Texas. The police were not amused: “Ma’am, if you want to pray, go to church” but Ms. Cheever countered that “This is how I pray, when I cook this food and deliver it to the people who are less fortunate.”

Ms. Cheever is holding a vigil in Maverick Park this weekend to protest and raise awareness about the incident, which appears to be part of a growing crackdown by the city of San Antonio on homelessness; but rather than taking any efforts to truly improve the lives of those who have slipped through society’s cracks, the city is trying to drive them away. It’s essentially a crime to be homeless in San Antonio, which has created a bizarre back-and forth battle between the Municipal Court and the SAPD, where the police hand out tickets to the homeless and the courts throw them right out- 8,600 citations over a two month period last year. Benches mysteriously vanish. It doesn’t appear to be enough though, as the police are now targeting charity organizations for encouraging the homeless. A similar operation, Calvary Chapel, was recently kicked out of Travis Park until a councilman intervened.

All of this, unfortunately, seems to be part of growing trend around the country. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, the number of cities criminalizing homelessness, usually through laws banning begging and sleeping in public, is rising rapidly while the crisis of homelessness is being shoved under the rug rather than helping the most vulnerable Americans. 12.8% of the nation’s low income housing has been lost since 2001, putting any kind of stepping stone for social mobility even further away from America’s homeless. 1 in 45 American children are homeless- 1.6 million kids. Their lives are hard enough; they don’t deserve to be harassed for sleeping outside or trying to get some food.

On the other hand, the Utah Housing and Community Development, in a study whose results have been echoed by the more compassionate states in our union, found that after adding up the cost of jailings and ER visits, it’s actually just cheaper to give the homeless an apartment. The homeless crisis isn’t difficult to solve- we just have to put our hearts and, yes, a little bit of our funds, in the right place. Ms. Cheever is a shining example of the goodness that people have in their hearts, and it’s very comforting to see the religious freedom laws being used to help others instead of discriminate against them. We applaud Ms. Cheever’s noble mission and urge the City of San Antonio to dismiss this petty citation.

 

Good post.

 

No, they are not incompatible. First off capitalism doesn't "want anything". Capitalism is not a moral system which says what you should and shouldn't do. Christianity is such a system though. Capitalism is a way of organising an economy. They can easily co-exist since capitalism does not urge you to do anything, it just a system in which you can make choices. So go make your christian choices inside the capitalist system. There we go, problem solved.

 

Dead wrong of course you can't do good in this world without money. And monasticism is one of the lesser heresies we are required to be in the world but not of it. The problem isn't money but your approach to it. Abraham was the Bill Gates of his day. Ananias and Safira weren't killed because they had money but because they lied about it thereby showing that the money meant more to them than God. The rich young ruller wasn't a greed head, his issue was that he'd feared losing the prestige, and good will the money brought him.

 

The problem with the Christian religion is that it’s too much talk and too little action. It makes me wonder who are the true Christians? There are many that profess fervent religious beliefs, but few that practice them. How many have lived in imitation of the life of Christ? How many have followed his example? - Father Damien, Mother Teresa perhaps? There are many pretenders, but only a few saints to be found among all the pious frauds. The characteristic trait of Christ is selflessness, the rarest of all virtues. A true Christian does not proselytize, but performs good works; and does so anonymously, without fanfare or expectation of reward. I doubt that you find such persons in church counting their blessings, much less in Congress counting their campaign contributions. Indeed, one should be suspicious of those holier-than-thou.

The writer George Bernard Shaw was once asked what he thought of Christianity. He paused to consider for a moment, and then, with a sly smile, answered: “I don't know; it might work if anyone ever tried it.”

 

The problem with most of the Critics od Christianity is they have no idea what's involved and in there mind a good Christian is one that will let them walk blindfolded off a cliff without even bothering to warn them of the proximity of danger.

 

Jesus Christ was the very first socialist hippie, yet his teachings have been distorted enought to bend over capitalism necessities. So that's why christianism happens to be also the religion of many capitalists ( such irony! ). People really are the same after all.

 

It's a question without an answer. You see neither Christianity or Capitalism are exact things set in stone. Each changes with the ebbs and flows of human activities and ideas. Because of this everyone has a slightly different idea of what each is, thus there is no standard by which their compatibility or not can be easily determined.

 

Well of course the money meant more to them than your imaginary friend. duh!

 

Did 'em a lot of good didn't it. They were dead very shortly there after. Not bad for someone you claim doesn't exist.

 

Imaginary friends can do a lot of things, can't they? After all they are imaginary. I've been asking your god to come and do me some harm. Scared bastard hasn't shown up yet.

 

Yes, it is the Capitalism versus the Socialism of Religion argument. Socialism requires social morals for free while capitalism indulges capital morals for a price.

 

Sorry God doesn't operate in ways and times of your choosing nor should he, after all he is God not your genie in a bottle dispensing wealth or ill will at your whim.

 

From posts like this it's clear that most people in this thread, and by extrapolation, most people in the developed "capitalist" world don't have a working definition of capitalism.

It's all about the time value of money, and the idea that private capital investment is the primary driver in the economy. In other words, the snowballing of personal capital; the more money you have, the more money you earn from that money.

The natural and inevitable conclusion to this, which has borne out in every truly capitalist country is a widening wealth gap.

The very idea of a wealth gap doesn't sit well with Christian doctrine for obvious reasons. And the fact that this wealth gap is not achieved through hard work toiling the soil, but rather sitting back and collecting returns on investments, rent basically, further disqualifies capitalism as a Christian friendly economic system.


Socialism is probably the closest thing we have to a Christian friendly economic system. The spirit of socialism being the equitable distribution of wealth through systematic government intervention. This is pretty much the main ostensible function of the Roman Catholic Church in pre-modern times. The Church owned 1/3 the land in Western Europe and collected revenues, redistributing a portion to the truly destitute through the parishes and deacons.

 

Merely making the point that a place of worship is not supposed to be a market. Not that markets were wrong. After all that is the only time he ever condemned buying ad selling.

 

Dead fipping wrong.

 

No, it goes beyond that.

Jesus, goes up and starts talking to a bunch of people, and they're all like, "DUDE! Were hungry!" And Jesus says, "yo bros, what do we got to give to these people to eat?" His homies come back with, "uh, a couple of fish, and some bread" Jesus is all "cool, let's get on it" and his friends are looking at him goin, "man this ain't enough for everyone" Jesus goes, "watch this (*)(*)(*)(*)" and goes ahead and feeds EVERYONE there with a couple of fish and some bread and doesn't charge for this (*)(*)(*)(*).

Jesus was a kid. A KID! At a wedding (which if you ever were at a wedding when you were a child you know that's the most boring crap ever) they run out of wine (because that's what you do at weddings throughout history, get (*)(*)(*)(*)faced drunk) Kid Jesus tells the staff, "go gets some water" they do, he turns it into WINE and doesn't charge for this (*)(*)(*)(*).

Let me repeat that, child Jesus, can turn water into wine, and gives this (*)(*)(*)(*) away. Right then and there Jesus could have become the richest man EVER in the history of EVER, just hanging out by a river making Jesus brand wine and marketing that (*)(*)(*)(*), but no, he just gives that away cause he's cool like that.

Dude could have tanked the bottled water industry two thousand years before they were even conceived, but no, he was all like, sure, wine? Got your back Jack.

Not only does Jesus fail at being a capitalist, he fails at being a Jew!

 

You say jesus was a capitalist? Capitalists aren't christians? What?

 

No, it's you who don't understand what capitalism is. As I've said, capitalism is not a moral system. It does not tell you what is right and what is wrong. consider this scenario: a wholly capitalist system, with christian peoples in it. They would accumilate wealth in a capitalist manner, and redistribute it in a christian manner. There is NOTHING in capitalism which forces you to do something which goes against christianity. You can follow the bible to the letter within a capitalist system. Charity is not "uncapitalist", as many people like you seem to think. capitalism doesn't have anything to say about charity at all.

What I'm saying here is not very hard at all to understand. don't dissappoint me.

 

You're one of those "I read what I want to see, not what's actually there" people aren't you?
Where did I say anywhere that Capitalism was anything other than an economic system?

 

should He have "harassed a Judge" for His Cause, instead?

 

Because you don't seem to understand that it is possible to be the most pious christian and follow the bible to the letter within a capitalist system? You speak of capitalism as if it entails you to do anything. it doesn't. Point being, they are not incompatible.