Money, period.

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Our scriptures don’t give us a lot of helpful guidance on the use of money. 

                We’re all over the place on the subjects of having/not having, of buying/selling, of hoarding/giving and that may be part of the reason for our desire to keep our personal finances a secret, even from brothers and sisters in the family, let alone our church community. We have the “love of money is the root of evil,” and “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,” plus admonitions to tithe and the sharing of means in at least one early Christian church, but in general we love the security of a portfolio, avoid tax-paying in any way that will remain hidden and (I’m guessing here) the majority of Christians in North America consider economic sharing as diabolical, creeping socialism.

                At the same time, we’re super aware that there are fraudsters and tricksters out there plotting to relieve us of savings we’ve earned and stored, there are profit-driven corporations who are managing to amass huge stockpiles of cash that started out being ordinary folks’ remuneration for doing hard work. And then there are speculators who have figured out how to gain wealth through that abominable lottery system we call the stock market, and that without contributing any labour, without producing any goods or services whatsoever.  

                On the brighter side, the accumulation of capital has tremendous power to accomplish much for citizens. It builds hospitals, trains professionals, educates children, builds safe roads and bridges and is able (almost ironically) to distribute food and shelter to the poor. But that’s public capitalism; private capitalism tells a different story: it’s given us tobacco to destroy our lungs, Coca-Cola to rot our teeth, cruises that provide seasickness and a venue for the spreading of disease … you get the picture.

To take guidance from what direction our scriptures give us in this area, it’s surely not too much to ask that people who earn and spend money should learn  to know economic basics. And HERE would be a place to start, while THERE would be another place.

A fictitious conversation:

Bill: So, Chas, how’re your investments doing. My portfolio increased by thirty-five hundred dollars last year.

Chas: I put all my spare cash into RJC and despite the pandemic, they graduated twenty-eight young people with a good grounding in things that matter. So yeh, my investments did really well.

Bill: But I was talking about your portfolio.

Chas: So was I.

Bill: I don’t get it.

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