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Culture War Roundup for the week of April 24, 2023

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Christian ethics, and capitalism

i know people like to define christian ethics however they like but jesus in the new testament does not seem to agree with the capitalist mentality:

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Jesus's teachings were impractical. Typical millenarian preacher; world is going to end soon, why bother with Gnon-compliance? Focus on making sure you are ready for the next world. Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand.

Which is why actual Christianity is mostly based on the teachings of Paul, not Jesus. As long as you tithe your 10%, show up to Church once a week, and make a token effort at avoiding sin, you can live a normal life pursuing money and status and still go to heaven.

It's intellectually bankrupt, but it works; whereas a civilization of holy fools would be unsustainable.

Which is why actual Christianity is mostly based on the teachings of Paul, not Jesus.

This makes a lot of things click into place for me. I guess I know now how the tension between the scripture and the people who read it is resolved.

I do find it hilarious that this is how people identify the difference between Paul and Jesus, when the very Wikipedia article you linked on becoming a fool for Christ has a section linking the phrase and concepts to Paul’s teachings.

I do find myself wondering how different I would be living were I to separate myself from the world and try to turn more people to Jesus by being a spectacle of His providence, like the Apostles Jesus sent out, owning nothing except the clothes on my back. Yet I remain embedded in the world, attempting occasionally to be salt, adding the flavor of hope where I can. This too is Jesus’ teaching, not Paul’s.

I have worked for a Christian capitalist. His family’s livelihood is tied up in providing low-cost services to the community and employment to his workers, and his goal is to be able to pass on to his children an education to do similarly while maintaining a strong faith like his. He’s one of the few people I’d emulate, were I to attempt a small business of my own.

Most people who push the Jesus-Paul distinction are progressives who accuse Paul of corrupting Jesus's original message. Usually atheists who believe in Jesus the community organizer rather than Jesus the son of God. "Well, he's no Obama or anything, but he was fair for his day; a great moral teacher!"

On the contrary, I applaud Paul for turning Christianity into a viable religion that has stood the test of time for two millennia, something Jesus's original teachings would almost certainly not have done.

Though, to be fair, Jesus avoided the most common failure mode of millenarianism; using the end of the world as an excuse to party (eating the seed corn, slaughtering cattle, abolishing private property and monogamy, etc.)