One more thing about the financial threat to families

I know I said today I would go into the second threat to marriage, but it didn't feel right.

My issue is that what I want to say will be off-putting to some, but I want readers to at least have to consider the possibility. I am currently pondering if there is a process I can follow whereby laying the groundwork and connecting the dots will make it more palatable. Maybe it will be better to just be blunt.

For now, though, there was a point that I had thought about making last week, but when I was writing, it didn't come up.

If you recall, last week was about how financial problems threaten families, and while it is not necessarily a concentrated, intentional attack, the damage still gets done, mainly because of greed.

That is largely the greed of a shrinking few, as economic mobility becomes more constricted, but it is abetted by the pride of others. Pride makes it easy to compare and assume that the misfortunes of others are due to their stupidity or laziness, but you are good and the bad things that happen to you are unfair.

There are obvious downsides to that way of thinking. I am sure some are less obvious (like an increasingly difficult to suppress anger that burns harder as your luck runs out despite your goodness), but there is another, terribly "duh" thing that we frequently miss:

Jesus spoke really strongly against the wealthy.

He told people that he provided for animals and plants who did not labor. If you look more closely, you can see that the birds and flowers do what they are supposed to do, but he was not promoting toil for acquisition. The guy who was so prosperous that he wanted to build bigger barns died, without getting to enjoy the fruits of his labor. The rich man who did not help Lazarus languished in Hell. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Don't get caught up on whether that was the name of a certain gate; that would be missing the point.

I could bring up many scriptural examples. That is not just the teachings during the mortal ministry of Jesus, but also from other prophets, on both continents, where in multiple dispensations there have been saints who have practiced communal living.

Over and over again, wealth is bad. Could that be because its accumulation tends to involve exploiting others? Could it be because having too much tends to make people forget God? Could it be because the more people have, the more they think it is not enough, but nor realizing why? There are reasons.

None of that devalues hard work, but there is no scriptural basis for allowing unbridled capitalism or laissez-faire capitalism, or anything else where you justify people working hard for poverty wages so that a few people can be wildly wealthy.

It may be in the service of avoiding the obvious that the dehumanization and vilification of others happens, where you assume they are lazy, and not deserving of food or vacations or being able to spend weekends enjoying the company of their children, but I promise you, there is still no scriptural justification.

Just something to think about while I try to find a tactful way of saying...