Do
you think the rich have more problems being Christians than the poor?
How? (Serendipity Bible 10th Anniversary Edition, page 1255).
Since
I am not poor, the question becomes: Do I have more problems being
a Christian than the poor? How? It is often charged that
religion serves as an escape (an opiate) for the poor. The truth of
the matter is that religion is a reliable escape for the well off.
For in religion we can find endorsement of the status quo in the
distribution of wealth: “The reason I am financially comfortable is
that God chose to bless me. He chose not to bless the poor. Praise
be to the unsurpassed wisdom of God!” In short, that I am better
off than some is due to a high and mighty exercise of God’s will.
Thus, I can safely put the suffering of others out of my mind—or
throw a crumb to them and feel very self-righteous about it. God’s
will becomes not an eternal cry for compassion, but a haughty call to
self-righteousness. This demarcation that the wealthy make between
themselves and the poor can be quite intentional: “We’ll circle
our wagons and have a high old time while the world suffers.”
After all, responsibility (dare not call it callousness or
sinfulness) begins a home. This perversion of religion into a
self-serving escape into gleeful rides of self-indulgence and cruelty
becomes the signal temptation of the wealthy.
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