God opposes income equality

[Craig B]

No it's that guy Paul that always had a stick up his butt about one thing or another. Here ya go, it's Thessalonians 3:10.

Jesus and Paul are antithetical if you ask me.

Paul and Paul were antithetical. He tells his followers they've got to work or croak, but he has a different understanding of his own rights.

1 Corinthians 9:3 This is my defense to those who sit in judgment on me. 4 Don’t we have the right to food and drink? 5 Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas? 6 Or is it only I and Barnabas who lack the right to not work for a living? ... 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more?

Quite the proto-televangelist!

 

[wrs]

Deuteronomy 14:28-29:

OK, that's good (you have read your bible), apparently my brain stopped at Levites in that passage or possibly I was thinking of Numbers 18:21-24 which appears to only include the Levite and god in benefiting from the tithe. The passage for widows and orphans to which I was referring is Deuteronomy 24:19-22.

 

[wrs]

Paul and Paul were antithetical. He tells his followers they've got to work or croak, but he has a different understanding of his own rights. Quite the proto-televangelist!

I thought that passage was understood to be heavy on the sarcasm as in verse 15 he follows up with

15 But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast.

 

[Ray Brady]

But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?

Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.

Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?

-----
The Parable of the Vineyard makes it clear that God is all about Income Equality.

 

[Craig4]

But Songs 1:16 says "16 How handsome you are, my beloved!
Oh, how charming!
And our bed is verdant." Has anyone considered that?

 

[Craig4]

You're all right. Those of you who disagree especially. This would be why religious texts are not valuable in forming policy decisions.

 

[Ladewig]

I never see Tea Partyists clamoring about how the country needs to follow Deuteronomy 23:19 -

"You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest.​

And pretty much all of Deuteronomy 15

1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. 2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel any loan they have made to a fellow Israelite. They shall not require payment from anyone among their own people, because the Lord’s time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. 3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your fellow Israelite owes you.

7 If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. 8 Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. 9 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. 10 Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.​

 

[John Jones]

This ignores the OT laws that required a tithe to maintain widows and orphans.

My parents are both dead. I could use a few extra bucks, so long as I don't have to bow, genuflect, and kneel too much.

Where do I sign-up for orphan maintenance?

 

[FenerFan]

Actually, it might be nice if more of the TP'ers followed Mark 16:18:

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

 

[John Jones]

Actually, it might be nice if more of the TP'ers followed Mark 16:18:

"They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

That doesn't sound like a good deal to me. What part of scripture lets me get orphan's maintenance without the serpent handling stuff?

I may have to go shopping in some other religion's cafeteria.

 

[Craig B]

I thought that passage was understood to be heavy on the sarcasm as in verse 15 he follows up with

15 But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this in the hope that you will do such things for me, for I would rather die than allow anyone to deprive me of this boast.

No, it displays no sarcasm that I can detect. I'm certain he means that he is entitled to such sustenance, even if in his goodness he abstains from collecting it. He places great stress on collections for the brothers in Jerusalem; these large funds are repeatedly mentioned by him.

Acts 11:29 The disciples, as each one was able, decided to provide help for the brothers and sisters living in Judea. 30 This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
Acts 24:17 After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. 18 I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this.
Romans 15:25 Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord’s people there. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. 27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings.

See also 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 (whole chapters). Whether Paul deducted living and travel expenses from these large sums is not clear, but presumably they enhanced his status within the movement. For this, see Galatians 2:

9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

 

[Ladewig]

Right, just like politics and they seem to be mixed here as usual.

But why should incomes be equal?

I think the issue is not to eliminate income inequality, but merely to push it back towards where it was for the fist 3/4s of the 20th century.

 

[I Ratant]

I can remember way back then when I heard my Dad, a full-colonel, was paid about $5,000 a year.
I wonder what that rank gets today?

 

[Craig4]

I can remember way back then when I heard my Dad, a full-colonel, was paid about $5,000 a year.
I wonder what that rank gets today?

About $9000 per month plus housing.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

No it's that guy Paul that always had a stick up his butt about one thing or another. Here ya go, it's Thessalonians 3:10.

Jesus and Paul are antithetical if you ask me.

I won't go into the whole discussion about Paul (we had many many topics about it), but the same Paul makes an even bigger show of collecting money for the poor. In fact, the whole 2 Corinthians is mostly his arguing that he can be trusted with collecting money for the poor.

But anyway, if you want references to that, try for example 2 Corinthians 8, Romans 15:26, etc.

But more relevant for the church attitude back then, as described in the NT is Galatians 2:10, "All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along." 'They', as per the previous verse being, James, Peter and John.

Again, I'm not going to go into the whole discussion of what I think about Paul and the contradiction with the verse you quoted, but if we're discussing supportable Christian theology, then by FAR more of what's in his epistles supports taking care of the poor, and as above at at least 3 other apostles support that position.

And he's not the only one. The epistle of James for example at chapter 2:

15. Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.

16. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?​

As well, as most of James 2 for that matter, or the commie-hippie cursing the rich in James 5:1-6.

And 1 John 4:20, also contains this summation, which I feel is relevant to the topic at hand: "Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen." (Mind you, it's not just one verse. Most of 1 John drones about that on and on.)

Or then there's Revelation which has Jesus himself praise the poor church of Smyrna (Rev 2:9), and blasts the church of Laodicea thus: "You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (Rev 3:17)

Etc.

So yeah, the notion that one should do whole hate speeches against the poor is not very supportable theology.