Wealth and Poverty
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2008 8:34 pm
This is an open question to all who care to respond.
I believe there is a God. However I don't understand some things about him. The major question I have is, "Why Does God favor the rich?"
I have noticed that the wealthy people of this world never have any problem so severe that they can't buy their way out of it and some never have any problems at all. I've met committed christians who have little or nothing but do more for the God they worship than the rich people of this world and most of the rich people don't care in any way about God at all, yet they are the ones who have all the money, luxury, ease and comfort in this world. They abuse their positions to amass more while the poor people suffer from one disaster after another, never getting ahead. The rich break the law and yet they either are allowed to go about their business without paying for their wrong doing or they serve a token sentence in an institution that more like a country club than a prison. Poor people are locked up and forgotten.
And what's worse, most people admire the rich no matter how they acquired their wealth.
An example: At one time I had been attending a church with a friend. One particular Sunday, the pastor stood in the pulpit expressing his gratitude to the congregation for the giant plasma screen TV they had purchased for him as a gift. While I sat next to my friend, whom I knew was going through a bankruptcy because of medical bills he was unable to pay. All he got from those people was a promise they'd pray for him. Why couldn't those people have used that money they spent on an expensive gift for an already overpaid pastor to help a member of their church who had a genuine need?
Another example: In this same body, I overheard the wife of a local banker describe something that had happened to her. She and her husband were building a new home and the bathtub she had picked out to match the decor in the master bath was no longer being manufactured. She had taken this "burden", (Her word) to the other ladies in the church for prayer and two days later, the contractor found the tub she wanted in a crate in the back of his warehouse. Apparently a previous client had ordered the same one and it had gone unclaimed and no one knew about it's existence until she offered up this prayer. Meanwhile, the friend I mentioned earlier had been out of work, with no income of any kind for six months because of his health. Yet God never once answered any of his prayers for a job or recovery of his health.
My friend, like many other poor people, doesn't have one calamity resolved before a disaster of another type descends upon him. But instead of helping my friend out of his problems, God goes out of his way to decorate a rich lady's
bathroom.
What is it about rich people? Does God love them more because they are rich? Or are they rich because he loves them more?
I am genuinely seeking to understand. After the second incident I described for you i quit attending and refused to return. My friend continues to attend, dedicated to serving God whether he chooses to help him or not.
What am I not getting? Why are the rich so much more special than everybody else and why don't the poor people of the church mind this favoritism?
Pauley
I believe there is a God. However I don't understand some things about him. The major question I have is, "Why Does God favor the rich?"
I have noticed that the wealthy people of this world never have any problem so severe that they can't buy their way out of it and some never have any problems at all. I've met committed christians who have little or nothing but do more for the God they worship than the rich people of this world and most of the rich people don't care in any way about God at all, yet they are the ones who have all the money, luxury, ease and comfort in this world. They abuse their positions to amass more while the poor people suffer from one disaster after another, never getting ahead. The rich break the law and yet they either are allowed to go about their business without paying for their wrong doing or they serve a token sentence in an institution that more like a country club than a prison. Poor people are locked up and forgotten.
And what's worse, most people admire the rich no matter how they acquired their wealth.
An example: At one time I had been attending a church with a friend. One particular Sunday, the pastor stood in the pulpit expressing his gratitude to the congregation for the giant plasma screen TV they had purchased for him as a gift. While I sat next to my friend, whom I knew was going through a bankruptcy because of medical bills he was unable to pay. All he got from those people was a promise they'd pray for him. Why couldn't those people have used that money they spent on an expensive gift for an already overpaid pastor to help a member of their church who had a genuine need?
Another example: In this same body, I overheard the wife of a local banker describe something that had happened to her. She and her husband were building a new home and the bathtub she had picked out to match the decor in the master bath was no longer being manufactured. She had taken this "burden", (Her word) to the other ladies in the church for prayer and two days later, the contractor found the tub she wanted in a crate in the back of his warehouse. Apparently a previous client had ordered the same one and it had gone unclaimed and no one knew about it's existence until she offered up this prayer. Meanwhile, the friend I mentioned earlier had been out of work, with no income of any kind for six months because of his health. Yet God never once answered any of his prayers for a job or recovery of his health.
My friend, like many other poor people, doesn't have one calamity resolved before a disaster of another type descends upon him. But instead of helping my friend out of his problems, God goes out of his way to decorate a rich lady's
bathroom.
What is it about rich people? Does God love them more because they are rich? Or are they rich because he loves them more?
I am genuinely seeking to understand. After the second incident I described for you i quit attending and refused to return. My friend continues to attend, dedicated to serving God whether he chooses to help him or not.
What am I not getting? Why are the rich so much more special than everybody else and why don't the poor people of the church mind this favoritism?
Pauley