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In today’s lesson Uncle Billy gives us a lesson on why god encourages poor people.
Judging by some teachers, if you come to Jesus, you are entitled to prosperity, riches and the good life. But according to Jesus, if you come to him, you are entitled to a life of hardship, deprivation and suffering. So which is it? I will side with Jesus here on this one thanks.
Let me get this straight, the king of the universe that loves us so much that he gave his only begotten son wants us to have a hard life with deprivation and suffering? Â What a bastard.
Now it is certainly possible that a real follower of Jesus will be, or become, wealthy. But that is not the reason anyone should come to Jesus. We should come to him because he is worthy of our all, not because of any possible goodies we might get out of him.
See that – a real follower.  That is anyone who Uncle Billy considers real.  It’s also means that Uncle Billy is ok for christians to accumulate huge wealth and not feel the slightest bit of guilt about it.  As long as they’re real christians.  It’s christian code for ‘fuck the poor’.  We should come to him because we are worthy, we poor (or rich) humans are so feeble and yet there is this all powerful god who insists that we play by strange rules.  There’s a power imbalance.
We are to love Jesus for who he is, not for any supposed riches, comforts and benefits we might get because of our relationship with him. If we really love him for who he is, then no price is too big, no sacrifice too great, and no obedience too difficult.
We’re not going to him because of the possible goodies?  This is just a hoot.  The only reason for jesus is because you get the ultimate reward of eternity living with him in heaven.  You just have to live by his rules, which are contradictory and impossible to follow.  But hey, do it or burn baby.  So the very idea that devotion to jesus is about anything other than self-interest would seem to indicate how deluded christians are.  This is also a way to hide your own inadequacy.  Billy is probably not rich, and rather than find a way to make a stack of money he says that’s not important.  He’s dodging the whole wealth thing because he god didn’t give it to him on a plate.  The reality is that he has no wealth because he’s not game enough to take a risk in the real world.
In a sense, the biblical teaching on wealth and poverty is pretty straight-forward. God doesn’t want us rich, or poor. He wants us holy.
He died so that we too would die to self, to sin, and to sinful desires. He did not come to give us all a Mercedes-Benz, the biggest plasma TV there is, and annual vacations on the Riviera. He came to set us free from our sin-encrusted and self-focused lifestyles.
If that’s what your religion and your god is all about Billy, then he would seem to have failed. Â About 2000 years ago, some jewish bloke was nailed to a dead tree to atone for the sins of humanity that started when the people he created took a bit of a bit of fruit from a tree place before them. Â They had strict instructions not to eat it, but hey, it’s a bit like putting a treat on a dog’s nose and having him wait for permission to eat it. Â You know the longer you leave it the more likely the dog with do what it likes. Â So, fruit consumed, the fall of man happens and some time later god needs to die to pay for that sin and all sins. Â 2000 years on and we still have dogs eating treats without permission.
Uncle Billy tells us how much we should worship god, but you have to ask yourself, what for?  Seriously.  It would have been much better if god had sat Adam and Eve down and explained to them why they shouldn’t have the fruit.  Explained to them what would happen if they did.  Much like sitting at the breakfast table with a bowl of cereal, a big jug of milk and a 5-year-old.  Explain that he is not to spill the milk under any circumstances and watch as he reaches for the huge jug and tries to pour it over the corn flakes.  Guess what happens?  The child is then sent to the room for his sin, gets no breakfast and sometime later dad ends up dying for the sin when the son goes psycho because nobody explained the rules properly.  It’s much better to explain to your son that if the milk is spilt it’ll make a mess, that will need to be cleaned up.  Then give a demonstration on how to pour it and then make allowances for the small boy and reduce the size of the jug or the amount of milk.  When he’s ready, upgrade to a full size jug.  But what does god do?  He allows a snake to talk Eve into eating the fruit and makes no effort to intervene or do an early intervention.
That alone should be enough for any thinking person to disregard religion as nothing but a myth, a fantasy.  Designed to allow the rich people to get richer and to keep the poor poor and the poor to be told that there is no need for them to do better because they won’t get into heaven if they accumulate wealth.
Love the graphic of the camel – but this is where your otherwise sound argument fell short. Bill is rich if you consider the world’s humanity where many have to thieve just to have one meal a day – and Bill is thinking of TVs and cars. He’s a huge fat camel!
Quite right Eric. In the grand scheme he is rich. He does like to cry poor however.