Deus Est Deus Pauperum

[poliphilo]

Of course there's something I left out of the post I wrote yesterday- and that's the ideological underpinnings of my position. I suppose I was afraid of seeming pious.

Most people, it seems, can be exposed to the New Testament in childhood without it turning them into angry little socialists. I was different.

Here was God talking to me- in splendid, pompous, Jacobean English-  and what He was saying was, I don't care for those rich people. If You want to get to heaven you've got to choose between us: Me or them- which is it going to be?

Alright,  I'm not really a Christian anymore- but I've never been able to shake myself out of that world view. Actually, I haven't wanted to. It's stark, it's magnificent, it appeals to my imagination. Also, it happens to be true.  There's a war going on between those who embrace money and power and those who reject them for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven.

On the one side Milton, Bunyan, William Morris- all those righteous dudes. On the other- well- no-one I'd want to be seen hanging around with. 

Peter Mandelson, perhaps.

Simplistic? Yes, of course. And it all got a bit preachy a couple of paragraphs back. I used to be a preacher and that's something I slip back into very easily. 

So- sorry if raised my voice. That was a lapse. I'm not trying to win souls *coughs politely into sleeve*. I'm just trying to tell you who I am.

Comments

[upasaka.livejournal.com]

I am so very much in sympathy with you on this!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Right on!

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Ah, that sneaky New Testament got you too? As you say, even though I'm not a Christian any more either, those early beliefs tend to stick.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

And I reckon they stick because they're true.

I don't believe Jesus rose from the dead (I don't even believe he ever actually existed) but I think the Sermon on the Mount is as good as it gets.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

I guessed you had kept a puritanical streak. Preach away - it's good for me. And I agree that "the love of money is the root of all evil". It's when we get directed towards material gain to the detriment of all else that we lose sight of the important things in life, which can't be bought. But it is nice to be comfortable, and to afford to be charitable, and to not have to worry about money, so you can think about other things (says Maslow). A lot of people never work out how much is enough and just keep on getting more and more Stuff. I'm trying not to be one of those people. I'm gardening today, and writing a poem.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm a Puritan, but I'm a conflicted Puritan. On reflection, is there any other kind?

I reckon we English are doomed in perpetuity to refight our Civil War- wrong and romantic v right and repulsive. Hang on a minute, I've got a poem about that. I think I'll post it.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I'm always a little surprised how preachers like Joel Osteen can reconcile the New Testament with their own "prosperity gospel". Do they use verses like "not storing up treasures on earth" and camels going through eyes of needles with some sort of spin, or simply avoid them in their sermons?

I'm even more surprised their congregations can ignore the discrepancy. The Franciscans came closer to the truth when it came to applying the gospel to economics.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've never understood that either. It seems to me they're betraying the Gospel they pretend to preach.

I've got a weakness for St Francis too. He was a very wild and contrary person.

Gospel economics

[margaretarts.livejournal.com]

Beautiful post, and I agree, Francis was wild and contrary. See Rossellini's Flowers of St Francis (1950) now on DVD for joyful simple difficult living in action. All the monks in the film are real monks from an Italian monastery, which makes it all the more wonderful and authentic.


Gospel economics

A bird in a bush
is worth
a mustard seed
is worth
the kingdom of heaven.


--mds 2005

Re: Gospel economics

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I saw that movie a long time ago. I really need to watch it again.

That's a marvellous little poem.

[sovay]

but I've never been able to shake myself out of that world view. Actually, I haven't wanted to. It's stark, it's magnificent, it appeals to my imagination. Also, it happens to be true.

And it gives you great poetry.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Art comes out of internal conflict I think. It really helps to be able to see both sides of the argument.

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

It's a pity that reading the New Testament doesn't turn more people into socialists. ""All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need." That's Acts, of course, in the New Revised Standard Version (the easiest one for me to snag off the shelf).

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Those early Christians weren't merely socialists, they were goddam commies.

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

[grins in agreement]