| akuma587 said: By the Bible do you mean the Old Testament or the New Testament, as both have a slightly different attitude. The Old Testament tells people not to judge a person based on whether or not they are rich or poor, whereas the New Testament markedly favors the poor over the rich, and explicitly says that most rich people will go to hell. That's not to say that the Old Testament is callous towards the poor, as it idolizes strong and generous leaders like David and Solomon who ran Israel equitably, but the Old Testament isn't as concerned with the poor as the New Testament. The New Testament is about as socialist as you can get, which is ironic since the Republican party is pretty anti-socialist. The New Testament advocates mass redistribution of wealth to the poor and claims that giving money to the poor is one of the most effective ways to become closer to God. And that's really all there is to it. The New Testament looks very favorably on the poor, the meek, the trample while it looks incredibly unkindly on the rich and those with power. |
There are several differences between socialism and what occurred in the New Testament. First, this was not a government action; nobody was being forced to give their wealth, as they gave freely. Second, the economy back then is not the one we have today, in that back then there were many needy people who could do little to help themselves, whereas in a society like America's today (this is more of a Republican contention, so that's why it's not a problem for Republicans) the needy can much more easily help themselves, as opposed to those who just won't try. Furthermore, it wasn't necessarily a total redistribution of wealth; they didn't give until everyone had the same amount of money.
Also, the New Testament did not condemn any one simply for being rich, nor did it look down on them; it merely says that the rich have a much harder time following God, because they are so fixated on their own wealth, not because having wealth is evil in and of itself. And the Old Testament dealt with the poor exactly as the New Testament did; it never barred charity. It merely had the government not take from the rich what was their to give to the poor, as the New Testament didn't advocate. For example, "Do not favor a poor man in his lawsuit" does not contradict helping the poor out, it just saying don't take and give what isn't yours.
Okami
To lavish praise upon this title, the assumption of a common plateau between player and game must be made. I won't open my unworthy mouth.
