God Don't Like Rich People

Written by Skye Thomas


I will never forgetrepparttar day that my daughter's sixth grade friend told me that. We had been discussing someone who had recently lost a fortune and had become very bitter as a result. She suddenly piped up with that all knowing scowl that only a twelve year old girl can truly master while proclaiming, "God don't like rich people!" She said it as if it was a mortal sin worthy of an eternity in hell. She immediately made a snap decision from that point forward to dislikerepparttar 126828 person we'd been talking about. I've met her dad. He's a nice enough guy and from what I can tell, he agrees with his daughter. They are very regular attendees at their church. I don't know what church they go to, but all I could think to myself atrepparttar 126829 time was, "Who inrepparttar 126830 world is teaching her that!?"

For my daughter's sake, I bit my tongue. I wanted so badly to quiz her friend and find outrepparttar 126831 roots of that belief system. How does one logically come to that conclusion? I was underrepparttar 126832 impression that God was known to shower you with riches if he liked you. Solomon was extremely rich and God liked him. I thought that God's opinion of us had more to do with our character, not our bank account. I could even see that how you amassed your fortune could be important in God's viewpoint. I think about Job and how he was tested to see if money wasrepparttar 126833 reason for his devotion to God. Upon passingrepparttar 126834 test, didn't God dump piles of money back into his lap again? And what aboutrepparttar 126835 father inrepparttar 126836 prodigal son story? He had money and God liked him.

Just as ridiculous to me arerepparttar 126837 people who spin itrepparttar 126838 other way around, as if God don't like poor people. They act like they're closer to God because they have money. Funny thing money, it can buy a lot of things, but I was underrepparttar 126839 impression that God wasn't for sale. Rumor has it that some churches and individual clergy can be bought, but not God Himself. Nowhere inrepparttar 126840 bible did I ever read that you could bypassrepparttar 126841 rules and just pay an entrance fee to get into heaven's gates.

Two Thousand Years Later (The Passion Of The Christ)

Written by Marquez Comelab


TWO THOUSAND YEARS LATER

Followingrepparttar release ofrepparttar 126827 film: The Passion Of The Christ, we should take this opportunity to remember what it was that Jesus Christ may have died for. Perhaps we can re-think and re-learnrepparttar 126828 message He had been trying to tell us two thousand years ago. ----------------------

The Passion of The Christ has caused a lot of discussions. Some people accuserepparttar 126829 film to be anti-Semitic or that it hasrepparttar 126830 potential to incite hatred and violence towards Jews. Other people object mainly to Mel Gibson’s gruesome depiction of Jesus Christ’s last 12 hours on earth in his latest film: The Passion Of The Christ. Though these are of importance, we should not allow Christ’s main message to drown and be set aside in favor of our discussions of religion, politics, film-comparisons, film-critiques and censorship. We should take this opportunity to remember what it was that Jesus Christ died for. Perhaps we can re-think and re-learnrepparttar 126831 message He may have been trying to tell us two thousand years ago.

I would have preferred this paper to discuss onlyrepparttar 126832 main teaching of Christ and how it relates to us today; however I feel that I should addressrepparttar 126833 two most popular discussions regardingrepparttar 126834 film before I can continue on. Was it anti-Semitic? I don’t believerepparttar 126835 film was anti-Semitic. The Jews had to make a decision then and they did it no differently to how we, as a society, conduct our affairs today. Inrepparttar 126836 latter part of this document, I argue that there is no reason for non-Jews to blamerepparttar 126837 Jews for what had happened. Wasrepparttar 126838 gore and violence ofrepparttar 126839 film appropriate? Yes. I think thatrepparttar 126840 gore and violence ofrepparttar 126841 film was important in illustratingrepparttar 126842 sacrifice that Jesus had to make, and was willing to take, so that we would understand what he had been trying to tell us all along. The pain and suffering he had endured showsrepparttar 126843 amount of strength that is required to love – completely and truly.

Regardless of what your religious beliefs are, or whether you have a religion or not, let me first ask you to assume, just for this paper, to forget religion. Forgetrepparttar 126844 notion that Jesus Christ wasrepparttar 126845 Son of God. Forgetrepparttar 126846 notion that he was sent here by a Divine Power. Let us just assume that he was a mortal man, made of flesh and blood, just like you and me. He sawrepparttar 126847 world differently however. He interpreted information, his experiences and his emotions differently to how most of us process our internal and external environments. As a result, he gained immense wisdom and knowledge beyondrepparttar 126848 comprehension of most of us. He tried to tell us something. He tried to share with us what he knew.

The main teachings of Jesus Christ revolve aroundrepparttar 126849 core idea of LOVE. Love everything. Love everybody. Even your enemies! If they hit you on one cheek, turnrepparttar 126850 other cheek. Like Buddha’s message: Do NOT do unto others what you would NOT like others do unto you. Be compassionate towards all beings. That was what they taught: LOVE.

He believed that it isrepparttar 126851 only philosophy that will allow us all to achieve harmony and happiness in our universe and in our lives. No amount of hate should be allowed every day and in every way that we conduct ourselves. No matter what happens, we must not hate or wish malicious thoughts towards anything or anybody.

To spread that message, he spoke about it when he could, where he could. People flocked torepparttar 126852 mountains and inrepparttar 126853 temples where he preached. A lot of his ideas fascinated people. They were new, bizarre and sometimes his ideas went against basic human instincts andrepparttar 126854 prevailing beliefs that people had atrepparttar 126855 time. He was a leader, like a shepherd guiding his herd of sheep. He led with utmost integrity.

We have had a lot of leaders inrepparttar 126856 past, now and we will continue to follow them inrepparttar 126857 future. They tell us one thing but they do not haverepparttar 126858 strength and courage it takes to refuse to do another. They contradict themselves and their ideals.

Is it only our leaders, celebrities and other prominent members of our society – whom we read about inrepparttar 126859 papers – who are at fault? No. Their faults are our faults. How is that? Because we still believe that it is OK to hate or express negative emotions towards others whom we feel have done us wrong or will do us wrong. We, as people, still exhibit little signs of compassion, consideration, thoughtfulness and understanding towards other people and other beings.

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