The love of money is the root of all evil, said Paul in a guiding letter to Timothy, who was spreading the burgeoning faith known as Christianity.
As a capitalistic society, we Americans love money. We love to make money and anytime we can make more of it we will. To persuade others of the benefits of possessing more money, we have framed international trade as the pathway to global peace.
We are failing at global and domestic peace because the love of money is the root of all evil. It has widened the gap between the haves and have nots. Our have nots still have far more than the have nots in other parts of the world.
Thou shalt not envy. Yet, when you are starving to death, envy seems to be a self-righteous proclamation from someone who isn’t hungry.
Behavior is communication. When you live in a society which punishes freedom of expression, then people go underground to have universal needs met. In our society, it’s the epidemic of drug use in our young people. In societies where stronger discouraging boundaries are in place for drugs, then people go underground and join ISIS. Either avenue is a prescription for death.
Is this behavior a symptom of global depression? Can we beat and maim the depression out of someone and expect it to improve? Intuitively, we know that won’t work.
But when you are being beaten or shot to death, then you find other ways to communicate your needs. You fight back. And you do it in sneaky and destructive ways to your oppressor. And if you are suicidal from depression, it doesn’t matter if you die along side. The prospect of a possible spiritual experience in a realm beyond us and at the worst an existence of nothing is still far more appealing than the experience of a depressed, angry now.
Yet the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Producing weapons of mass destruction are far more profitable then opening hospitals or other therapeutic organizations to help human beings.
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Follow the lush money vines to their roots and you will find your problems.
