Outline of Catholic Teaching on Wealth and Poverty
Catholic teaching basically tells us that wealth can be used for good or evil. Catholic teaching does not tell us that wealth Is a bad thing . Christians are taught to earn money in a law abiding way. They are also taught that wealth is a gift from God and they should appreciate it. However some biblical teachings tell us that wealth can lead us away from God. An example of these teachings comes from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1723): “True happiness is not found in riches or well-being, in human fame or power, or in any human achievement, but in God alone …”
Jesus taught a parable known as The Good Samaritan. In this parable there is
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This parable teaches us that we have a duty to use our wealth to help others in need.
Another parable that Jesus taught is The Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man had no regard for the poor Lazarus who would come to The Rich Man’s door to beg for food that had fell from The Rich Man’s table. When Lazarus died he was taken up to a feast in heaven with Abraham but when The Rich Man died he suffered great pain and asked Abraham to send Lazarus to cool his tongue, Abraham replied “Remember my son, that in your lifetime you were given all the good things, while Lazarus got all the bad things. But now he is enjoying himself here while you are in pain”. Christians learn that they will be severely punished in hell if they are ignorant towards the poor, and also we learn that it is a lot harder for the rich to enter heaven than for the poor to enter heaven this is because the rich are always being tempted with material goods, this leads them to forget the poor
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You cannot serve both God and money” This teaching tells us that wealth can lead us away from God.
Jesus once told a parable about the end of the world. Jesus said that he would separate the good and the bad as a shepherd separates the sheep and the goats. The good were sent to heaven and Jesus said “For I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink … lacking clothes and you clothed me, sick and you visited me …” The good people were puzzled and asked when they had done this, Jesus replied “As you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.” The bad people were told that they were going to hell because they did the opposite to the good people and Jesus said, “ As you neglected to do this to one of the least of these, you neglected to do it to me”. This parable warns Christians about the consequences if we neglect our wealth and fail to help the poor. Jesus warns us that we will face hell as the punishment.
Finally it is written in Timothy that, “Love of money is the root of all evil” This extract shows us that money will lead us away from
wealth. Neither of these men had a considerable amount of money. This helps the every
nothing, I feel that the world is alright the way that it is and that
against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of
There is a common root to most (or perhaps all) grave forms of social injustice: the rejection of human equality and the influence of this rejection on human relationships and institutions.
Webster's English Dictionary defines "morality" as: the conformity to ideals of right human conduct. With this in mind, I wonder who determines right human conduct? Religion aside, there is no literary context that strictly states the rights and wrongs of human behavior. So who decides? Who determines what we ought morally to do and what we are obligated to do as a society? An Australian philosopher, Peter Singer attempts to draw the line between obligation and charity with the moral incentives to providing food for the starved in East Bengal. Although he presents many sound arguments, the reality of his utopian world is that it cannot exist. In the following expository, I will justify my reasoning behind this fact.
No matter the walk you take in life at the end of the day are you rich with love, respect and honor. Or, are you poverty stricken simply because you choose not to allow love, respect and honor to shine through. Not only on yourself but, also on those around you. In life a hard lesson needs to be learned and we can only learn this for ourselves, be rich because of who you are and not what you have because in the end people will not remember the house you had, the material possessions you bought or gifts that you gave, what they will remember is if you held your head high, even through the rough times, the respect you gave and most importantly, the love you
The Bible does not say that money is bad. However, what it does say is
live and the rest they give to charity. They do this so that they feel
Communism has been regarded as the opposite to capitalism; however it was capitalism that gave rise to communism. During the Gilded Age capitalism influenced the growth of the industrial revolution in Europe and in the United States. The Gilded Age was the period of 1870-1910, where there was great economic growth in the United States. People like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller were entrepreneurs who made their fortunes in this age of industrialization. Although this period brought technological advances and economic growth, it also was a period of disparity and poverty.
The stronger will do anything in their power to make a profit, leaving the weak with nothing. Kuyper says, “…the more powerful exploited the weaker by means of a weapon against which there was no defense” (Kuyper, Abraham, and James W. Skillen 26). Additionally, he states that “…the idolization of money killed the nobility in the human heart” (Kuyper, Abraham, and James W. Skillen 31). Kuyper talks about how Jesus felt bad for the rich and sided with the poor (Kuyper, Abraham, and James W. Skillen 32). Matthew 6:19-21 says, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Earthly materials mean nothing because the real treasure awaits in
money is the only way for one to live a life of luxury. When inheriting
Over the years, human beings have not made the right conclusions when it comes to benevolence. In considering when a decision should be made regarding a fellow human being in need, trivial conditions are used as excuses such as distance, magnitude, and how well you know someone. Considerably wealthy countries have given money but it amounts to a fraction of the costs of their own development of transportation and entertainment. The morality of the situation is skewed in order to coddle the conscience of the inactive. As much as people and governments would like to, they cannot deny what is happening in the world around them. The position taken by Singer is that the way people in wealthier countries respond to situations in which others around them need help due to some man made or natural disaster is unjustifiable. Singer argues that many thinks need to be redesigned—namely, what shapes and affects our definition of morality and our way of life that we tend to take for granted.
The second measure is poverty gap index (P1) it measures the extent to which household fall under the poverty line (the poverty gaps) as a proportion of the poverty line. The addition of these poverty gaps gives the lowest cost of eradicating poverty, if transfers were perfectly targeted. But this measure does not show changes in inequality among the poor household. The third measurement is squared poverty gap (“poverty severity”) index (P2) it is averages the squares of the poverty gaps relative to the poverty line (All JH, 2005).
Christianity and Wealth 'Jesus said to the rich young man, "Go, sell all that you have and
“Young women from low income families are getting pregnant at a higher rate than those from middle and upper income families,” (Development, 2008). Children who have disadvantaged childhoods tend to deal with lack of resources and horrible educational resources result in teen pregnancy. It is more common for children who live in poverty. According to Sarah K. Garwood, Division of Adolescent Medicine at Washington University et al., argues that teenagers who live in poverty with Child Protective Services (CPS) history has a higher risk of getting pregnant than children with no CPS history. In the article, they are arguing that the risk of teenage pregnancy is that the teens live in poverty, the teens have CPS history and they have been mistreated