Biblical Priciples of Money In many corporations, money (profit, capital, and revenue) is what motivates activities and decisions. One of the major goals of corporations, shareholders, and managers is to maximize profits (Brealey, Myers, & Marcus, 2015). Money plays a significant role in the success of a business. However, money can also play an equally significant role in a corporation’s decline and failure. Money can be a motivating factor for innovation and change or corruption and unethical behaviors.
Many have heard the popular phrase “Money is the root of all evil,” derived from 1 Timothy 6:10 which states “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (NIV). However, this verse does not blame money itself for evil, but the love of money - greed. One’s attitude toward money could certainly be considered a characteristic of one’s values and ethical/unethical beliefs that influence ethical judgment (Vitell, Singh, & Paolillo, 2007). Greed, corruption, deceit, and other unethical attitudes can lead one away from biblical principles. Proverbs 16:8 states; “Better a little with righteousness than much gain with injustice” (NIV). As Christians, and business professionals, we must place focus not on worldly riches such as
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There are only a handful of stock market exchange sites such as; the American Stock Exchange (AMEX), the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), and the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ). Each site has several similarities as well as differences. An essential difference between the exchange sites is their trading principles. The NYSE was founded in 1792, and has more of an auction market; whereas NASDAQ was founded in 1971, and is more of a dealer market. (Weinburg,
John Stapleford’s book, Bulls, Bears, and Golden Calves, provides a thorough overview with a Christian perspective of economic and ethical analysis. He reviews the moral challenges of macro, micro, and international economic issues. Stapleford covers a variety of important public policy issues such as self-interest, economic efficiency, and private property rights. He begins the book by laying a foundation of ethical thought and an analytical framework. Stapleford provides a Biblical perspective on the practical issues facing our current society. For example, there are three billion people in the world who live on less than $2 a day (Stapleford, 2009). The wealthy Americans continue to get richer. The greed and lawlessness of America’s corporate boardrooms is increasing. Legalized gambling continues to increase every year. The expansion of pornography and its accessibility to America’s younger generations has become a rapidly growing epidemic (Stapleford, 2009). This text is grounded solidly in biblical principles. A number of the problems he discusses are not specifically addressed in the Bible, but one of the author's strengths is to develop a Christian rationale for contemporary issues, based on biblical principles. An example of this skill is found in his forceful chapter on "False Hope . . . The Boom in Legalized Gambling" (Stapleford, 2009).
Hill points out that all of these topics are in today’s business market. They should be addressed and recognized by Christians today. For most people, their work is a key factor in their self-worth, family esteem and identity. Workplace ethics and behavior are a central part of employment, as both are aspects that can help assist a business in its efforts to be gainful. Every business in every industry has certain guidelines and procedures to which its employees must follow. We must always remember that no matter who you are, where you come from, or where you are going, you are no better than the next person, when it comes to making mistakes and sinning. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans
One day, a rich man turned to Jesus and asked him about how to inherit an eternal life. Even though he had already followed the particular commandments such as not murdering, stealing, lying and honoring your parents, he still could not keep the law perfectly. Because Jesus asked him to give all his fortune to the poor but he would not like to. Jesus told disciples that it would be easier for the camel to go through the eye of a needle than the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God. (Mark 10:17-10:25)
Our economy has been built upon for decades creating growth within the business industry. Businesses provide jobs, finances, and security for individual’s within society and is a main source of what defines our prosperous country. Every business has an ethical responsibility to its members and employee’s and to society at large. Ethical responsibility is a major component in which society needs to reinforce because it helps create principles, values, and standards, all of which help to guide a person’s behavior (Ferrel et al. 2013). Ethics help to create balance which in turn will have positive results for the business versus negative results. It seems that no matter where we look today, companies like Enron, WorldCom, AIG and many, many others substantiate the lack of business ethics in this country. At no other time than the last few decades has the need for ethical business oversight been of such importance to the prosperity of our country. As an example, Bernard Madoff is known to be the executor of the most fraudulent and deceitful Ponzi scheme in history, creating a stark reminder that the corrosion of ethics and lack of basic moral principles have taken this country to the point where trust in institutions and the very market driven systems that make our society work are in imminent danger of collapse. The Bernie Madoff case is a clear example of what can occur when businesses ethics are not in place. This case outlines a business man who defrauded thousands of people for years and caused major problems for those involved and for society at large. This essay is going to outline the major aspects of the case which include the nature of the problem, who are the major stakeholders, what is the problem from each of the stake...
While some scholars argue for more teaching of ethics in college curriculum, others argue that a business culture or environmental change is needed. Some experts and experienced members of the field argue that business is not an inherently bad field, but that the reputation has been soiled by a few bad apples. Given all this information, I tend to agree with the argument that finance and business are not bad fields, they have just been soiled by a few evil people. I believe there are several bad businesses such as the Nestlé Corporation; and good businesses like Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that prove cases of evil and corrupt business practices can be linked to the actions of a few evil people in power. I find this argument to be relevant and interesting because unethical business practices often appear in the news, and this influences the public perspective on businesses. Many people tend to think most businessmen are evil, greedy, and corrupt. This is not always the case, and I aim to demonstrate why others should think in the same
Honest Money Biblical Principles of Money and Banking by Dr. Gary North is a book that brings together not only the history of how money came to be, but how to use it correctly. It teaches honesty and godliness in our daily dealings with earnings.
Applying the idea of moral goodness with business, however, is often a contradictory concept in lieu of the malicious and often scandalous behavior that businesses are notoriously publicized with. Enron, an energy company based out of Houston, Texas, is perhaps the most popular of scandals of the century thus far. Their name is synonymous with corporate fraud and corruption after the allegations of accounting fraud hit the headlines in 2001. The scandal was also considered a landmark case in the field of business fraud and brought into question the accounting practices of many corporations throughout the US (Raslan, 2009). Under this shroud of deceptive business practices and activities, applying the idea of moral goodness with business is a difficult sell to readers.
Money -- toxic, yet something required for the basic necessities of life. The want and need for money is what keeps an economy going. However, is the hunger for cash a toxic and sinful desire? These thoughts and many others go through my head as I read Dana Gioia’s poem entitled “Money.” I enjoy the poem for several different reasons; it’s flow, it’s diction, it’s figures of speech. Nonetheless, I also enjoy Gioia’s poem due to its message. While reading the poem, I feel as though the speaker is telling the reader about the toxicity of money. Even though the speaker seems to see money in a negative light, the diction and figures of speech make the poem still seem upbeat.
Money is the main source of power in the world, but in ways it can be viewed as good or bad depending on the situation. It has a negative connotation when mentioned by the word “acts”. “ Acts” means to perform a fictional role. Which shows that most things involving money are fake. Though humans associate being fake with being morally wrong,but its somehow acceptable if there is a greater power involved. Another definition for acts is to take action;do something. In this case to take an action can be either good or bad. There are many ways to come across money, but nobody cares if it is good or bad because it deals with a greater power.
The stock market is a centralized area where buyers and sellers comes together to perform stock transaction. When one thinks of the stock market, the first thing comes to mind is Wall Street which is sometimes referred to as the New York Stock Exchange as well as the NYSE.
“Money so they say is the root of all evil today.” - Pink Floyd, “Money”
The outside pressure of having 20 million customers throughout America, Canada and Puerto Rico drove the top executives to become greedy for power and money. The chief officers recognized this and began to commit fraudulent activities. For example, in companies like Waste Management, Inc., officer compensation is tied to the earnings that the company produces. If the company were to struggle in falling short of their earnings target, it would endanger the officers of the company. Compensation tied to earnings brings about a major culture of fraud in any occupational environment. These officers had the opportunity to commit fraud within the company’s financial statements because they were all high up in the hierarchy of the organization. Buntrock, along with the other stakeholders, let greed get in the way of operating the company in an honest and efficient manner. They would falsely value their garbage trucks, assign estimated values on assets that they knew had little to no worth and held off on recording an expense from the decreases in value of their many
According to Investopedia (2003), the New York Stock Exchange, otherwise known as NYSE, is a stock exchange based in New York City. It is considered the largest equities-based exchange in the world based on total market capitalization of its listed securities. Additionally, it stated that NYSE was founded in 1972 but became a public entity in 2005 after the acquisition of electronic trading exchange Archipelago. The NYSE Euronext is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. This came into play when the company merged with the European exchange in 2007. On the other hand, Investopedia (2003) stated that the American Stock Exchange, popularly known as AMEX, is the third largest stock exchange by trading volume in the United States.
Shaw, W. & Barry, V. (2010). Moral issues in business (11th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage
Christianity and Wealth 'Jesus said to the rich young man, "Go, sell all that you have and