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[–] 66 points 10 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago

    Not only that, but in the original Greek “love of money” is all one word: φιλαργυρία (philarghyría) or silver-love; ‘silver’ being more or less synonymous with the currency made from it and wealth in general.

    It is very much the in the spirit of how you might decribe a dragon as ‘gold-hungry’ instead of just ‘greedy’.

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  • [–] 11 points 10 months ago

    Flipping through David Graeber's Debt: The First 5000 Years

    Turns out some of the first coinage was a means of providing field pay to soldiers. Its local circulation - combined with Roman taxation - was effectively used to extort occupied nations into paying for their own conquest. Locals were forced to pay the Roman designated governor in coin only Roman soldiers were provided, on pain of confiscation, enslavement, and death.

    This practice of minting coinage to recollect as tribute has been a cornerstone of imperial economics into the modern day.

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  • [–] 45 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Because conveniently misquoting the bible does not make a convincing point.
    A recent translation is Timothy 6:10 is "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."

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    Because conveniently misquoting the bible does not make a convincing point.

    Are you sure about tha bub? that seems to be a succeesful strategy for the religious types for centuries

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  • [–] 22 points 10 months ago (6 children)

    I know Lemmy isn’t fond of religion, but I have a story.

    Years ago, when I lived in the Northwoods, I’d go to this little Lutheran church every so often; mostly for a free lunch because I needed one. They were the rainbow flag kind of Lutheran, not the bigoted kind. Mostly old ladies. I was always the youngest person there by a few decades, and I was in my 20’s.

    Anyway, whenever the basket would come around the pastor made it clear that the church didn’t need money. The building and people who worked there were all paid for by the denomination. What was given in the offering would go to neighbors in need.

    Shit, that town had a lot of need, and way too many people too proud to ask for help.

    That offering basket paid my bills a few times.

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  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

    good story, thanks for sharing it… there are definitely true stories that make religion a positive force in the world

    unfortunately those are harder and harder to find

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Only because the bad ones get more attention. Kinda like HOAs.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    hmmmm there are plenty of seriously bad ones (all the child rape) and proof that their institutions rather protect itself than the kids... you'd need to be saving lives with miracles on the daily to compensate for that one and that is only ONE category of horrible stuff organized religion has pulled

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Just because there are plenty of seriously bad ones doesn't mean that all of them are bad, or even that the majority are.

    It also doesn't mean that the churches who aren't bad are responsible for compensating for the ones who are bad.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    sure but in the same way I would not encourage a 15 year old girl to hitchhike, I would not trust any underage kid with any church... even though hitchhiking is, statistically speaking, safer

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  • [–] 16 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    The full idiom is actually "The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil."

    Money itself is fine. Greed, is the root of many evils.

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  • [–] 13 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Taking all that evil crap off of your hands of course /s

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  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Probably deemed a necessary evil.

    Real answer is the church community is supposed to help their communities and less fortunate than they. Now the mega churches that abuse this power will rot in hell for sure.

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  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    They also have to pay the preacher and keep the lights on.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago

    Well my church has a very low operating budget and thus most of the money goes back to the community. Local community too.

    I would much rather my church have some money than money be forcefully taken from me (taxes) to the government.

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  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (1 child)

    Because things cost money? I don't get it

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    “Money is the root of all evil! Why don’t you give that to us so that we can dispose of it properly for you…”

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    True story, I said this to my dad once and he corrected me that it’s “the LOVE of money..” so that I wouldn’t become a filthy pinko commie

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Doesn't that answer your own question?

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  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    If money is the root of all evil, the church tried to stack as much evil as possible in the Vatican. Ever been there? I've never ever seen as much riches in one place stacked up from floor to ceiling. The church sure loves collecting all evil and then proudly show it to everyone. The more evil you have, the more status within the church. Is that why they molest children? They didn't get enough money and they need more evil?

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago

    I'd definitely consider a pyramid scam to be evil...

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago

    It's evil to be in the hands of the dirty stupid general public since they are inferior, but it's godly for money to be in the hands of Authority because by definition Authority is perfect and good.

    I'm kind of kidding but as I was writing that I realized that's actually true, especially historically. Religion was the sole tool for control of the underclass. It's still there, but its influence is waning, and authoritarians are leaning more on technology for control these days.

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  • [–] 0 points 10 months ago

    You won’t like the answer

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