Quote:
Originally Posted by Gwaihir
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Most people, Christian and non-Christian/atheist, alike, misinterpret the bible, so I'll give you some leeway and explicate here.
Christ chastised the pharisees, and saducees sects because they had transfigured judaism to a system of rote legalism and materialism; ultimately removing God from the equation and positing themselves and the egotistical nature of man in it's stead.
There's plenty of examples of Christ, and by extension his immediate disciples, confronting and dilineating that God's qualm with humanity is Ego. The pride comes before the fall as they say.
That is not to say that Christ took issue with usury specifically. The parable of the talents is a direct mandate for christians to invest and utilize compounding growth (which existed in banks even back then) to increase ones wealth.
A "talent" was essentially the average adult male's weight in silver (70-80kg) in roman times.
After the master leaves his slaves with their "talents", upon his return he praises the two slaves who grew the investment, while chastising the slave who buried his talent and only had the original capital to show for it, stating he could've simply depositted it in the bank and earned interest, then he takes the talent from that slave and gives it to the slave who gained the most profit of the other two, where Jesus then states that from those who have nothing, more will be taken, and to those who have most more will be given.
This concept that Christ was against usury entirely, cannot be substantiated by scripture.
This was a post-hoc addition by the amalgamation of the roman state and the burgeoning catholic church, as well as how this incorporated/conflicted the Jewish segment of the roman commonwealth. That is, the roman empire had a great number of special exceptions, specifically to the advantage of the Jewish people's; who it was fiscally indebted to during the rise of Christianity.
Hope this helps.
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That's a stretch. Jesus spends his entire life championing the cause of and defending the poor, and you interpret a biblical figure rewarding his most productive slaves as a wholesale endorsement of modern predatory Republican crony capitalism.
Oh god lol
Whatever lets you reconcile your hatred of the poor with your religion, I guess