Coral Ridge Ministries' Advice to the Poor, Quit Coveting
wilkyjr printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Fri Nov 05, 2010 at 09:30:18 AM EST
The late pastor James Kennedy left behind a legacy of adoration for David Barton, the disgust of separation of church and state, and ample warnings about America's leanings.
I ran across Coral Ridge Ministries' recent publication on Socialism. Coral Ridge publication is the work Kennedy gave leadership to in his Florida church.  The book, 10 Truths About Socialism, was listed in the catalogue of Vision Forum ministries.   Vision Forum is a hotbed for home school literature.  It is also home to the full quiver movement which advocates through its leader that it is God's desire that Christians have as many biological offspring as possible. Vision Forum's promotion of this favored book helps set the table for the kind of economic systems many religious right movements desire.
     A summary of the fear expressed in the book is found on page 137.  "As socialism creeps across America's horizon, ...the words of Kitty  Werthmann, 12 when Hitler took over Austria, say it best:  After America, there is no place to run."
     The four Coral Ridge authors who put the work together hope it will be a supplement to the video available.  These authors are concerned President Obama is directing the nation toward socialism.  As evidence they use the quote from the President who lamented that some CEO's make more in ten minutes than some workers make in ten months.  To these writers, this means the President is a socialist. They imply that any restraint like unions, quotas, or taxes that are higher for the wealthy are anti-Christian.  It is a form of trickle down prosperity that blessing the top of the pyramid will ensure that what flows down the channel to the lower classes will suffice.  To reject this divine order of economics is deemed, coveting. Thus those who envy those CEO's who make hundreds of thousands more than they do just need to quit violating the Ten Commandments and get over it.
    These economic self proclaimed experts blame President Bush for abandoning sound economic principles by offering bailouts.  Laissez faire economics is the blessed system and any form of regulation goes against God.  Hitler and Stalin are "two sides of the same coin".  Pg. 21  That is, both were socialists.  Exactly how these arch enemies became great companions in economic systems yet fought one another in war is subject interesting creativity.  On page 24 we are told America became the wealthiest nation in the world.  I am not sure if the authors have heard of Kuwait or Hong Kong?  When President Obama desired to share the wealth, this revealed his socialist heart.  Pg. 53
     The book notes that James Kennedy despised the terms "social justice" for the Christian faith.  Kennedy preached that this idea of social justice means a "more equitable distribution of wealth". Pg. 116     The book deplores Jim Wallis and his view of Christian social justice.
     The authors believe the current President "Showed himself to be a socialist."  The book concedes that through taxation, government regulation and bailouts, the Obama administration is turning the American vessel toward the waters of socialism.  Pg. 53 The book of Acts in the New Testament carries a story of socialism practiced by the early church.  These believers "had all things in common."  When one couple held out part of their profits the Apostle Peter slew them.  The spin the book puts on this story is interesting claiming it was the lie, not the act that condemned the couple.  Pg. 55
     Lenin and Communism are connected to what is called "legalized theft."  Examples of this legalized theft can be found in tariffs, benefits, subsidies, progressive taxation, public education as well as minimum wages.  Pg. 57 That is right readers; public education is a form of communism as well as the wealthy paying a higher rate of taxation.
     An entire chapter, number 8, is devoted to explaining how socialism is designed to destroy the family unit.  By conclusion we find that places like public schools and government assistance to the poor are actually a hidden attack on the family.  Kennedy is quoted as proposing this view. I have noted with wonder old Christian Coalition voter guides that defined legislators who backed government assistance to poor families as anti-family.   The work goes on to explain how that Obama has divided the nation by defining it as made up of the evil rich and virtuous exploited.  Pg. 68  
    If anything, the work seems to take the opposite view of what they claim the President has.  They see the wealthy as virtuous and the poor as people who need to accept their plot in life and quit complaining.    These "redistributive policies", pg. 72 are alien to God's will.  Real Christians, according to James Kennedy, are supposed to just trust God for His provisions.    Real believers do not join unions or vote for tax increases for corporations.  The writers explain what the attitude of those who have needs is.  "He does not worry about his needs, for he knows that God will supply them as He has promised."
     This projected market without any restraint or checks and balances must be instigated in the nation. For after all, it is the will of God.  From the works I have read from the religious right movement on the economy, Kennedy seems to sum up the proposal quite adequately.



Display:
Vision Forum is headed by son of the one time head of the U.S. Constitutional Party.  The son, Doug Phillips, is President of Vision Forum.  Check it out on the web at www.visionforum.com

by wilkyjr on Fri Nov 05, 2010 at 09:43:41 AM EST

They preached at us all the time to "Be satisfied with what you have!!!!" and I heard that in the mainstream churches we attended as well.  If you weren't happy with it, you were greedy and "not right with God".

I had that meme thrown in my face when I had been forced to move in back with my parents, my transportation had broken down (not repairable), and all I had to my name was the clothes on my back (given to me by my parents I might add).  They do NOT want the poor to try to better themselves.  Oh, and we were supposed to be respectful and subservient to our "betters".  They also didn't care if you were unemployed- their response to me at that time was "There are jobs available- the convenience store down the road is looking for night clerks!"  (In spite of many technical skills and some college at that time, they always pressured me to take minimum wage junk jobs and as I learned later, blocked me from getting jobs that were more suitable.)

It was really galling when the pastor, who had two Mercedes in his driveway and a nice fancy house, chewed me out for "not trusting God and obeying the scriptures!".  I'd  expressed that I wanted a better life than depending on my parents for everything (I was 23 at the time) and was unhappy with the direction my life was being forced to take.

(Isn't it funny how the comfortable "good Christians" like to spew that cr@@ at the poor?)

by ArchaeoBob on Fri Nov 05, 2010 at 09:51:58 AM EST


...that we had a little more (and better managed) socialism for the poor.
Thanks for reading and sharing so we don't have to!

>> Real Christians, according to James Kennedy, are supposed to just trust God for His provisions.    Real believers do not join unions or vote for tax increases for corporations.  <<

Hmmm. I disagree that 'Real believers' do not join unions.

My father worked at a hosiery mill (made women's hosery) in Grenada, MS in the late '50s. He was one of a nucleus of men who were trying to start a union. They were busted up, all were fired, and he was blackballed in Grenada. Couldn't work at a gas station. Had 6 kids. The bosses were all big Baptists, Methodists, a few other denominations.
So, a job came open at the GM Fischer Body plant in Willow Springs (Chicago) IL. The family moved into a converted chicken coop in Braceville, IL in the middle of winter.

We made it out of the chicken coop to a comfortable lower middle class life.

Point being, my father certainly was a Christian. We were strict Nazarenes, even though now only 1 sibling is a Nazarene. My sister & bro.-in-law attended Pasadena First with James Dobson (Dobson, as they call him).

Dad worked seriously hard and GM rewarded him with ample retirement. It was an agreement that was won by unions. There's plenty of money to go around unless the few hoard it. To be cruel and miserly like this is not Christian.

I attended the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, and used to drive by Coral Ridge. Never went to services there.
As an aside, I was there when Revenge of the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987) - was being filmed and I got Curtis Armstrong's (Booger) autograph.


by COinMS on Fri Nov 05, 2010 at 09:29:07 PM EST


The book under review does not put a "spin" on the story of Ananias and Sapphira. As told in Acts 5:1-6 (quoting the NRSV) Peter says to Ananias, " 'why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, were not the proceeds at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You did not lie to us but to God!' Now when Ananias heard these words, he fell down and died." A few hours later, as the story continues, the wife Sapphira comes in. Peter catches her in the same lie, and when she realizes that she has been found out in the lie, she also falls down and dies. There is nothing to indicate that Peter struck either of them. He simply exposed the lie that they had conspired to tell. It is not clear to me whether the book under review makes the claim that Peter slew them, or whether this is the interpretation of the reviewer, but either way it is not correct.

by MLouise on Fri Nov 05, 2010 at 09:11:13 PM EST

10 yrs back I attended a service where the pastor stated that poor people should not commit the sin of coveting. Strange, I thought, since the examples of people coveting in the bible (both old & new testament) were rich people, who already had many material possessions, stealing from the poor, who had very little. I can only conclude that the writers of those stories in the bible were socialists and communists. Thank god that Dr. Kennedy and others in the ministry set the matter straight. (Of course, I'm being facetious here.)

by offbeatjim on Sat Nov 06, 2010 at 06:10:08 PM EST
(LAUGH!)

Yeah, they do seem to have a real knack at redefining what you find in the Bible.

What gets me is that the more I learn about the culture and the time, the more I realize that if anything, the scriptures were written/translated to support a more conservative/authoritarian way of thinking (especially the NT).  I've found so many things that have been twisted or re-defined into messages of control/exploitation/support of the rich that I find reading the Bible quite difficult, as I encounter so many scriptures that have been poisoned by dominionist thinking and teachings (and still hear echoes of their BS).

I mentioned a couple of those things I'd recently learned in a post I'd put up.  It's really sad and sick how they can twist something meant to free people (both externally and internally) and bring about justice, into something for manipulation and control (and protection/furthering of the status quo).  In my opinion, the dominionists are worse than the Biblical depiction of the Pharisees, because they're even worse about it and because they invert the very message of the One they claim to follow.  Not only that, but if what I've heard is right, the Pharisees that Jesus encountered were only part of the whole group, and very possibly more along the lines of 'bad apples', while with dominionism the entire movement and it's teachings are at fault.

by ArchaeoBob on Mon Nov 08, 2010 at 10:26:40 AM EST
Parent



    "These economic self proclaimed experts blame President Bush for abandoning sound economic principles by offering bailouts.  Laissez faire economics is the blessed system and any form of regulation goes against God. "

What was the year of Jubilee anything but 'regulation'?

Jim of Olym

by rdrjames on Mon Nov 08, 2010 at 01:10:23 PM EST


Dr. Kennedy had a sermon named, "The Bible and Economics".  I am going to try to get it from Coral Ridge.  The book said Kennedy claimed we confuse charity with justice.  I conclude he advised a quick kick in the backside was far better than a "welfare state".
    The Acts account is quoted direct from the book stating it was a "lie" not the sharing of the land that got capital punishment for the couple.  The authors did not want anyone to think Peter would have been opposed to their withholding the land from the group.  

by wilkyjr on Wed Nov 10, 2010 at 06:27:16 PM EST

The clergy has always worked with the powerful to keep the poor in their place. This is merely the latest manifestation of what's been going on for hundreds, if not thousands of years. As to the idea that Christians should have as many children as possible, this would have surprised the apostle Paul who urged all Christians to be single and celibate.

by Dave on Sun Nov 14, 2010 at 08:42:54 PM EST


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