Ferocious Aardvark wrote:
Of course, such pronouncements came hand in glove with the notion that it was in fact great to give all your money to the Church.
That particular 'pronouncement' didn't come hand in glove with that notion at all. The church didn't exist at the time that particular 'pronouncement' was made. In fact, Jesus was responding to questions from a very rich man who was struggling with the idea of sacrificing his wealth for the poor.
Which is essentially a main reason why the Catholic church is about the most obscenely rich organisation on the planet.
I know it is wealthy but I have no idea whether it is the wealthiest organisation on the planet.
There is no point in being skint mind you if you want to help the poor and needy! Can't really help the poor and needy if you're poor and needy yourself, can you? At least not in a financial sense anyway. That isn't a defence of the roman catholic church by the way but rather simply a truism.
The thing is, his dad is imaginary,
Ok.
and the amount of money a person has doesn't have any bearing on their capacity to be nice.
The amount of money was never the point. It was where the man placed his riches in his priorities. In other words, just how selfish was he? We're all selfish but when we have a lot it surely must be more tempting to keep hold of it rather than give it away or use it constructively to help others?
There is a constrasting story in the Bible about the 'widow's mite': that is, how often poor people who have very little will give a lot of what they have.
