The Rich and the Wrong

The Southern Donkey has a pedigree is religion. Sometimes my rantings and observations lead to friends and readers asking if I still retain my faith. The truth us, that life has offered me much sadness and heartache in this area. The more that I am honest with myself, the more I question everything. I notice that the real problems within the church can almost always be traced to power and greed. I recently sat under a sermon from a well meaning Pastor and the scripture being preached was on the following...
Luke 18:18-23 (with the context of vss. 24-30 also)

[18] A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

[19] "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good -- except God alone. [20] You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"

[21] "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.

[22] When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

[23] When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.

If you are a true believer, these verses are pretty simple and straightforward, the first lesson being that Jesus did not like being called "good" but yet we have reached a point that the religious leaders do like being called good and perfect and like being given free things and receiving discounts on everything. The second lesson is that the rich young ruler lied by saying that he has always kept every commandment which is of course, impossible so Jesus one ups him and says that since he has kept all the commands, then he needs to sell all his stuff and give all his wealth to the poor. This makes the rich young ruler sad because he was very wealthy. The health and wealth preachers love to say that this is not a sermon about how evil money can be and that the real story is that we allow people and things and attitudes to come between us and God. Given the chance to speak out against the big and rich church society, it is rare to ever find a Pastor that will do so. The problem is that many of the Pastors are well paid and well supported by the cheering crowd of the well to do and aspire to have more and more wealth and benefits. There is never a reason for big religion to have fat bank accounts and money horded up while the world around them dies and goes without. Playing church for show and dough is and always has been a sin. The church is no place for rich and powerful elite people that are racist and use their wealth to influence the pulpit with political party support and to silence the real message that should be shared.