Is Christianity Truly Compatible with Capitalism?

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Getting lots of US DOLLARS is okay so long as it is in the name of Our Lord therefore the money is going towards His eternal love and is not really for yourself since it allows you to love Him more and in returned be loved more by Him

How Christians can support the manipulative, subtle lying of advertisements is beyond me.

How Christians can support the manipulative, subtle lying of advertisements is beyond me.

Capitalism was widely condemned a couple of centuries ago by many Christians. Somewhere along the line, as capitalism became more established, many Christians became capitalism's staunchest defenders. IMO, that is very unfortunate.

When Protestantism eventually turned from a revolution to the establishment, it became increasingly conservative, with wealthy entrepreneurs becoming self-congratulatory and pushing a theology that their wealth was a sign of God's grace - something that none of the Protestant reformers would have ever dared said, let alone think.

Reconcile the Parable of the Talents with anti-capitalism.

Didn't Jesus condemn the one who did not make a profit?

ruveyn

There was once a man of high rank who was going to a country far away to be made king, after which he planned to come back home. Before he left, he called his ten servants and gave them each a gold coin and told them, "See what you can earn with this while I am gone."

Now, his own people hated him, and so they sent messengers after him to say, "We don't want this man to be our king."

The man was made king and came back. At once he ordered his servants to appear before him, in order to find out how much they had earned. The first one came and said, "Sir, I have earned ten gold coins with the one you gave me."

"Well done", he said; "you are a good servant! Since you were faithful in small matters, I will put you in charge of ten cities."

The second servant came and said, "Sir, I have earned five gold coins with the one you gave me."

To this one he said, "You will be in charge of five cities."

Another servant came and said, "Sir, here is your gold coin; I kept it hidden in a handkerchief. I was afraid of you, because you are a hard man. You take what is not yours and reap what you did not plant."

He said to him, "You bad servant! I will use your own words to condemn you! You know that I am a hard man, taking what is not mine and reaping what I have not planted. Well, then, why didn't you put my money in the bank? Then I would have received it back with interest when I returned."

Then he said to those who were standing there, "Take the gold coin away from him and give it to the servant who has ten coins."

But they said to him, "Sir, he already has ten coins!"

"I tell you", he replied, "that to those who have something, even more will be given; but those who have nothing, even the little that they have will be taken away from them. Now, as for those enemies of mine who did not want me to be their king, bring them here and kill them in my presence!"

The core idea, of a man traveling to a far country being related to a kingdom, has vague similarities to Herod Archelaus traveling to Rome in order to be given his kingdom;....Josephus' account also contains details which are echoed by features of the Lukan parable. Josephus describes Jews sending an embassy to Augustus, while Archelaus is travelling to Rome, to complain that they do not want Archelaus as their ruler; when Archelaus returns, he arranged for 3000 of his enemies to be brought to him at the Temple in Jerusalem, where he had them slaughtered.

With the rise of Protestantism (and this isn't an Anti-Protestant rant - I'm a Lutheran myself), the first people to flock to it weren't the peasants or the nobles, but the town folk. That was because, while the peasants and princes had their place in the Medieval sense of how things were supposed to be, the towns people - which included everyone from the workmen who removed dead animals from the road, to the wealthiest businessmen - were seen as something outside the natural order. They could be either allies or enemies of the kings and Church against nobles, and acted like magnets to serfs seeking freedom to reinvent themselves. While Post-Medieval capitalists were acceptable in Italy, they weren't given the same respect north of the Alps. And so, it was no surprise that the town people gravitated to Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli, as they represented a fresh look at religion that was more willing to separate themselves from the Medieval past. That, and the fact that the reformers themselves were products of Renaissance urban life certainly helped, too. When Protestantism eventually turned from a revolution to the establishment, it became increasingly conservative, with wealthy entrepreneurs becoming self-congratulatory and pushing a theology that their wealth was a sign of God's grace - something that none of the Protestant reformers would have ever dared said, let alone think.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

....
Nevertheless, while life for believers may be easy today, they will be ready tomorrow to endure whatever afflictions God may send them. He may, perhaps, take from them the goods he has given. They are prepared to surrender them, since they know they received them on one condition–that they should hand them back whenever God should choose. The believer reasons this way: “Rich today, poor tomorrow. If God should change my circumstances so that ease gives way to suffering and laughter to tears, it is enough to know that I am still his child. He has promised to acknowledge me always as his, and in that I rest content.
....
In the midst of plenty we must guard against greedy excess, lest we choke ourselves and bring this curse upon us: Woe to you who are filled. If we are to be filled, it is in a different way–by contemplating God’s face, as we read in Psalm 16. We should regard material possessions simply as props to help us, until we see the Father face to face. He is our bliss and happiness. By all means let us laugh, but in the manner of those who are ready to weep should that be God’s will.

My money says "In God We Trust" on it, so it's holy money.

My money says "In God We Trust" on it, so it's holy money.

I am going to start writing my name on money so it's mine'