Even Dave Ramsey can be wrong when it comes to money... Read Rachel Evans correct critique of Dave Ramseys assessment of the rich and the poor in this country... Or, read the whole article by clicking the link below... ...Ramsey responded to the pushback with an addendum to the original post calling his critics “ignorant” and “immature” and instructing them to “grow up.” “This list simply says your choices cause results,” he said, again committing the false cause fallacy. “You reap what you sow.” The list, he said, applies only to people living in “first world” countries, where Ramsey believes economic injustices are essentially nonexistent. While the poor in developing countries are so as a result of external circumstances beyond their control, the poor in the United States have no one to blame but themselves. “If you are broke or poor in the U.S. or a first-world economy, the only variable in the discussion you can personally control is YOU,” Ramsey says. “You can make better choices and have better results.” America, he argues, has prospered as a direct result of its “understanding and application of biblical truths” which have led to “life-changing industry, inventions and a standard of living never known before on this planet.” “There is a direct correlation,” he concludes, “between your habits, choices and character in Christ and your propensity to build wealth.” For Christians, Ramsey’s perceived “direct correlation” between faith and wealth should be more troubling than his other confused correlations, for it flirts with what Christians refer to as the prosperity gospel, the teaching that God rewards faithfulness with wealth. Ramsey’s particular brand of prosperity gospel elevates the American dream as God’s reward for America’s faithfulness, the spoils of which are readily available to anyone who works hard enough to receive them. But such a view glosses over the reality that America was not, in fact, founded upon purely Christian principles (unless one counts slavery, ethnic cleansing, gender inequity, and Jim Crow as Christian principles), so we should be careful of assuming our relative wealth reflects God’s favor. (The Roman Empire was wealthy, too, after all.) It also glosses over the reality that economic injustice is not, in fact, limited to the developing world but plagues our own country as well. When medical bills are the biggest cause of bankruptcy in the United States, there are systemic injustices at work. When people working 40-hour weeks at minimum wage jobs still can’t earn enough to support their families, there are systemic injustices at work. When approximately 1% of Americans hold 40% of the nation’s wealth, there are systemic injustices at work. When the black unemployment rate has consistently been twice as high as the white unemployment rate for the past 50 years, there are systemic injustices at work. And throughout Scripture, people of faith are called not simply to donate to charity, but to address such systemic injustices in substantive ways. The 17-year-old girl who lives in a depressed neighborhood zoned for a failing school system who probably won’t graduate because her grades are suffering because she has to work part-time to help support her family needs more than a few audio books to turn things around. People are poor for a lot of reasons, and choice is certainly a factor, but categorically blaming poverty on lack of faith or lack of initiative is not only uninformed, it’s unbiblical. God does not divide the world into the deserving rich and the undeserving poor. In fact, the brother of Jesus wrote that God has “chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him” (James 2:5). God does not bless people with money; God blesses people with the good and perfect gift of God’s presence, which is available to rich and poor alike. And that’s good news. - Rachel Evans, in my own opinion, you nailed it. Thanks for a thoughtful article and response to the Biblical ignorance expressed in Ramseys insensitive and inaccurate conclusions.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Dec 2013 11:36:01 +0000
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