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How to Get Rich

American Catholics have a program to combat poverty.  
There is some tension between the bishops, who rule the Church,
and the people actually working in the poverty programs.
A certain amount of scolding is going on.  Michael Hichborn, 
speaking for the attempt to reform the program, says the anti-poverty
program was flawed, right from the beginning:


"It never addresses sin as the root cause of poverty, 
which means it never addresses Christ as a remedy," he said.


There you are!  You are poor because you are a sinner,
and you stay poor because you don't understand that 
Christ is the way to get out of poverty.


O.K.


In the first place, according to that logic, everyone is poor,
because everyone is a sinner.  In the second place, if you aren't poor 
it is because Christ got you out of it.  That probably comes as 
bittersweet news to those poor Christians who thought they 
were Christian, but whose poverty is a sure sign they aren't.


It is a terrible dilemma!  The religious poor have no one to blame
but their own sins, and Jesus seems to be taking his sweet time.


Maybe the sinners with all the money aren't really happy:
what do you think?  Maybe they are really, really poor somewhere,
deep down, where it doesn't get in the way of enjoying life.  
And maybe the religious poor just don't understand how rich they are.



As for those rich bastards who aren't Christian,
there is no explaining them, at all.  


Oh, well!

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