Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus was big into politics. Seriously. In fact, Jesus directly challenged the political and religious powers of his day. Those powers were the wealthy ruling classes of Judea; the Sadducees and Pharisees.
To say Jesus stooped to the level of mere humans by playing "politics" is demeaning. He was not into "identity politics". It was a wealthy Pharisee man named Joseph that donated his tomb for Jesus burial. Cornelius was a powerful Centurion to who Jesus recognized and admonished his faith. It was Mary, a wealthy merchant who broke an alabaster box of perfume worth a years pay to anoint the head and feet of Jesus. No M'am you will not find Jesus engaged in politics. He viewed every single soul as equally valuable.
Because all of those were supposed to be about Him.....He had all the answers. He was not in competition with any of them. Do you for one minute think Truth is about Religion? Why don't we all just throw in with Jesus....right now?!! Actually I believe John the Baptist was of the Essenes then became a Nazarite.
You make an interesting point here. I'd never thought of that parallel, but you're right. I don't know why both drifted into capitalism either, but it's an interesting historic question.
I am open to discussion. It sure seems like they made a severe shift to private ownership, rich and poor. It seems a communal style would be more plausible with a smaller group, such as the Mormons, but they abandoned it for a capitalist economy requiring the Church get's its' piece of the action. Was the Church using it to dispense charity to the less fortunate of becoming a Corporate Church. And so it goes. For a good time see Avenging Angel, Tom Berenger. It be about the Mormons and the last of the Danites.
One thing I find paradoxical and incongruent about the Mormons is that they value history, and place a high priority on recording it, learning it, and selecting both the facts and the creative interpretation of those facts that best serves the needs of the Church at any given time. When the Mormons first arrived in Utah, their first priority was survival, and they turned to a form of socialism, with strong doses of communism blended together as an economic foundation on which to establish themselves in their new home. If memory serves me correctly, those first settlers gave up all claim to personal wealth & possessions. Every need was supplied for them thru the Church. That was a strongly communist system of non-private ownership. And it enabled them to concentrate on communal survival above & beyond personal needs until they felt secure in their new home. As more Mormons immigrated to Utah those first years, coupled with non-Mormons as well, businesses began opening up to supply the needs of those immigrants & new settlers. Salt Lake City began to grow into a sizable community. Brigham Young gradually became alarmed by the numbers of non-Mormons settling there, and devised a socialist plan to discourage their permanent stay. The Church established a communal mercantile to buy & sell every conceivable item any Mormon family might want or need, and sell it to them direct thru a membership system that forbade non-Mormon participation. B. Young also instructed his followers to refuse to sell items to non-Mormon customers. This was designed to discourage non-Mormon settlement in the area. To a large extent, it succeeded. I find it paradoxical that early Mormon success in Utah was made possible by the use of socialistic and communistic systems that were later abandoned. And, today, arch-conservative Utah Mormons are some of the strongest anti-socialist and anti-communist voters in the nation. Most have no clue those systems provided the foundations for early Mormon success in settling Utah. They strongly reject that fact when it is brought up for discussion.
Yes, we know it. Try discuss it with knowledgeable, "Good" Mormons. The transition is like, "fuzzy history". Similar to the Danites. Tom Berenger, Avenging Angel. With Charlton Heston as the prophet. Good flick. Sort of takes in that tradition period. "Hell on Wheels" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_on_Wheels_(TV_series) gives a contrary portrayal. Like 19th Century Branch Davidian or nicer folks? gotta go
Your post begs the question, "Why do conservatives have so little faith and trust in government, yet wholeheartedly support anything big business or corporations desire? I agree, there have been and are, governments that practice the worst of human behaviors & deserve all the hatred, contempt & violence they receive from their victims. Yet, big business has done things equally bad at different times & places throughout history. The Great Depression wasn't caused by government. It was caused by unregulated and uncontrolled personal & corporate greed. The Great Recession of 2008, which many Americans still haven't recovered from, wasn't caused by government, but again, by unregulated personal & corporate greed. Why do conservatives single out government as always the evil one, and ignore the fact that much of human misery is caused directly by personal, private & corporate greed (businesses) that cares little to nothing about how fulfilling that greed impacts the lives of innocent bystanders? This seems to me to be incoherent thinking or judgments based on incomplete information. Human beings with human frailties ultimately control both government & business institutions. Often, both are under the control of the very same individuals. Since human institutions reflect the character of those who run them, both kinds of institutions are subject to the same human misdeeds. With this in mind, why do conservatives always place a higher value on businesses than governments, and fail to see the strengths of each over the other in various environments? I don't understand this distinction. Nor do I share it.
1) little faith because govt monopoly has been the source of evil in human history 2) there are millions of corporations who survive only by being our slaves ie offering us best jobs and products possible to increase our standard of living at fastest possible rate. Notice: you thought you had asked an intelligent question but it was less than childs play for a conservative/libertarian!!
perfectly wrong of course. Federal Reserve let money supply shrink by 33% That caused Depression. Bernanke agreed and used that wisdom to prevent recent recession from turning into depression. Learn the facts
totally wrong of course!! Liberal govt had 132 programs to get people into homes the free market said they could not afford. At end Fan/Fred owned 75% of sub prime and Alt A mortgages. Do you understand?
capitalism is by far best system to control greed. If you are greedy and say take too much profit a competitor can undersell you and drive you into bankruptcy. Capitalism is beautiful that way. Do you understand??
correction: right wingers do have faith in Big Government so long as it is restricted to the corporate welfare military industrial complex/Pentagon
A valid point as are others in your post. But the facts as your reported are no surprise considering how Mormons responded with violence against their enemies rather than turning the other cheek as required in the Bible. While Jesus welcomed any and everybody into his church gatherings, Mormons practice exclusionism and allow only their adherents into their church meetings. Many books have been written which clearly prove the LDS church is a cult which has used lies and deception to perpetuate itself. One needed only avail themselves of these books to see for themselves.
1) Great Depression was caused by liberal govt letting money supply shrink by 33%. 2) Great Recession was caused because liberal govt had 132 programs to get people into homes the free market said they could not afford!! Do you understand?
Revisionist history. For those of us who live in the world of reality, we know fully well the Great Depression was caused by Hoover. The Great Recession caused by traitor Bush.
Walmart & Amazon.com might be a good examples to counter your assertion #2. Both do indeed offer a wide assortment of products for sale to the consumer, but both pay their workers so little it doesn't cover their living expenses. Most are on food stamps to feed their families. This is the bad part of capitalism. The owners become wealthy at the expense of their workers--the very ones who make that success possible on a daily basis. Additionally, a minority of businesses are owned and/or managed by less than honest people, who don't care who or how many others they hurt in the process of seeking wealth for themselves. This is another bad part of capitalism.