Very insightful post Richolio, I would like to add that this moral dichotomy is very AMERICAN and has spread far from its Protestant base. Compare the moralism vis a vis wealth (or the lack thereof) of Catholics and Jews in the US to their counterparts in other parts of the world. They all share the same low or suspect moral assignation to lack of material uplift.
Normally and globally (outside of US and protestant countries), the Catholic and Sephardic Jewish traditions do not view poverty as a sign of moral defect.
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Originally posted by rickholio
I can understand dogmatic fundimentalists assigning a state of moral turpritude to obese people... they run afowl of that whole 'gluttony' sin thang.
Though, I find it highly ironic that the same people would beatify the rich when the accumulation of wealth is both one of those deadly sins (greed) AND has the Gen-u-wine Jesus Seal o' Doom(tm) with his words: "Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24)
The massive dichotomies between ideals and actions like this are what make me recoil when most people start talking about religion.
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