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Originally posted by pimplink
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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To my knowledge there's no negative connotations about the accumulation of wealth in the Ol' Testy, so jews are exempt from that particular hypocricy. To my best understanding, HAVING money isn't a problem so long as you share it around some when people are in need... that whole not-turning-away-a-traveller-at-your-door thing and so forth.
Christians have more rules dumped on top of em, so they have to reconcile old and new and come up with a workable hybrid. The church has been one of the most eggregious accumulators across the centuries (you wanna see pure, unadulterated bling? Check out the vatican sometime), so obviously they decided that the 'greed' sin was one of the more malleable ones.
I'll agree with you about the vilification of the poor being more of a new-world problem, although from what I understand those attitudes can be traced back to victorian england and, I'm sure, earlier days. TRUE christians are supposed to help anyone who needs help, and the poor are surely in need. There's a bunch of great quotes to that end... check it:
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James 2:1-5
"My brethren, show no partiality as you hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man with gold rings and in fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, "Have a seat here, please," while you say to the poor man, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He has promised to those who love Him?"
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It doesn't get more straightfoward than that.