{"id":30212,"date":"2020-10-30T19:22:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-30T23:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/?p=30212"},"modified":"2024-02-03T20:20:29","modified_gmt":"2024-02-04T01:20:29","slug":"the-love-of-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.greenmoney.com\/2025\/the-love-of-money\/","title":{"rendered":"The Love of Money"},"content":{"rendered":"
>> Back to February 2024 Issue<\/a><\/div>\n

\"DougI used to be a monk. Now I\u2019m a financial advisor. For a while, I was both a monk and a financial advisor. For some reason, those facts make me a sort of unicorn to most people. But that is why reconciling faith with finance is so important. For too long, religion and money have been held separate, as if the very existence of one sullies the other. But the cold hard truth of modern life is that we need money. We can\u2019t live our lives and serve others without it. Everyone needs a little bit of wealth \u2014 even monks. I discovered this fact the hard way when our community went bankrupt.<\/p>\n

However, some Christians will cherry pick quotes from the Bible or parse a single passage to avoid the conflict between faith and finance. One of the more popular justifications is to re-interpret key passages, like 1 Timothy 6:10: \u201cFor the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard preachers say that it is the \u201clove\u201d of money that is the problem, not money itself. For me, this is like saying sex isn\u2019t a problem, enjoying sex is the problem: Have all the sex you want, just don\u2019t like it very much. That\u2019s a little silly too. I love having sacks of money.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t serious spiritual dangers around money and sex. Money can too easily amplify our selfishness and derail our spiritual growth. Rampant selfishness at the expense of others is unspiritual, unkind, and in opposition to the core teaching of the world\u2019s religions.<\/p>\n

We need to find a way forward that allows us to care for the poor and our planet, without feeling guilty about having money, and enjoying it wholeheartedly for the good it produces in the world and our personal lives.<\/p>\n