Terry Jones and the Harper's Ferry Redux

[Dismal Scientist]

Everyone of Jesus followers was a small businessman. Yes I would say a capitalist. Self employed fisherman, carpenter, farmers and shepherds.

I seem to recall that Our Lord also had a special fondness for tax collectors.

I imagine that it is impossible to find an outlook more radically opposed - on both moral and practical terms - to that of the earliest Christians than that of the latter-day 'capitalist'.

DS

[Spengler]

As Jacob Neusner observed in A Rabbi Talks With Jesus (and B16 quoted at length), The Gospel of Matthew contains radically Christological statements (e.g., "The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath") such that it is quite accurate to say that Christ was a "Christian," in the sense that he propounded his own divinity.

And America's civil religion is profoundly Christian (of a somewhat Jewish tinge): the "almost-chosen people."

[BWoB]

I seem to recall that Our Lord also had a special fondness for tax collectors.

Yes, especially ones like Zacchaeus who, if I remember right, promised to give half his belongings to the poor, and pay back fourfold anyone he defrauded.

I would love that attitude to infect the IRS.

[CognitiveDistoibance]

I seem to recall that Our Lord also had a special fondness for tax collectors.

Yes, especially ones like Zacchaeus who, if I remember right, promised to give half his belongings to the poor, and pay back fourfold anyone he defrauded.

I would love that attitude to infect the IRS.

IIRC, the tax collector held a unsavory social position (legalized theft + traitor) though they could be wealthy. Perhaps the best analog today would not be an IRS agent, but an investment banker? Which sort of brings us full circle to capitalist, eh?

[Michael]

I seem to recall that Our Lord also had a special fondness for tax collectors.

Yes, especially ones like Zacchaeus who, if I remember right, promised to give half his belongings to the poor, and pay back fourfold anyone he defrauded.

I would love that attitude to infect the IRS.

IIRC, the tax collector held a unsavory social position (legalized theft + traitor) though they could be wealthy. Perhaps the best analog today would not be an IRS agent, but an investment banker? Which sort of brings us full circle to capitalist, eh?

The comparison with investment bankers is exact.

The Romans farmed their taxes out.

The year's taxes of a province would be put up for auction and assigned to big investors, who bought them at a discount. They, in turn, would re-sell them in smaller parcels to middle-men, and so on, down to village level.

The profession was not without its risks. Crassus, who was very rich, joined Pompey's and Caesar's conspiracy in a fit of pique, because, when he had bought the taxes of Asia Minor, the quaestors, (the Treasury officials in charge of the auction) had not thought to mention that the province was in open rebellion and the chances of anyone actually paying up were slim. The Senate refused a bail-out. He was not without spirit; he was killed leading an army in a disasterous campaign against the Parthians, having part-financed the expedition, in return for one-third of the spoils.

That not all publicani were as dishonest as was popularly supposed, is shown by the fact that Zacchaeus, out of half his property, could offer four-fold restitution to those he had defrauded (the measure of damages, by the way, in Roman law, for the fur manifestus, or thief taken in the act.)

[Dismal Scientist]

And America's civil religion is profoundly Christian (of a somewhat Jewish tinge): the "almost-chosen people."

Well, 'Civil Religion' is a very slippery concept, and you appear to be using it here in the context of a national religion or a national god.

Unfortunately, the national god of an (almost) chosen people - in reality, of course, the (almost) chosen god of the nation - is a very vulnerable character indeed. It is only a matter of time before some historical mischance breaks his spell, and his chosen people realizes that they can cut out the middle-man and go over to directly worshiping themselves.

This has pretty much been the case with Judaism, since the definitive suppression of the Temple Cult in Jerusalem. And a cursory examination of your vaunted Christian 'Civil Religion' should quickly convince you that the United States is well on its way to following the same path.

As I pointed out in a previous post, the natural ethos of such a system of self-worship is a cult of personal and national self-aggrandizement - in other words our aggressively imperial cult of global capitalism.

DS