Every year at this time, we see capitalism in progress. People rushing into stores, trampling others to the ground, all in the name of Christmas.
I have yet to hear that anyone has been injured or killed (this has changed since I wrote this), but we just got started.
If Jesus is truly the reason for the season, why are people so selfish? They can't wait, they got to plow through the crowd trying to be the first person in the doors of whatever store they're at. If Jesus is the reason for the season, is this the way people should act? Didn't Jesus say, "Love one another"? And Scripture also teaches that we should be concerned about the interests and needs of others, not just our own. Is all the pushing and shoving and trampling an expression of love or being concerned about the needs and interests of others?
I don't know what motivates this progression of capitalism, but it sure isn't love, or caring about the needs of others. If that isn't proof that Jesus is not the reason for the season, I don't know what is. But that doesn't seem to bother Christmas celebrants.
Christmas in America is not a time of love or caring. It's a time of selfishness and carousal. And, most American "Christians" support it. I wonder how many people that were in the crowds today, pushing and shoving their way into the store claimed to be "Christian." Seems hypocritical to me.
No, I think you are going too literal here. Do you not remember the parable of the talents? Were they not capitalizing by investing? You can't just take the definition of "capitalize" and just say that is wrong. You miss the whole point. Again, how does capitalism, not allow for a love-based economy?
an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.
Origin:
1850�55; capital1 + -ism
Related forms
an�ti�cap�i�tal�ism, noun.
pro�cap�i�tal�ism, noun.
Word story
It is easy to forget that capitalism was coined not so long ago, in the mid-19th century, when the Industrial Revolution was in full swing, and individual entrepreneurs were creating new industries and amassing wealth. Terms for the other two major competing economic systems of the past two centuries� socialism and communism�were also coined around the same time. Also, about the same time it became common to designate all such coinages as �isms�: terms formed by adding the suffix -ism to a root word in order to expand its meaning to encompass a related system, theory, or practice. Thus from a fairly old word, capital, the relatively newer word, capitalism, was formed to describe the then emerging economies of the West. (Another towering ism coined later in the 19th century was, of course, Darwinism. )
On the surface, the meaning of capitalism seems straightforward, referring to an economic system in which private individuals, rather than governments, own property and businesses. But beneath the surface, strong currents of opinion and theory swirl about the term. Many people fiercely espouse capitalism as an economic freedom inseparable from democracy, as reflected in several books considered classics and still avidly read today: for example, Capitalism and Freedom by Nobel laureate Milton Friedman (first published in 1962), and Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph A. Schumpeter (first published in 1943). So it may be a challenge to use the term without triggering a discussion of its broader political context.
Popular references
� The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism: A treatise on economics and political science by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1928.
� The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures: 2009 play by Tony Kushner. The play's title was inspired by Shaw's book and Mary Baker Eddy's Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
� Capitalism: A Love Story: 2009 documentary film written and directed by, and starring, Michael Moore.
�Monopoly, the classic capitalism board game, from Hasbro. (�The success of Monopoly mirrors the success of capitalism,� noted Philip E. Orbanes, in his 2006 book, Monopoly: The World's Most Famous Game. )
Citations
�History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.�
�Milton Friedman, Capitalism and Freedom (1962)
�[F]rom the beginning, capitalism has been characterized by a tension between laissez-faire and intervention�laissez-faire representing the expression of its economic drive, intervention its democratic political orientation.�
�Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow, Economics Explained (1982)
�[C]apitalism works better than it sounds, while socialism sounds better than it works.�
People in Christ need to act like they are in Christ, as an example. We must love our neighbor, love our enemies, and men must love their wives as Christ loved the church. We must give to those in need. If people in America who call themselves "Christian" would be loving, it would make America a much better place.
