Well Phil,
         There's no doubt about it, Jesus Himself said that the rich 
would have trouble entering the kingdom of heaven because of their 
love for their possessions.  As far as the behavior that you 
described in the church that you attended for thirteen years, we are 
told in James 2, that that sort of behavior is flat out wrong.  You 
won't get any argument from me on either of those points.
         What concerns me is the fact that the sins on the other end 
of the wealth continuum are not often addressed as what they are, 
sin.  I'm talking about envy and covetousness.  Through the people 
that we work with at our church, I have learned that greed isn't just 
a rich person's problem.  Greed is greed and poor people can be just 
as greedy as rich people.  Rich people are just more able to act out 
on it.  The heart desire is the same, however.  Sadly, poor people 
are excused from being labeled sinners because, well, its human to 
want more.  But,the Apostle Paul told us  that he had learned to be 
content in all situations, in plenty and want, and he tells Timothy 
that godliness with contentment is great gain.  Paul also tells us to 
press on toward the goal of Christ.  He says that he beats his body 
and makes it his slave for the sake of Christ.  None of this sounds 
like he is taking a casual  approach to his faith or his Lord to me.
         To me, this divisive thinking is the same sort of thing that 
drives me nuts when conservative Christians jump all over a brother 
or sister, in the Lord, for having a drink, but they think nothing of 
their gluttony which has caused them to be overweight.  I guess that, 
in short, it's easy to point out the sins of others and give 
ourselves a pass. Lord forgive we contancorous bunch of people who 
claim to have You in our hearts.
Kathy



At 12:29 PM 5/8/2007, you wrote:
>Vinny and others on this topic,
>
>I have been in this type of church, well, pretty close, and just the
>opposite.  It works both ways, of course, but the most sickening was the big
>church I was in for 13 years that I on the board and traveled out from this
>church around the country as a guest preacher.  This particular church
>favored the rich people in the church so ostentatiously, it was right down
>embarrassing.  We had a Denver Bronco player coming to this church and some
>very wealthy business men, too.  Mexicans and blacks were looked down upon
>and blacks were not encouraged to become members.  Mexicans, we were told in
>the board meeting once, were ok but they are highly emotional people.  I now
>have, of course, to mixed raced Mexican grandchildren and they seem as
>normal as my other granchildren so I don't know what they were talking
>about.  If you drove into the parking lot in a nice 50,000 dollar car back
>then, wearing nice clothes, you were instantly accepted by the leadership.
>I've never been to disagree with the idea that it shows a little respect to
>dress appropriately for any occasion.  I mean, when I did my son's wedding,
>I wore a tucks and not my suit.  On the other hand, when I did my mother in
>laws funeral, I wore my suit and not a tuxedo.  The sleeves fancy buttons
>kept getting caught on the lip of the large glass pulpit and rattling around
>and making it difficult, when they got caught, to read my Braille notes, but
>I sure felt dressed up that day.
>
>Phil.