God or Mammon?

There is a political/religious philosophy taught by Jesus and recorded in the Bible that is almost universally misunderstood.  It is taught in most churches as related to the evils of accumulation of wealth.  It is, in fact, a commentary on the nature of individual and collective behavior and of social and political organizations.

“No person can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

And the Pharisees also, who were lovers of money, heard all these things: and they derided him.

And He said unto them, you are they which justify yourselves before men; but God understands your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.” [Luke 16:13-15]

What is “that which is highly esteemed among men” which is an “abomination in the sight of God”? Wealth and power are the things “highly esteemed” by men: wealth and power are the benchmarks of what most people consider “success” in this life.

But it is the method by which money and power are obtained that determines whether or not it is “mammon”. Money by itself is not the object of the desire of most people; it is what the accumulation of wealth can bring — power over others, the ability to control not only one’s environment but to control other people. This lust for power permeates all human society: politics, business, and religion.

Jesus told us that we “cannot serve God and mammon.” Why is this true and what does it have to do with our lives today?

The lust for wealth and power is serving “mammon”.

“Mammon”, translated from the Greek word, mammonas, means”treasure, or riches, where it is personified and opposed to God” according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, and “material wealth or possessions, especially as having a debasing influence” according to Webster’s New Intercollegiate Dictionary]

Why is the lust for wealth and power serving “mammon”? How does one obtain wealth and power? Other than by inventing or discovering information or a device desired by the pubic, or by inheriting wealth, the only way to obtain great wealth is by setting up a hierarchical system that allows the ruler and his minions to have power over and to take money and freedom from all those people under them.

This hierarchical system is an abomination to God because the person at the top in some way at least partially supersedes or replaces God in the lives of those under him. If you believe the Bible, this is a violation of the First Commandment:

“You shall have no other Gods before me.” [Exodus 20: 3]

When you join any organization that has a hierarchical structure; when you, of your own free will, agree to be subservient to some head of one of these organizations, whether religious, political or social; you are to some extent choosing yourself a “god”.

The President of the United States sets the subject matter and tone of the national debate; the CEO of a company, through his appointment of junior executives and the setting of company goals and policies, sets the agenda and largely determines the morale of a company; the pope, the priest, the minister or the preacher largely determine the focus and outlook of religious organizations.

When we put our allegiance to these leaders or our belief in a political system in a superior position to our allegiance to God, we are serving “mammon”. Jesus informed us that we could not serve both:

“No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.”

Just as in the rest of the animal kingdom, most human beings are not comfortable until a “pecking order” is established. This search for one’s place in the “pecking order” results in a hierarchical system in almost every human organization.

Hierarchy may be necessary for success in some organizations such as the military, where success depends on instant obedience of orders and an adherence of hundreds or even thousands in a military plan. Its use in any organization almost always results in corruption of the leaders and the followers — even in the military. Only by maintaining a continually changing civilian control does the military of the United States somewhat minimize corruption.

In the larger picture of individual development, participation in any hierarchy results in some loss of individual freedom. When the goal of an individual’s life is the utmost development of individual potential, hierarchy stands boldly in the way of success. The development of individual potential throughout society is the only thing that truly advances that society.

The reason Communism is an abject failure, as proven by the failure of socialist governments throughout the world, is that Communism exceeds even despotic totalitarianism in enforcing hierarchy.  Communism is worse than despotic totalitarianism because Communism is not only totalitarian in nature but is dishonest.

If a king, or tsar, or other high potentate has absolute control over government and the means of production, that person is recognized for what he is. Communism hides behind the naive concept of rule “by the will of the people”.

Human nature will not allow this to truly happen but inserts a relatively small group of people (the Communist party) for the despot.  It is this small group which decides what is the “will of the people”. This small group gives its allegiance to the strongest member of the group and until someone can knock this individual from his seat of power.  Then that person serves as “king”.

Though Hitler and his despotic German government slaughtered millions of people prior to and during World War II, the communist governments in the Soviet Union and China each slaughtered more than three times as many people as Hitler.

Today, those who still believe in the tenets of Marxism must resort to subterfuge. They have seen the theories of Marx proven wrong in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and everywhere else people have tried to install real Communism, but they still are true believers. They rationalize the failures of these systems by claiming that the people who wound up as leaders somehow failed to follow the “truth”. They believe that if only the “right” people (meaning themselves) could be placed in charge, the system would work.

Some — Bill Clinton and Tony Blair recently — have admitted trying a new paradigm of “triangulation”: taking parts from communism and the rest from economic capitalism and combining them into regulatory socialism supposedly in the political center.  The means of production are ostensibly left in the hands of private ownership while government controls the means of production through regulation and taxation. This system, too, will function badly or fail because the hierarchical system’s control is strengthened.

So far, only two systems of government have resulted in relative freedom of the individual: truly benevolent monarchies and economic capitalism under a small federal government.  The former has never existed for very long – perhaps the 40-year reign of Solomon being the longest – because “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”.

Only the latter has existed beyond a few years, prevalent in the form of the governments of the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a few others over the last few centuries.

These years of relative freedom of the individual in Western Society have resulted in the greatest advancements in society in human history. The statutory criminalization of slavery, the statutory proclamation of equality of all people under the law, and personal freedom to pursue almost any goal have never before been available to the common man for any extended period.

Why has society advanced under this form of government?  Because, even with the flaws inherent in any government formed by humans, freedom from hierarchical control is greater that ever before in history. Although employment most often comes to citizens from hierarchical companies, the individual is free to leave one company and join another, or to form his own company.

The free exchange of ideas mandated by the Bill of Rights amendments to the Constitution of the United States, mostly supported by the U. S. court system and now being propagated world wide by the Internet, allows the common people to learn what possibilities through freedom are available to them for the first time in human history.

Why do all hierarchical systems of government fail sooner or later?  It is because they deny the ultimate authority of God over humans and substitutes the authority of a man or group of men as the ultimate arbiter of law.  Even when the laws enforced by hierarchy stem from the Bible or some other religious system, the hierarchy corrupts those laws and oppresses individual freedom.

A hierarchical system that still allows individual freedom permits any individual to serve God in the ultimate sense even though he earns his “daily bread” from the hierarchical system. If the freedom to leave any system is maintained, a person who perceives his service to the Almighty is jeopardized by participation in one system may leave that one and join another.

One who truly serves God will hate the hierarchical system. Only with governments in which individual freedom is allowed can one manipulate the system so that service to God supersedes service to the system and that person still remain a viable part of society. In most other political systems, service to God superseding serving the system results in loss of prestige, credibility and often the loss of freedom or even life.

This is the real sign of danger in the United States and Western Civilization today: those who would maintain service to God over service to the political system are denigrated, criticized as being “extremists” and otherwise excluded from their rightful place in mainstream thought in our society today. It was individual freedom that made this country great and especially individual freedom of religion.

In the USA, secular humanism coupled with cultural “diversity” is the state sponsored and mandated religion in public life.

When Ronald Reagan referred to the United States as a “shining city on a hill”, he was referring to the magnificent societal progress in the USA brought about by personal freedom and the example the USA has set before the world.

Those whose goal is to ever expand the size and power of government and through laws and regulations to take power from the individual are perhaps unknowingly serving “mammon”.

It is no coincidence that most of those people are the same ones who are pushing to remove every trace of God from public discourse and to denigrate those who are trying to serve God as “extremists” who should not be allowed to hold political office or serve in the judicial system.

Two thousand years ago, we were told that we couldn’t serve both God and mammon.  It is still true.