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A little political lesson wrapped in folkloric history for you as you doomscroll this fine Saturday. Meet Mammon. This portly gent is a demon of greed. #SaturdayMood 1/
He makes a cameo at in the New Testament at Matthew 6:24- “No man 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,
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
(King James version) 2/
will hate the one, and love the other; or else
he will hold to the one, and despise the other,
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
(King James version) 2/
If you aren’t up on your Bible stuff, this passage occurs in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount— essentially the “I Have a Dream” speech he gave shortly after returning from a vision quest in the desert. 4/
In that vision quest, Satan challenged JC to test his God powers by 1) turning stones into bread (dude was on a fast so desert stones must have looked nomlicious) 2) jumping from the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem (cuz if you’re a god you can fly, right?) 5/
Or 3) Exploiting the adulation of his followers, demanding offerings, and becoming a God-King on Earth. (We don’t know anyone who would do that...) 6/
Satan says, "All these things I will give you if you fall down and do an act of worship to me." Jesus replies "Get away, Satan! It is written: 'You shall worship the Lord your God and only Him shall you serve.'"[47] (referencing Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20). 7/
Jesus then climbed up to a spot on a hill overlooking a crowd and gave an impromptu Christ rally. 8/
He talked about what he learned in the desert and what it looks like to live in the Kingdom of God. And then he gives the audience a choice: 9/
The rally did amazing things for his poll numbers. Our dude walked away with a coalition of folks who were sick of Rome’s greedy-ass BS. 10/
Most folks are familiar w the “servant of two masters” part of the sermon. But they often forget where that idiom comes from and who the two masters are. The choice is literally Heaven (Christ) vs. Greed (Mammon) 11/
Early Christians were very much onboard with this concept. They treated “Mammon” as a toxic greed deity that infects the world. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, called for Rome to purge Mammon from gladiatorial games and the political Forum. 12/
The whole Catholic vs Protestant thing was about refusing to treat the Pope as a God-King on earth and enriching his coffers with mammon. Milton referred to a character called Mammon who greedily lusted after the riches of Heaven in Paradise Lost. 13/
The struggle between these two ideas entangled the New World: we had God-Kings demanding that the Western world enslave and slaughter and exploit Brown people to fill their coffers with mammon (ie the world Satan tempted Christ to create) 14/
On the other side, there were those who defined freedom as refusing to conform to Mammon’s demands. (ie what Christ did) 15/
And then there were the wealthy landowners, who saw mammon as a necessary means to build a world free of God-Kings (ostensibly to free all, but really for them to get richer). Which totally ignores the whole “you cannot be a servant to two masters” thing. 
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Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, “Mammon” was a popular pejorative for the insatiable greed that caused social injustice and inequities. Mammon empowered the wealthy and inspired crime in the hearts of the poor. 17/
But just as the Reconstruction era ended and the Jim Crow era took over, people started using “Mammon” less as a concept when discussing injustice. Why? 18/
Mammon faded from popular imagination just as prosperity theology emerged. Oral Roberts & co taught that faith was like business transaction: you invest spiritual energy and financial pledges into their orgs and God will reward you with good fortune. 19/
According to prosperity gospel, poverty isn’t a life circumstance, it’s a curse that needs to be removed through acts of faith. If you’re poor, it’s bc Satan wants you to be. You must fight poverty through acts of faith to God (i.e. the church) 20/
If you try to work toward changing the systems of inequality that cause poverty, that’s a no-no. Because, according to Ken Copeland, “poverty isn’t a worldly problem. It’s a spiritual problem that can’t be solved by politics or conquered by man-made programs.” 21/
Prosperity gospel equates wealth with God’s favor. If you’re wealthy and powerful, it’s a sign you’ve escaped Satan’s clutches. The prosperity gospel essentially forgives rich people of their sins. Therefore, Mammon disappears. 22/
Prosperity preachers say you are under no worldly obligation to give up any of your wealth to lift others out of poverty. It’s up to God to do that. Instead, giving to the church is key to your salvation. 23/ https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-47675301
Which brings us back to Mammon. I don’t think it takes a vision quest to see which master prosperity cults truly serve. And Mammon is win.ning. In 2020, the combined wealth of all U.S. billionaires increased by 28 percent between March 18, 2020 and September 10, 2020 24/
The US unabashedly serves Mammon every time we choose business health over physical health. Let’s vote out Mammon. Even if Biden wins, we still need to stop serving greed. 25/
That means accepting that our current economic system is a conduit of greed. This pandemic has revealed how capitalism has failed humanity. We need an economy based on wellbeing, not prosperity. #GreenNewDeal #UniversalHealthcare
The above figure depicts the concept of #DonutEconomics, created by @KateRaworth . IMO, it’s the best system for achieving an equitable world closer to that envisioned in the Sermon on the Mount. https://www.kateraworth.com/2014/10/16/doughnut-inequality/ 27/
Raworth has prescriptive ideas for reducing dependence on factors that push our world past the boundaries of the environmental ceiling and under resource our social foundations. 28/
Thanks for doomscrolling with me today. Hopefully this thread inspired a little less doom and more desire to fight the forces of Mammon with the help of your ballot and a donut. #VOTE 
#VoteThemAllOut2020 
#BlackLivesMatter 
#Equity4All
#VoteThemAllOut2020 #BlackLivesMatter #Equity4All
