The Color of Money

In the 60s, Martin Luther King had a dream: "I look forward to the day when people will be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin."  In this 21st Century,   And despite the fact we have an African Americans in every strata of society, including the President of the United States and the Supreme Court, there is still a fair amount of judging based on race and the color of one's skin.  But I don't believe that skin color is the "Gold Standard" for assigning individual value in today's America.

I believe the Gold Standard is gold.  The color that we use to judge value today is green, the color of money.  If Martin were to write his "I Have A Dream" speech today, he might proclaim, "I look forward to the day when people will be judged by the content of their character not the contents of their wallet."  While I don't buy into the redistribution of wealth found in the current "Fairness Doctrine," I do know that there are two worlds in this country today, not black and white, but haves and have nots.

The haves in this country travel around in fuel-sucking private jets telling the rest of us to minimize our carbon footprint by driving miniaturized versions of real cars.  They live in huge mansions, filled with carbon consuming upgrades while insisting we turn off lights we are not using.  They dine and dance in the poshest of places while asking us to pony up more money to feed the poor.

The rich simply live in an America with different standards than the rest of us (I say us because our definition of rich is anyone making more than ourselves).  Individuals rarely own up to being personally rich.  Even the Clintons claimed being broke leaving the White House as they struggled to pay the mortgages on their "homes" (mansions for you and me).  And Bill just recently said he would have to keep accepting the $500K speaking engagements because "I have to pay the bills" despite the fact they are worth about $150,000,000 plus benefits from their foundation.

Back to the point of cash over color in assigning value today.  Against the claims that white privilege gives caucasions a pass in our legal system, I present OJ Simpson who got a pass in our legal system, not because he was white but because he was rich and famous.  He was black but he was one of the haves.  He did not receive judgment based on the content of his character but on the contents of his financial funds.

We even assign worth to ourselves based on the amount of money we earn rather than the amount of respect we have gained.  A successful businessman is one who makes a lot of cash not one who demonstrates a lot of care and concern for his community.  The "Beautiful People" are not white or black, their common denominator is "green."

But sadly for them, their wealth is not winsome to God.  In fact, he warns, "Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction" (1 Tim 6:9).  As Jesus said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom" (Matt 19:24).  God uses the "Golden Rule" (Matt 7:12) not the rule of gold as a standard of kingdom readiness.  Before Him, it is not the color of our skin or the contents of our wallets, it is the content of our character as Martin dreamed it would be.

By the way.  The rich being those who make more than us thing - that 1% crowd we hear about in the media (more rich folk crying financial foul) - to the rest of the world, many who live on $1 a day, we are the rich, we are the 1% - you and I are competing with camels going through eyes of needles.  Something to think about.  Jus' Say'n.