The Capitalist-Christian Contradiction: God Against Greed

By Dr. Samuel White III

The Capitalist-Christian Contradiction exposes the political, economic, and spiritual contradictions in our society and the church. It points out how Americas capitalist system creates and maintains economic inequality, political corruption, economic exploitation , racial oppression, and spiritual poverty to worship the almighty dollar bill. Furthermore, the love of money has transformed many churches into a den of thieves that promulgates a prosperity gospel, enriching its clergy and impoverishing the community. Humanitys only hope is to seek Gods kingdom or the beloved community of peace, justice, equality, and freedom for all people regardless of race, class, creed, level of morality, gender, or religion.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543412925

Dr. Samuel White III

Dr. Samuel White, III is a graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Pastor, Spiritual Care Manager, prolific writer of 14 books, and founder of Agape Theological Seminary. Dr. White wrote this self-help book to inspire readers, to love themselves, live in the moment, have an attitude of gratitude and enjoy life with Jesus.

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Copyright © 2017 by Dr. Samuel White, III.

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KJV

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Rev. date: 04/10/2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Endorsements

Preface

Introduction

Chapter One: The Sins of Capitalism

Chapter Two: Spiritual Poverty

Chapter Three: Den of Thieves

Chapter Four: Thy Kingdom Come

Notes

Bibiliography

About The Author

TO

JESUS CHRIST OUR LIBERATOR

NO ONE CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS; FOR A SLAVE WILL EITHER HATE THE ONE AND LOVE THE OTHER, OR BE DEVOTED TO THE ONE AND DESPISE THE OTHER. YOU CANNOT SERVE GOD AND WEALTH. (Matthew 6:24)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I praise the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Jesus Christ for saving and healing my soul, and calling me into ministry. I thank the Lord for his grace and mercy enabling me to write this book. It took over thirty years for me to finish this manuscript and send it off to the publisher! Our God is so patient and understanding with me. I pray that I can be as patient and understanding with others.

I thank God for my father, the late great Samuel White, II. He was my hero, rock, mentor, life coach and friend. His spirit of excellence and dogged determination inspired me to complete this project.

I am grateful for my wonderful mother Anna and siblings David, Dee Ann, Cherise, Renee and Van. I appreciate your love and support. You have received all of my books with respect and gratitude. Thank you.

I praise God for my lovely wife and two children Alexandria and Samuel White, IV. Thank you for your constant compassion and companionship. It is because of you that I am able to realize my dream as a Christian writer.

I give God glory for the Friendship Baptist Church and its service to God and the community for one hundred years!! Our God has done a great work at Friendship Baptist Church. It was God who inspired the Church to develop an Elementary school in Liberia, a Nursing Home in Detroit, housing complex for Senior citizens, sponsor a shelter for abused women, an adult male support group, an annual fundraiser for Sickle Cell research, a monthly food program, a tutoring program for Middle students, a Senior support group, a young male support group and a homeless ministry. God has done a lot at Friendship Baptist Church but there is a lot more for us to do. As great as this Church is we have a long way to go to seek the Kingdom of God.

I thank God for everyone who helped me to complete this project. A special thanks to my brother Dr. Carlyle Stewart, III for reading the original manuscript. It was over thirty years ago when you offered your insightful analysis and constructive criticism. Your second reading of it has revealed that time has not diminished our friendship or your brilliance. Thank you.

I appreciate my brother Dr. Kevin Turman for reading the present manuscript and sharing his helpful suggestions. You have always supported me in ministry and the pursuit of my dreams. God bless you my brother.

I am grateful for my sister and President of the Council of Baptist Pastors, Rev. Dr. Deedee M. Coleman who provides prophetic leadership for the city of Detroit. Thank you for your endorsement and support.

I praise God for my sister and Executive Director of MOSES, Ponsella Hardaway who works tirelessly to convene the people of God to address socio-economic issues in the Detroit Metropolitan area. I am grateful for your endorsement and all you do.

I really appreciate my sister Mrs. Elaine Rainey, who edited my manuscript and shared her thoughts. There is no amount of compensation that could ever equate to your sacrifice and my gratitude. You truly blessed your friend and Pastor.

I would be remiss if I did not express my deep appreciation to our King Jesus Christ, the early Church, slave fore parents, abolitionist, civil rights workers, freedom fighters, peaceful revolutionaries, conscientious objectors, nonviolent protestors, boycotters, prophets, preachers, pastors, and people of goodwill who fought the good fight, endured persecution, broke down bearers, marched for justice, protested for peace, overcame evil with good, changed the unchangeable, and transcended tragedies to bring all humanity closer to Gods Kingdom of love, peace and freedom.

ENDORSEMENTS

R ev. Dr. Samuel White, III has done a great service in writing this timely and much needed book. In an epoch where rapacious human greed is placed above human need to the detriment of many people in America and the world, Dr. White delineates the moral imperatives of establishing justice, and caring for the least of these as hallmarks of Jesus ministry and our Christian faith and values systems. Economic prosperity without empathetic charity only instigates the misery index and perpetuates the continuing disparities between rich and poor.

– Rev. Dr. Carlyle Fielding, III

Pastor, Empowerment Zone, Southfield Michigan

Author of African American Church Growth: 12 Principles for Prophetic Ministry

Dr. White has, constructed a prophetic polemic against Americas’ economic disparity and spiritual poverty. His book guides us from recognition to recovery; from poverty of capitalism to the wealth of spirituality.

- Rev. Dr. Kevin Turman

Pastor, Second Baptist Church, Detroit Michigan

The Capitalist-Christian Contradiction is a necessary hard hitting agitation to the 21st century preacher of the Christian Church. This book is a self-evaluation in the churches’ role in oppressing the poor and aligning with capital and political interests. Dr. White challenges clergy to disavow unholy alliances and return to their purpose of engaging spiritual, economic, social and political revolution. He powerfully states, ‘The pursuit of Gods’ Kingdom in our political election and programs will empower the disenfranchised and destitute. We must advocate for the civil and human rights of all people regardless of race, class, creed and morality.’ I am appreciative of Dr. Whites’ courage and commitment to writing a compelling book given the times we are in. Surely the writing is on the wall in this country and time is running out!

- G. Ponsella Haradaway

Executive Director, Metropolitan Organizing Strategy Enabling Strength (MOSES)

"This is absolutely wonderful. A must read. I just could not put it down… The Capitalist-Christian Contradiction is a book that brings Gods’ original intent of the sharing of humanity together as one nation, under God with liberty and justice for all, equally. Dr. White pulls all human economic resources together, as one intended goal for survival and revolution towards pleasing God.

The Book opens with beautified realities of a bought-out, greed infested political nation and closes with the truth of how we must transform to see Gods’ prosperous plan for all of humanity equally sharing with yes, even the poor and the have nots. Dr. White challenges us to recognize our own political and social war within as a race of people and intellectually transform the vote and voice of America in order to change our own outcomes of living in harmony with God now and forever more."

-Reverend Dr. Deedee M. Coleman

President of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity Inc., Detroit, Michigan

Pastor of the Russell Street Baptist Church, Detroit Michigan

How good it is when the Son becomes the Father.

BY

SAMUEL V. WHITE JR.

(My father’s dedication to me in his book Be Still and Listen)

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I baptized my father in 1982.

PREFACE

I began to write this book about thirty years ago. It started off as an intense discussion between my father and me. I was an Afro wearing, young, idealistic Harvard Divinity School student, wearing blue jeans and Converse All-Stars. My father was pinstripe suit wearing, prosperous, proud corporate executive. He was E. Franklin Frazier’s Black Bourgeoisie espousing a patriotic, politically conservative philosophy and I was an idealistic seminarian preaching a liberation theology that denounced American hypocrisy. He was an atheist who did not believe in God or go to church. I was a born again believer and church goer who railed against American injustice and immorality like an Old Testament prophet. At Harvard Divinity School they jokingly called me, John the Baptist.

In spite of our differences, he was a great father and I admired his tenacious, industrious, ambitious spirit that propelled him from being an unlettered, hospital janitor mopping floors to a Harvard Business School graduate and one of the first African American managers at Xerox. Consequently, he believed that Black people need to pull themselves up by their boot straps, take responsibility for their lives and stop waiting for the white man to save them. I disagreed, believing that the federal government has a moral responsibility to end racial and economic inequality and provide the basic necessities of life for all Americans.

My father saw his prosperity as a sign of cosmic favor and measured success by material acquisition. He boasted that his luxurious lifestyle of living in a half-million dollar mansion, corporate salary, cruising in antique cars, and ownership of an apartment building, as evidence of Americas racial equality and his self-sufficiency. I perceived his financial prosperity as a manifestation of Spiritual Poverty and the countries need for a radical redistribution of wealth and property.

Needless to say we had a lot of heated debates about racial and economic injustice in America. There was fire in his eyes as he defended Americas’ status quo and his opulent standard of living. I tried my best to debate him but lacked the depth of knowledge and wisdom to counter his arguments, however, it was always my father’s way to challenge his children’s way of thinking. He wanted us to clarify our arguments and be strong in our beliefs. He believed in the biblical dictum, iron sharpens iron. Therefore he constantly challenged me to improve myself and my arguments.

Our political discussion crystallized my thoughts and inspired me to write a book. I researched every source I could find on American Capitalism and socio-economic oppression. I became a vociferous reader of the writings of Martin Luther King, W.E.B Dubois, Malcolm X, Cornell West, James Cone, Gustavo Gutierrez, Max Weber, William Domhoff, Ferdinand Lundberg, Manning Marble, C. Wright Mills, Henry B. Clark, Karl Marx, Michael Parenti, Michael Harrington, Harvey Cox, Jose Mirandi, John J. Ansbro and many other progressive thinkers.

All of these liberal thinkers and freedom fighters raised my conscious level and gave substance to my argument. I wrote my first draft of The Capitalist-Christian Contradiction in the fall of 1986 and eagerly sent it to my father. My hope was that he would understand where I was coming from and alter some of his thinking.

Unfortunately, my father’s initial response to my manuscript was an uncompromising scathing denunciation. All throughout the work he criticized it in bright red ink. Some of his more pleasant comments were, hogwash… it is all so much bull…this is all so much horse…why don’t you talk sense…what other economic system on the face of the earth is better… I think this is sick you should read and understand more….If I did not know better I would think you were communist….this is what I call intellectual masturbation…I continue to be amazed by your arm chair philosophy… I strongly disagree with how you attempt to put across your point in the first third of this book. You come to broad sweeping conclusions with nothing or very little to back up your point. Needless to say, I did not immediately change his mind or his way of life.

After reading his blistering criticism, I felt sad and dejected. I was so discouraged that I gave up arguing with him and stopped writing. My father and I never discussed the book or argued political issues again and consequently, I took my manuscript and buried it in my closet and forgot it.

Thirty years later, I was cleaning out my closet and found it. It was like finding an old friend. Reading it brought back bitter sweet memories of my father and me arguing. Interestingly, I discovered that I agreed with a lot of my father’s comments. He was right emphasizing personal responsibility and not making sweeping simplistic judgements of rich people. All capitalist are not corrupt and many are good, generous people. One can be prosperous and a faithful child of God.

Also, my father was absolutely right about this country. In spite of all of Americas’ injustices, there is