Holy men, sex, and money.

[_Hades]

Why is it that God wants his holy men to have sex and money? We are well aware of Joe Smith's scandals over sex and money. Defenders say that God blessed him with those things. Now Warren Jeffs' scandalous behavior is coming to light. His defenders would say God blessed him with sex and money.

Jim & Tammy Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, and a whole list of others were blessed with sex and money. This list only covers evangelical Christians of modern times.

We also hear of certain Muslims being blessed with 72 virgins in the afterlife. This is a reward from Allah.

Why is it that sex and money seem to be God's best blessings, reserved for his top holy men and women?

[_beefcalf]

Elohim is a wise god, you see.

He knows that the natural man would seek after other sorts of temporal rewards, like selfishly donating a large sum to have a library named after them, or spending time in lush tropical banana republics feeding the poor, or hanging out in the inner-city, teaching underprivileged minority kids to read and write.

He knows that the natural man will avoid anything crass and vulgar, including the accumulation of wealth and gaining sexual access to multiple partners.

He knows that only pious, faithful and true men of god would accept such rewards.

The reason good men like Joseph Smith are rewarded with money and sex is to clearly distinguish them from the rest of the unwashed rabble.

[_MrFffish]

While I can see a connection at times with holy men and sex, I can't offer much direction with this relationship. But here is an interesting tidbit with holy men and money, especially with most Christian religions, from Max Weber. The skinny is that protestant religions (mainly Calvinist) taught that only a set amount of people are saved. And being that God knows all things, he will know who is saved and who is not. Thus we assume that God will only bless those he has saved. Hence if we are blessed we will know we are saved. One of the easiest ways to "prove" our blessings is through acquiring wealth. This relationship with money and salvation runs deep in our culture. There is a cultural bias that the poor are foolish, lazy and immoral while the wealthy have a rigid moral compass, are self disciplined and wise (granted in the last few decades this is not as strong of a bias as it once was). I think rather than God wanting us to have money, it is the followers of the leaders of their religion who want their leaders to have money. If they are wealthy it "proves" they are saved. And we will know we are following a righteous man. I guess we forget about the whole rich man getting into heaven and the needles eye blip in the New Testament.

[_truth dancer]

What are the blessings of Abraham?

Money, power, women, land, worlds without number, basically......STUFF!

What are the blessings God promises those who receive exaltation?

;-)

~td~

[_beastie]

This is question that makes no sense when one approaches it under the assumption that a godbeing exists.

If one approaches this question under the assumption that no godbeing exists, the answer is simple and obvious.

[_jon]

I find it interseting that Mormon God requires your money. Not only that, he requires that you give it to the Mormon Church rather than to the poor and the needy. 'But Bishop, I've given my 10% to help the starving in Africa', ''Not good enough 'jon', you have to give it to me for it to count''.

You can't give your time either, it has to be cold hard cash, or debit card, or bonds, or shares, or property or something that can be turned into liquid funds. 'But Bishop, I've given 17 hours worth of service this week', ''Not good enough 'jon', I need the moolah, the dosh, show me the money.''

It is true what Satan says, you can buy anything in this 'Mormon' life with money - including exaltation.

[_harmony]

I find it interseting that Mormon God requires your money. Not only that, he requires that you give it to the Mormon Church rather than to the poor and the needy. 'But Bishop, I've given my 10% to help the starving in Africa', ''Not good enough 'jon', you have to give it to me for it to count''.

You can't give your time either, it has to be cold hard cash, or debit card, or bonds, or shares, or property or something that can be turned into liquid funds. 'But Bishop, I've given 17 hours worth of service this week', ''Not good enough 'jon', I need the moolah, the dosh, show me the money.''

It is true what Satan says, you can buy anything in this 'Mormon' life with money - including exaltation.

This bothers me on several levels. There is no accounting for donations, yet donations to organizations that do account for all donations isn't good enough. Service is taught, yet unaccounted for. In kind donations are turned away, and opportunities for gleaning and such are ignored, yet money is still demanded.

I HATE this kind of deception. Why do the Brethren operate this way? What are they hiding? Why can they not see the connection between closed books and the appearance of evil?

[_jon]

I HATE this kind of deception. Why do the Brethren operate this way? What are they hiding? Why can they not see the connection between closed books and the appearance of evil?

I think they can, therefore we are left with the notion that publishing the books would be, in their view, worse than not publishing.

If something is hidden, you can be sure there's something to hide...

[_Tchild]

I wish I were a "holy man". I definitely could use oodles of money and a male porno star level of sex.

[_Quasimodo]

Why is it that God wants his holy men to have sex and money? We are well aware of Joe Smith's scandals over sex and money. Defenders say that God blessed him with those things. Now Warren Jeffs' scandalous behavior is coming to light. His defenders would say God blessed him with sex and money.

Jim & Tammy Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Ted Haggard, and a whole list of others were blessed with sex and money. This list only covers evangelical Christians of modern times.

We also hear of certain Muslims being blessed with 72 virgins in the afterlife. This is a reward from Allah.

Why is it that sex and money seem to be God's best blessings, reserved for his top holy men and women?

I've often wondered what draws people to the professions that they choose. Why does a young intern choose proctology as a specialty?

Given the high rate of adultery among clergy (very common), I think that the lure of being an authority figure (power and control over others) is stronger in some than the desire to preach God's word.

I think this desire for authority might be strongest in those that claim to be prophets. Joseph Smith, Rasputin and Jim Jones come to mind.