Monday, July 12, 2010

A link between reading the Bible and financial acumen?

A ministry known as Maximum Generosity has teamed with religious publisher Christianity Today International to give us the second annual "View from the Pew" survey.  By surveying more than 1,000 Christians, the survey concluded that regular readers of the Bible have less debt than others.  A humanist would be skeptical of these results, there are many counter examples, while remaining open to the idea of positive psychological benefits to religious study.

A pastor commented on these results:
"The first reason would be that discipline in one's spiritual life often leads to greater disciplines in other areas of one's life, including how someone manages their finances," he wrote.
This is not controversial in itself to a humanist.  But we would point out that other forms of study other than religion also provide discipline, goal-setting practice, memorization exercises, etc.  Also, some of those other fields carry a lot less baggage than religion.  But the commentary continues:
"The second reason is that those who consistently spend time in the Scriptures are tapping into God's wisdom and guidance for their daily financial decisions."
This conclusion is from faith since the Scriptures require so much interpretation to apply to daily financial decisions.  What did Jesus have to say about car loans?  That takes a lot of processing and could go many ways.

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