I will never forget the day that my daughter's sixth grade friend told me that. We had been discussing someone who had recently lost a fortune and had become very bitter as a result. She suddenly piped up with that all knowing scowl that only a twelve year old girl can truly master while proclaiming, "God don't like rich people!" She said it as if it was a mortal sin worthy of an eternity in hell. She immediately made a snap decision from that point forward to dislike the person we'd been talking about. I've met her dad. He's a nice enough guy and from what I can tell, he agrees with his daughter. They are very regular attendees at their church. I don't know what church they go to, but all I could think to myself at the time was, "Who in the world is teaching her that!?"

For my daughter's sake, I bit my tongue. I wanted so badly to quiz her friend and find out the roots of that belief system. How does one logically come to that conclusion? I was under the impression that God was known to shower you with riches if he liked you. Solomon was extremely rich and God liked him. I thought that God's opinion of us had more to do with our character, not our bank account. I could even see that how you amassed your fortune could be important in God's viewpoint. I think about Job and how he was tested to see if money was the reason for his devotion to God. Upon passing the test, didn't God dump piles of money back into his lap again? And what about the father in the prodigal son story? He had money and God liked him.

Just as ridiculous to me are the people who spin it the other way around, as if God don't like poor people. They act like they're closer to God because they have money. Funny thing money, it can buy a lot of things, but I was under the impression that God wasn't for sale. Rumor has it that some churches and individual clergy can be bought, but not God Himself. Nowhere in the bible did I ever read that you could bypass the rules and just pay an entrance fee to get into heaven's gates.

I thought that money was a tool sometimes used for testing us. Do we remain spiritual while humbled and poor or do we become bitter and turn our back on God? Do we remain spiritual while spoiled and rich or do we become self righteous and turn our back on God? And what about the way we treat each other? Does the amount of money we have dictate how much love we are to receive from each other? "Congratulations on that job promotion you worked so hard for, buddy! But hey, you're too rich now, so me and God aren't going to hang out with you anymore."

What a silly concept that money would have anything to do with one's spiritual self-worth. I'm sorry for those children who have been raised to believe that the amount of money they do or do not have dictates whether or not God will like them. Personally, I've raised my kids on the idea that you behave yourself as best you can, and I do mean 'best.' Heed your spiritual calling. Love one another. Everything else will fall into place as it's meant to be. Oh, and be thankful for what you have. God don't like people with bad manners.

Copyright 2004, Skye Thomas, Tomorrow's Edge