Monday, March 16, 2015

"Jewish financiers who pulled Hitler out of the ditch" / "several Jewish bankers are backing Herr Hitler"

Pierre van Paassen (1895 - 1968), Dutch-born Canadian journalist, Unitarian minister, philosemitic, Zionistic and staunchly anti-Nazi; pictured at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal during 1945. From "This Week in JPL History: Pierre van Paassen – The Forgotten Ally" (2013-11-25, jewishpubliclibrary.org) [archive.is/5lnwm], caption: During his visit van Paassen presented the library with the manuscript for “The Forgotten Ally” a novel on Israel.

Van Paassen wrote an article in February, 1933 interviewing Wilhelm Frick, German Minister of the Interior and the first member of the NSDAP to attain political office. Read the entire article, page 1 [archive.is/R8RgY], page 2 [archive.is/hMbGk].
During the interview Van Paassen put it to the then German Minister of the Interior: "Moreover, anyone who care to investigate Jewish life but superficially soon discovers that instead of an indissoluble international solidarity as you claim, the same lines that divide society in classes operate in Jewish life. The best proof probably is that several Jewish bankers are backing Herr Hitler financially and that a Jewish bank is backing Prince Starhenberg in Austria. Since you say you are going to act strongly against the Jews, these Jewish banks are indirectly your aids. How can you speak of Jewish solidarity under the circumstance?"

Another article from 1933 by Van Paassen expands on his knowledge about Jewish bankers financing Hitler and the NSDAP, read the entire article at [archive.is//bq6jN]: "I do not blame those Jewish financiers who pulled Hitler out of the ditch by financing the Nazi Organization. It was in their interest to do so. Class interest far outweighs racial or religious associations. These men simply were consistent capitalists. They looked after and saved the interests of big business and finance in a critical hour. There is nothing to be gained in denouncing these men as traitors to the Jewish people. They never had anything in common with the Jewish masses except that they have always tried "as great Jewish Leaders" in Germany to exert their influence on the Jewish masses in one issue or another. Herr Oscar Wassermann is loyal to his class in society. Inflexibly loyal. Nothing in the world is capable of coming between him and that loyalty."

Oscar Wassermann (1869 - 1934), photo at left, head of the managing board of the Deutsche Bank between 1923 - 1933, who described himself as a non-Zionist but was president of Keren Hayesod (The Foundation Fund) the fund raising agency for Jewish settlement in Palestine, and in 1932 became the honorary chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Jewish Agency, the de-facto Jewish government of British Mandate Palestine. He believed all Jews, whether Zionists or not, should support Jewish settlement in Palestine.
Van Paassen's allegation that Oscar Wassermann, the effective CEO of the Deutsche Bank, was providing funds for the NSDAP (Nazi party) is corroborated by something Heinrich Bruening, Hitler's predecessor as German Chancellor, wrote in 1948: "... from October 1928 the two largest regular contributors to the Nazi Party were the general managers of two of the largest Berlin banks, both of the Jewish faith, and one of them the leader of Zionism in Germany." - from a letter Bruening wrote to Churchill's publishers in 1948, referencing something he wrote to Churchill in 1937, read the full quote in context at [archive.is/3p7EM], published in the scholarly book "Churchill's War, vol. 1: Struggle for Power" [archive.is/9CyMK], you can also read book's 2nd volume [archive.is/wVoMn], a set of books whose author devoted attention on the Jewish financial leaders who funded Hitler [youtube.com/watch?v=rsls6WcYgtE]. More about Bruening's views on Jewish Citizens within Germany before and during the 1st half of the era of Nazi administration [archive.is/7ALHy].
According to JTA newswire (1930) [archive.is/4w6w6], it was reported, that "in London, Lord Melchett, Chaim Weizmann, Oscar Wasserman, Felix Warburg and Max Warburg will meet this afternoon in an attempt to reach a settlement regarding the functions of the Administrative Committee and the Jewish Agency's Executive, the immediate raising of an internal loan of $5,000,000, and Lord Melchett's demand that before any larger colonization scheme be undertaken in Palestine, the 1,500 Chalutzim in Palestine for many years be settled on the land."

Industrialists of many nationalities contributed to the rise of the NSDAP, including Henry Ford and Thomas Watson (Founder, IBM) of the USA, and Eugene Schneider of France, of whom not much information is available, but is mentioned in the following.
"Merchants of Death: A Study of the International Armament Industry" book by H. C. Engelbrecht, Ph.D., and F. C. Hanighen (Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1934): [...] In Europe their colleagues are even more active. Hitler has now become the symbol of the return of German militarism. Even before he managed to obtain supreme power there was speculation as to his financial backers. Obviously they included German industrialists fearful of socialism, communism, and the labor unions, nationalists smarting under the "insults" of the Versailles treaty, and a host of other discontented folk. But on the list of these contributors supplying funds to the Hitler movement were the names of two capitalists Von Arthaber and Von Duschnitz directors of Skoda, the great armament firm of Germany's neighbor and enemy, Czechoslovakia.
Interlocking directorates are a familiar phenomenon in the United States. The real controller of industries is frequently found in the most unexpected places. In Europe the same system prevails. And so it appears that Messrs. Von Arthaber and Von Duschnitz represent a firm which is controlled by still another firm. The head of this holding company is neither German nor Czech. He is a French citizen, M. Eugene Schneider, president of the Schneider-Creusot Company which for a century has dominated the French arms industry and which through its subsidiaries now controls most of the important arms factories in Central Europe. Some of Hitler's financial support, then, was derived from a company owned by a leading French industrialist and arms maker.
Arms merchants also own newspapers and mold public opinion. M. Schneider is more than just president of Creusot. He is the moving spirit of another great combine, the Comite des Forges. This French steel trust through one of its officers has controlling shares in the Paris newspaper Le Temps, the counterpart of the New York Times, and the Journal des Débats, which corresponds to the New York Herald Tribune. These two powerful papers constantly warn their readers of the "danger of disarmament" and of the menace of Germany. Thus M. Schneider is in a position to pull two strings, one linked to Hitler and German militarism, the other tied to the French press and French militarism. [...]

Friday, March 13, 2015

Fascist Legacy Politicians


"2003 Recall Vote: How Come Only Two Choices Were Pols With Nazi Family Ties?"
Adapted from a posting at "Los Angeles Topix Forum" [archive.today]:
This is a big state, in a big country.
Was it just a coincidence that the governor, Gray Davis, was the grandson of Nazi agent, William Rhodes Davis, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_Davis]: "...Early life and political career.. ...It was not documented, until July 20, 2008, and never previoulsy disclosed by Davis, that his grandfather was WWII Nazi agent, William Rhodes Davis, an American working to supply oil from Mexico for Hitler's Germany, and to aid the 1940 presidential election campaign of republican candidte, Wendell Wilkie. William Rhodes Davis died about August 1, 1941, a year before the birth of Gray Davis, reportedly "removed" by British spymaster Sir William Stephenson, aka "Intrepid".[7]"
We now know Arnold's grandfather, Karl, and father, Gustav, were Nazi party members, because Arnold told us... but what is up with this?
In five of the last presidential elections, people with Nazi family ties, Bush father and son, were elected to either the presidency or as VP, five times. In 2004, both Bush and Kerry were members of a tiny secret society, Skull and Bones, that "taps" only 15 Yale Univ. juniors for membership, each year.
Do you know anyone with Nazi family ties? Why are politicians with such ties so numerous in our highest elected offices? JFK was the grandchild of Joseph P. Kennedy, a well-known Nazi sympathizer... George W. Bush is the grandchild of, and George Herbert Walker is the son of Prescott Bush, himself a US Senator and a bonifide Nazi agent in the USA banking networks... California Gov. Arnold is the grandchild of Karl Schwarzenegger, Nazi SS official of Austria... former California Gov. Gray Davis is the grandchild of William Rhodes Davis, Nazi agent...
All elected just on the whim of informed voters... all just coincidence...or....?


"Exposing Arnold Schwarzenegger", (2013-10-13) [OriginalSourceMag.com/2013/10/20/exposing-arnold-schwarzenegger] [archive.org] [archive.today]

Photo showing the elder Schwarzenegger with fascist Germany Leader Adolph Hitler, meeting with fascist dictator Franco of Spain:

Photo showing Franco meeting at the White House with President Ford, 1975, showing how entrenched and trusted fascists are to "the Establishment", and why little Arnold and his family were allowed such success after World War 2.



They were called "Ratlines" because these rats just killed 20+ million Russian civilians and were allowed to continue operations with the help of the USA and allies, and the Church of Rome (with the Knights of Malta)'s sovereign banking system and travel identification:
** "Nazi Hunt: South America's Dictatorships and the Avenging of Nazi Crimes" book by German historian Daniel Stahl
** "Otto Skorzeny: The Vatican Conspiracy" [Szorzeny.greyfalcon.us/Vatican.html][archive.today]
** In 1949 letter, German SS commander Otto Wächter says Nazis on the run entered Brazil without passports [archive.today/tObpn]
** "IN A LETTER, WÄCHTER SAYS NAZIS ENTERED BRAZIL WITHOUT PASSPORTS" [archive.today/d1Mrl]
** "Read the full letter from Otto Wächter about possible escape to Brazil" [archive.today/x84IS]
** War Crimes: How Nazis Escaped Justice in South America [archive.today/41vgT]
** How the Nazis escaped justice [archive.today/Uy7GR]

** "2 SS chiefs who fled to US on new Wiesenthal list of 10 most-wanted Nazis" (2014-10) [archive.today]

Kissinger and the secret spy network of old Nazis and German aristocrats 'who plotted to overthrow West German goverment' [archive.today]
* 'The Little Service' was made up of many former Gestapo and S.S. men as well as titled barons and counts
* Kissnger even discussed with them the possibility of a coup to overthrow the government of Chancellor Willy Brandt
* The Little Service which came into being in 1969 and ran for a decade
* Was lavishly funded and with more success than state intelligence agencies which were riddled with East German moles

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

"Russia and China Are Not Imperialist" (2015-03-02, by Steven Argue)

[Photo: South Ossetians celebrate independence maintained with the help of Russia. In 2008, an unprovoked military attack by the U.S. and Israeli sponsored Georgian government on the tiny country of South Ossetia left 2,000 civilians dead. Russian military backing of the Ossetian people maintained their independence and ended imperialist aggression in a 5 day war.]

By any legitimate Marxist analysis, neither Russia nor China is imperialist. Russia is a weak capitalist country in the crosshairs of U.S. and EU imperialists who have targeted Russia for isolation, regime change, and to be broken up into three more easily controlled neo-colonial governments. This plan was even laid down on paper by top Obama advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski. China is a deformed workers state facing a combined imperialist policy of economic engagement, military encirclement, and threats.

Is Russia Imperialist?
Examples of supposed Russian imperialism do not stand up to scrutiny. Ukraine, for instance, was one of Russia’s close allies before the U.S. and EU sponsored a coup that overthrew their elected government a year ago. This is a country with a long and close relationship with Russia. If we were to find an example of Russian imperialism, it would be in Ukraine. Yet at the time of the imperialist sponsored coup, Russian Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Ukraine was extremely low.
According to 2011 figures, nearly 80% of Ukrainian foreign direct investment (FDI) in Ukraine came from the European Union. The actual number is actually a little bit lower because about 22.2% of that is comes from Cyprus, a location Ukrainian capitalists use for tax avoidance. Still, that leaves about 60% of Ukraine’s FDI coming from the EU. Russia, on the other hand, accounted for only 7.6% of FDI. This is a very low number given the historic ties of former Soviet influence. Much lower than could possibly give credence to claims that the Euromaiden “revolution” liberated Ukraine from Russian imperialist control.
Today, the relatively weak capitalist class that has developed in Russia since the Yeltsin capitalist counterrevolution in 1991 is standing up, in its own national self-interests, against a U.S. engineered and fascist infested coup government in Kiev. That government hates Ukraine’s national minorities and seeks to hurt the entire working class of Ukraine through imposing the austerity and other dictates of the IMF, EU, and USA. It is a deadly threat to the working class of Ukraine and is a dagger aimed by the U.S. imperialists at Russia itself. A victory by relatively weak Russia against U.S. imperialism will be a blow for the world’s working class which suffers under deeply under the terror and exploitation of U.S. / E.U. imperialism. An anti-imperialist victory in Ukraine will also serve to protect the oppressed Russian nationality of Crimea, protect Russia from imperialism, and protect the deformed workers state of Belarus.
The capitalist government of Russia has many problems, and needs to be overthrown in a proletarian revolution that brings back the socialist planned economy and brings workers democracy. Yet, Russia's support for the sovereignty of South Ossetia, Ukraine, Crimea, and Syria from the religious fanatics, genocidal maniacs, and extreme nationalists sponsored by the imperialist governments of the U.S. and E.U. are relatively minor actions by a weak capitalist country (Russia), against the real imperialist powers of the United States and European Union. In these situations, Leninist-Trotskyists side with the weaker countries against the imperialists, as Lenin pointed out:
‘If tomorrow, Morocco were to declare war on France, or India on Britain, or Persia or China on Russia, and so on, these would be “just”, and “defensive” wars irrespective of who would be the first to attack; any socialist would wish the oppressed, dependent and unequal states victory over the oppressor, slave-holding and predatory ‘Great’ Powers.’
(Socialism and War, July 1915)
Leninist-Trotskyists side with Russia against the great powers. This does not mean we support the capitalist system in Russia. Today, Russia still needs a socialist revolution despite Russia under Putin moving away from the total capitulation to imperialism found in the years of the Yeltsin led capitalist counterrevolution.

Is China Imperialist?
Regarding China’s foreign investments, they are in their vast majority socialist state investments, not capitalist investments. Here is part of a piece I’ve been writing on Vietnam and Laos that takes up this question:
In 2014 the People’s Republic of China became the biggest investor in Laos with the Laotian government announcing $5.1 billion in investment from China in January, 2014. Among the Chinese projects are a massive project developing rail from China through Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Massive hydroelectric projects are also being developed with benefits both for development and the fight against global warming, but also unfortunate disruptions and damage to the environment as well.
In 2013 the People's Republic of China also announced it is providing Laos with $49 million (US dollars) in aid and an additional $32 million (US dollars) in interest free credits. This will help keep Laos free of some of the debt slavery suffered under the loans countries are given by the World Bank and the International Development Bank. Under those imperialist capitalist loans, poor countries subsidize the wealthy ones with exorbitant interest rates on unpayable loans, causing the flow of wealth to be from poor countries to the rich. Robin Hood in reverse. In addition, restructuring is contingent on harmful policies of austerity and privatization. A form of colonialism.
For many on the left, China's investments bringing development to numerous underdeveloped countries are seen as a form of imperialism. This ignores a few basic facts. First of all, the vast majority of these investments are by the Chinese mainland state run banks or other state owned sectors. Instead of being short-term speculative investments based on the profit motive, as imperialist capitalist investments are, they are investments that seek needed commodities for China's economy which is still largely planned and socialist. Unlike the USSR's planned socialist economy, which was built in a resource rich country, China is now building up its economy, largely through the vast advantages of socialist planning, in a country that is relatively resource poor. To do so they must invest in other countries in order to import needed resources for their collectivized enterprises back in China.
To extract these resources China makes investments. For many in Africa and Asia these investments in schools, roads, railroads, and other needed infrastructure and enterprises are generally seen as a welcome change from the neglect and underdevelopment imposed by the imperial capitalists. This is not to say that there have not been abuses, but these well known abuses have come from the small minority of private Chinese enterprises functioning abroad.
The socialist character of Chinese investments was even recognized by U.S. State Department official Princeton Lyman in a 2005 presentation to the Congressional U.S.-China Commission, who said:
“China utilizes a variety of instruments to advance its interest in ways that western nations can only envy. Most of China’s investments are through state-owned companies, whose individual investments do not have to be profitable if they serve overall Chinese objectives. Thus the representative of China’s state-owned construction company in Ethiopia could reveal that he was instructed by Beijing to bid low on various tenders, without regard for profit. China’s long term objective in Ethiopia is in access to future natural resource investments, not in construction business profits.”
This has produced radically different ways of operating that have been highly praised by important African academics. Chinese investments in Laos, which includes socialist construction, aid, and interest free loans, are also likely to prove mutually beneficial for the people of Laos.

Imperialist Pivot Asia and the Paracel Islands Dispute -
A profound capitulation of the Vietnamese Communist Party to U.S. imperialism is cooperation with Obama’s aggressive military maneuvers aimed at the People’s Republic of China as a part of Pivot Asia. This has included the Vietnamese Coast Guard carrying out attacks on Chinese oil drilling in the South China Sea. These are attacks on the $1 billion deepwater oil-drilling platform that has been deployed in exploratory operations by the People’s Republic of China near the Paracel Islands. The Paracel Islands are about equidistant from the coastlines of China and Vietnam. The People’s Republic of China seized one inhabited section of the Paracel Islands in 1950 from the U.S. backed Chinese Kuomintang government, a government that was overthrown on the mainland and reduced to only maintaining power in Taiwan after the 1949 Chinese Revolution. Another uninhabited section of the Paracel Islands was seized by the French imperialists and became a claim of the South Vietnamese puppet governments thereafter until 1974. At that time, in a brief war between the People’s Republic of China and the U.S. imposed Thiệu dictatorship of South Vietnam, the PRC took control of the entire chain of islands. The islands include the Chinese city of Sansha with an estimated 3,500 inhabitants and infrastructure investments from the PRC, including the 2014 completion of a solar powered desalinization plant that now provides the additional freshwater that the city’s inhabitants needed.
Until very recently, the only people raising a fuss over the PRC’s control of the Paracel Islands have been counterrevolutionary Vietnamese and Chinese. This has changed with Vietnamese cooperation with Obma’s policy of Pivot Asia. Obama’s policy of Pivot Asia involves military encirclement of China, military provocations against China, and an attempt to dominate resources in the China Sea while at the same time carrying out capitalist economic engagement with China as an means of undermining the Chinese Revolution from within. Imperialist aggression towards China includes wrongful Japanese claims and military build up in the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands in the East China Sea. These islands are Chinese, but with the current Japanese military occupation of the islands, they could be used in military attacks against the industrialized east part of China. The islands are also crucial the PRC’s self-defense from potential naval blockade from U.S. and Japanese imperialism if imperialist war breaks out against the People’s Republic of China. In addition, in 2014 within days of U.S. threats against the PRC, the United States, Japan, and South Korea all flew aircraft over Chinese airspace, including nuclear capable B-52 bombers, to test Chinese defenses for a potential imperialist attack on China. The Vietnamese Stalinists also joined in this imperialist campaign by attacking Chinese claims to the Paracel Islands and even allowing the U.S. Navy to dock in Vietnam.
2014 actions of the Vietnamese government included sending Coast Guard and fishing vessels out to aggressively interfere with Chinese oil exploration. This has led to confrontations with China spraying water on these boats and an allegation, denied by the Chinese, of the Chinese sinking one of the Vietnamese fishing boats involved in the confrontation by ramming it. China says the boat “capsized after harassing and colliding with a Chinese fishing boat”.
One sided coverage of these events in the west helped fuel unfair anti-Chinese prejudices that have been pushed by the U.S. government and western corporate media for decades. Likewise, the Vietnamese Stalinists whipped up a nationalist frenzy that included violent chauvinistic riots as 20,000 people marched against Vietnam’s ethnic Chinese minority and carried out nationalistic anti-Chinese violence that left over 20 people dead and a hundred people injured.
The Vietnamese Coast Guard who have been participating in these attacks are themselves now partially funded by the United States, including $18 million dollars in assistance in 2014. They also receive training from the Japanese and U.S. imperialists. In addition, despite the hard fought anti-imperialist victory of 1975, U.S. naval ships are now even allowed to dock in Vietnam. This, as well as massive capitalist inroads into the Vietnamese economy, are a Stalinist betrayal of the 2.8 million Vietnamese lives given to rid Vietnam of blood thirsty imperialist troops and overthrow the capitalist system and throw the imperialists out of Vietnam.
Ultimately, what will be necessary to defend the remaining gains of the Vietnamese, Laotian, and Chinese Revolutions will be political revolutions that overthrow the repressive Stalinist bureaucracies of those countries, institute systems of workers democracy, end Vietnamese capitulations to western and Japanese imperialism, end capitalist inroads into their economies, and build an internationalist revolutionary movement to break the socialist countries out of isolation without capitulations to imperialism. This is part of a Trotskyists program that also defends these three countries from imperialist attack and internal capitalist counterrevolution as well. The lie that China is imperialist only aids U.S. and Japanese counterrevolutionary aggression directed at the People’s Republic of China.
The false notion that China is imperialist only aids U.S. and Japanese counterrevolutionary aggression directed at the People’s Republic of China. Likewise, the lie that Russia is imperialist only aids western imperialist ethnic cleansing of the Russian speaking minority in Ukraine, imperialist aggression against the people of Syria as part of an intervention that formed ISIS and continues to back religious fanatics against the Syrian and Kurdish people, and aids imperialist sanctions against Belarus with its remaining socialist economy, as well as other western imperialist acts of aggression against the world’s working class and farmers.

End U.S. and EU Imperialist Sanctions Against Russia!
End U.S. and Japanese Military Threats and Encirclement of China!

-Steven Argue of the Revolutionary Tendency
Revolutionary Tendency
[https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionaryTendency]

Sunday, March 1, 2015

More Material Wealth leads to Less Reliance on Religion

"Faith Versus Finance: Does affluence affect spirituality?" by Julian Archer (2015-03-01, AdventistWorld.org)

Seesaws, or teeter-totters, are common in playgrounds around the world. The name “seesaw” is a direct Anglicization of the French word ci-ça, meaning literally, “this-that.” The seesaw is an “either/or,” a“this or that,” mechanical device. You can have only one side at the top at any given time; never both.Is that how it is with faith and finance? Can we have only faith or finance, never both? Or is it only great faith and great finance that tend to seesaw?

What I’ve Learned in the Playground “Down Under” -
According to the latest reports, my home country of Australia is one of the most affluent nations on earth.The 2013 Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report shows that Australian adults have the second-highest wealth level of any country on the planet (second only to Switzerland), and that our median wealth level per adult is the highest on the planet, more than double Switzerland’s. This means that we’re not only extremely wealthy (even though we may not always feel it), but our wealth is also more evenly distributed than in many other nations. As a Christian who spent many years trying to maintain a strong relationship with God while my income was high enough for me to live self-sufficiently. I must ask the question”What impact does affluence have on spirituality, including my own?” Does it lead us nearer to God, to a greater faith? Or does it turn our eyes from Him? Or perhaps finances are completely unrelated to faith?

Searching for the Answer -
In 2009 a Gallup poll reported on their surveys conducted in 114 countries. One of the questions the Gallup organization asked was “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” Gallup also researched the per-capita income levels for each country and then made correlations between the two. The data made it clear that the see-saw effect is in full swing. The higher the per-capita income of a nation, the lower the role of religion in daily life,and vice versa. Let’s zoom in on some of the nations at the top and bottom of the“faith versus finance” seesaw. The accompanying table is based on data from both the Gallup poll and the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report. The data clearly show a great divide—in both the importance of religion and levels of wealth—between the world’s richest (less religious) and poorest (more religious) nations. It could be argued that the reason for the high wealth ranking of these`“Top 10” wealthiest nations shown in the table is that they originally based their societies and business practices on Christian principles, and God blessed them. Times are changing, however. The seesaw has tilted, and affluence is toppling both religion and spirituality. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The fact is, the moment that financial stability is assured, spiritual bankruptcy is also assured.” Gandhi seems to be reflecting Jesus’ words: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25). I know from my personal experience that when a person is financially blessed they’re in the most spiritually dangerous stage of their life. The higher my income went, the less I felt my need for God. My income taxed my spirituality.

Living the Dream?
As I run Faith Versus Finance seminars, I see that most affluent Christians, in their deepest hearts, really do want a vibrant, life-changing relationship with God. But they’re frustrated. They feel as if they’re being forced to live a life focused on earthly priorities when they know that true satisfaction and fulfillment come only from eternal things. I can hear their cries because I spent years “living the dream” but aching for a deeper relationship with God. I finally realized that God’s mate-rial blessings had become a curse in my spiritual life. It’s not that God’s blessings are curses, but we often use them in such a way that they become curses. When we allow God’s material blessings to fill our hearts, we can’t open our heart’s door to Jesus. And that’s a curse—an eternal curse. The Bible is full of examples in which the mistreatment of God’s blessings led to curses. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses tells the children of Israel that they’re about to enter a“land flowing with milk and honey”(verse 3). But then he adds the clincher: “When you have eaten and are full—then beware, lest you forget the Lord” (verses 11, 12). It’s a powerful reminder that a full stomach can make us very sleepy

Seesaw Snapshot -
So what does this seesaw look like in the day-to-day life of a comfortable Christian? Let’s look at three areas:Construction: When I “build bigger barns” and store up my treasures hereon earth, it distracts me from eternal riches. I start to worry about them, and I invest increasing amounts of time and energy into protecting and multiplying the blessings instead of trusting completely in Him. My finances rise, but my faith falls; and I often don’t even realize it (see Rev. 3:17).
Time: The first indicator of spiritual apathy is the crippling and cropping of my time with God. This usually occurs during periods of increased time pressures because of financial, personal, entertainment, or other priorities. The problem could last just a few mornings, or perhaps even many years. When I neglect to spend quality time praying and studying the Scriptures, my relationship with Christ weakens.
Heart: Whenever I fill my heart with the gifts instead of the Giver, my faith falls. When Christ knocks on the door of my material-blessings-filled heart (verse 20), the sound of His knocking is muffled. And even when I do hear it, I struggle to climb over all my material blessings to reach out and open the door.
Ellen White referred to this crowded-heart syndrome when she wrote, “The heavenly Guest is standing at your door, while you are piling up obstructions to bar His entrance. Jesus is knocking through the prosperity He gives you. He loads you with blessings to test your fidelity, that they may flow out from you to others. Will you permit your selfishness to triumph? Will you squander God’s talents, and lose your soul through idolatrous love of the blessings He has given?” (Ellen G. White, in Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, Nov. 2, 1886). This is very challenging territory,but it begs the question Does our faith always need to decrease as our affluence rises? Is the faith-versus-finance seesaw an unchangeable, universal principle?

Breaking the Seesaw -
God offers a cure for every person who realizes that their affluent life-style is damaging their spiritual life. It’s a heart attack! Not a cardiac arrest,but a total spiritual heart transplant.In Ezekiel 36:26 God tells us that He wants to give us a new heart, a loving heart of flesh, to replace our materialistic heart of stone. We must be converted again. We can be active church members and financial supporters of God’s work but still contract spiritual heart disease. We need a total heart transplant. Instead of faith versus finance, it can and should be faith and finance. Or even better, faith regardless of finance.May we be true to God in all things, including our material blessings.

Country: Mean Adult Wealth (US$,000) / % Answered “NO” to “Is religion an important part of your daily life?
Switzerland: 513 / 57%
Australia: 403 / 67%
Norway: 380 / 78%
Luxembourg: 315 / 64%
USA: 301 / 36%
Sweden: 299 / 88%
France: 296 / 74%
Singapore: 282 / 53%
Belgium: 256 / 68%
Denmark: 255 / 83%
THE GREAT DIVIDE
Thailand: 8 / 2%
India: 5 / 9%
Haiti: 4 / 8%
Pakistan: 4 / 4%
Kenya: 3 / 3%
Cambodia: 3 / 3%
Nepal: 2 / 5%