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Lucy S. R. Austen's avatar

Good and timely post for me and I appreciate your thoughts on the line between prudence and greed/fear. I especially appreciate you saying this outloud: "But because I’ve watched responsible friends lose their homes due to sudden unemployment and know that everyday, approximately 10,000 children die from hunger related causes, these passages fail to comfort me. In fact, I find them a bit troubling." This is an ongoing challenge for me in understanding living by faith in regard to more than just money, and it is good to know I'm not alone.

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thank you Lucy for taking the time to respond. I rarely talk about that bcz I feel like I am quickly judged for not having enough faith. (Which might be true!) It feels very complicated to me.

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Judi Lemay-Lusk's avatar

thanks for the reminder, Dorothy. Great article, i took liberty with it and posted it to my facebook page, Keep on speaking out

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Kathleen Banfield's avatar

I also posted this on my Facebook page

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thank you!!

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thanks for reading and for sharing.

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Richard Lamb's avatar

Thanks, Dorothy, for the reminder about empathy, gratitude and generosity. There is no line below which these things, including generosity, will not enrich our lives. I know "the rich" need to hear this message, but most of those who read it (decidedly including myself) qualify as "the rich" in global terms, more likely part of the <5% at the top. Thank you for this reminder to all of us.

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment Rich. Appreciate the MANY ways you and Lisa share your lives with others.

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Lucy S. R. Austen's avatar

Yes, complicated indeed.

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Bill Burgess's avatar

Bullseye on this Dorothy. The writing here is all gravity and mass, straight to the point with no balloons or confetti. It makes me uneasy and repentant. I suspect the way we handle money is the “check engine” light of how much kingdom come we really possess. I need to pull over….

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Well said. It's hard, ongoing work. Personally, I like comfort and this makes it more difficult for me to give sacrificially. We keep at it. And keep repenting. Cheers friend.

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Cheryl Berto's avatar

I smiled all the way through reading this - so spot on and so aligned with my own heart and mind. It's nice to hear voices like yours!!

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thank you Cheryl. I appreciate your kind words.

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Linda MacKillop's avatar

You have had quite the life experience to influence your thinking. What a gift for you. And thank you for sharing it with us.

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Indeed. Between the experiences of pastoring and working as a journalist, my mind has been blown SO many times.

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Angela's avatar

Thank you

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thank you for reading and for taking the time to comment.

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Jbjorck's avatar

Thanks for this timely essay Dorothy. I really appreciate your insights and sharing. I would note one tiny clarification, and that is that the poverty level for a family of 4 is around $32K, but for one person it is currently $15,650. (https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines).

I would also add that being generous can be a real mood enhancer! So is gratitude! In short, increasing our gratitude and increasing our generosity actually helps....us, not just the recipients. We don't have to wait until Heaven to reap the rewards of such "treasure-storing" via giving to others. It can help us be happier right now too. :)

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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thanks for that clarification. I know you get this. :)

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Angela's avatar

Very challenging & very timely; thank you.

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May 7
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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Obviously, we disagree. If trickle down worked, they why would the gulf between rich and poor keep growing? We are a country based in capitalism, yes, but does that mean we can't reform it? Reform is not the same as anti-capitalism. This article, by Princeton economist Matthew Desmond, points to the ways that collecting taxes from the rich would make a huge difference. His work is incredibly compelling. "We could fund powerful antipoverty programs through sensible tax reform and enforcement. A recent study estimates that collecting all unpaid federal income taxes from the top 1 percent — not raising their taxes, mind you, just putting an end to their tax evasion — would add $175 billion a year to the public purse. That’s enough to more than double federal investment in affordable housing or to re-establish the expanded child tax credit. In fact, an additional $175 billion a year is almost enough to lift everyone out of poverty altogether." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/opinion/poverty-abolition-united-states.html

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May 6
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Dorothy Littell Greco's avatar

Thanks for weighing in. I'm not an economist but do read quite a bit about economics. Reagan's trickle down economics has largely not worked. Though for sure some of the ultra wealthy (as differentiated from those who are rich) do create businesses and pay their employees fairly which does matter. But others skirt paying their fair share of taxes which has the potential bring bring in billions of $ (the actual # is difficult to pin down but if you research it, most sources are saying upwards of $50 billion/yr. so I totally disagree that it's socialist propaganda or a reflection of communism. I have no idea if you are a person of faith but Scripture is pretty clear that we are to give sacrificially. I don't think that someone in the top 1% of wage earners is even making a sacrifice to pay their taxes because they have so much more. It does feel like a sacrifice for families like ours to pay and it's one we willingly make.

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