I am poor and naked but I am the chief of a nation. We do not want
riches but we do want to train our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.
--Red Cloud, Oglala Sioux~
Those who wish to make room for the Lord must find pleasure not in private, but in common property.... Redouble your charity. For, on account of the things which each one of us possesses singly, wars exist, hatreds, discords, strifes among human beings, tumults, dissensions, scandals, sins, injustices, and murders. On what account? On account of those things which each of us possesses singly. Do we fight over the things we possess in common? We inhale this air in common with others, we all see the sun in common. Blessed therefore are those who make room for the Lord, so as not to take pleasure in private property. Let us therefore abstain from the possessions of private property—or from the love of it, if we cannot abstain from possession—and let us make room for the Lord.
--Saint Augustine (354–430 CE) [Commentary on Psalm 131], unanimous with virtually all the early church fathers & mothers. Is this the same religion as what passes itself off as Christianity today? Augustine is beloved (in word) by both Evangelicals and Catholics. Augustine gave up his possessions to the poor.
Before our white brothers came to civilize us we had no jails. Therefore we had no criminals. You can't have criminals without a jail. We had no locks or keys, and so we had no thieves. If a man was so poor that he had no horse, tipi or blanket, someone gave him these things. We were too uncivilized to set much value on personal belongings. We wanted to have things only in order to give them away. We had no money, and therefore a man's worth couldn't be measured by it. We had no written law, no attorney or politicians, therefore we couldn't cheat. We were in a really bad way before the white man came, and I don't know how we managed to get along without the basic things which, we are told, are absolutely necessary to make a civilized society.
-- Lakota Sage Lame Deer (from John Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions)
If there were no debts in our money system, there wouldn't be any money.
- Marriner S. Eccles, former Chairman and Governor of the Federal Reserve Board
Forgive us our debts
even as we forgive our debtors.
-Jesus
I seek refuge in you from sin and from being in debt.
-Muhammad
Owe no one anything,
except to love one another.
-Paul
And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
--Thomas Jefferson in his letter to John Taylor, May 28, 1816 [The Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress]
You can't get rich if you treat your relatives right.
You can't get rich without cheating people.
Cheating people is the wrong way.
That way gets you into trouble.
Men should be honest to get along.
--Anonymous Navajo Leader (p. 32, The Book of the Navajo, RF Locke, 2001)
Question to Peace Pilgrim: "Why don't you accept money?"
Peace Pilgrim: Because I talk about spiritual truth, and spiritual truth should never be sold - those who sell it injure themselves spiritually....
"Those who attempt to buy spiritual truth are attempting to get it before they are ready. In this wonderfully well-ordered universe, when they are ready it will be given.
Non-possession is allied to non-stealing. A thing not originally stolen must nevertheless be classified as stolen property, if we possess it without needing it. Possession implies provision for the future. A seeker after Truth, a follower of the law of Love, cannot hold anything against tomorrow. God never stores for the morrow. He never creates more than what is strictly needed for the moment. If, therefore, we repose faith in His Providence, we should rest assured that He will give us every day our daily bread, meaning everything that we require.... Our ignorance or negligence of the Divine Law, which gives to man from day to day his daily bread and no more, has given rise to inequalities with all the miseries attendant upon them. The rich have superfluous store of things which they do not need and which are, therefore, neglected and wasted, while millions are starved to death for want of sustenance.
-- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
http://sites.google.com/site/livingwithoutmoney/
