“Money is the root of all evil”. Do you agree?
The actual quotation, is found in the New Testament. Timothy I verse 10, is ‘for the love of money is the root of all evil’ — and this presumably is what the heading implies, for it is fairly obvious that money as a means of exchange is no more the root of evil than it is the root of good. it is neutral — as the jungle is said to be! Moreover, it is the indispensable standard against which raw materials, goods, and services may relatively be valued and as such is the sine qua non of any kind of civilization whatsoever.
The Biblical quotation stems from the writer’s belief that the Christian ought to live a spiritual life in a material world, and this train of thought has ever since been a commonplace of the Puritan tradition of Christian thought. The theory is that the world of material things is corrupt and unredeemed. Money is its lifeblood, so money — or its love — must necessarily be an evil thing. But the other Christian school of thought regards this as dualism and will have none of it. money, it is argued, can buy the good things of life, which confer benefits, always providing unselfishness, and spirituality predominates in a person’s thoughts — and that view which regards the world in which we live as an essentially evil place is based on a wrong-headed, primitive Jewish notion that Satan thrown out of the garden of Eden, corrupted God’s world. The Spirit of Christianity — like that of other world religions — is that money can be used well or ill, and that the man who possesses it can be either a narrow miser or an open-handed benefactor.
Let us first examine the sense in which the statement is true. It has been said that ‘every man has his price’. This implies that everybody can be bribed, providing the price is high enough. Most countries can provide examples of financial corruption from the proud and rich to the humble and poor. Britain, in recent years, had a Chancellor of the Exchequer who disclosed a budget secret before the due for financial gain. Money can buy vice — of any kind; and organized vice exists to provide financial rewards to its criminal promoters. Money can inculcate selfishness. It is often true that the more money a man piles up, the meaner he becomes, whereas the poor show the quality of generosity to a marked degree. Of course, it is difficult to say whether this is a question of the post or propter hoc ! Money confers powers corrupts, and infinite power corrupts infinitely. The arrogant dictator is no better than the aggressive business tycoon in this respect. And the majority of crimes are committed for money, or loot its equivalent, and we find that the love of money motivates the protection-racket gang, the bootlegger in prohibition countries, the dope-peddler, the thief who robes with violence, the gangster, the black-mailer, the bank robber, the burglar, and a host of other denizens of the human underworld.
But the obverse of the coin presents an equally clear picture. Modern standards of living depend on industrialization, of which capital is the lifeblood. Money, rightly used, can and does immeasurably improve the lot of the ordinary person, whether in terms of food, clothing, houses, holidays, books, motor-cars and such like consumer goods, or whether in terms of public services — national defense, public health, hospitals, libraries, clubs, playing fields, nature reserves, unemployment pay and so on. In fact, without a steady flow of private and public money, modern life is inconceivable. Money can also be used for the benefit of those in need, whether at home or abroad through charitable societies; it can provide education, foreign travel, and international cultural exchange. It can enable religion to do its work of leading men’s thoughts to God, and teaching them to behave unselfishly towards each other. It can provide grace, beauty, and nobility in the cities and towns in which we live.
Surely the crux of the matter is the individual’s attitude towards money. If he regards money as an end in itself, to be increased and amassed for its own sake, he is liable to become selfish and miserly, unconcerned about other people or their needs. If he sees money as a means of buying physical pleasures for himself, he is in danger of becoming a corrupt, indeed a criminal human being. If, on the other hand, he earns money, but spends it wisely, he can do nothing but good. This good maybe to himself, if he spends his money to secure a balanced and intelligent life; it can be to his dependents if he conscientiously provides them with a good home, a proper education, and a fair share of this world’s goods. It can be to the world at large if he had enough of it to give some away to benefit the community of which he is a member.
In such a case, money is certainly not the root of all evil. And if it is not the root of all good, it is certainly the nourishment that helps that root to grow.
