Kadame, I think We need to stop viewing this world and our fellow people as evil, and nothing but bad intentions.
Bittertruth, my view of the world is that it is "good". That's what God said of creation in Genesis. That's not the issue.
When I read the New Testament, I don't see this obsession with worldly possessions. I never used to see it from Christians when I was growing up. It's come like a wave, sweeping all over. Why is it Christians went to church to focuss on something other than worldly desires back in the day? Don't you think something sinister is going on here?
By the way, I am not into poverty. I like me some money, and I always ask God for worldly provisions that I need. But I don't think that he gives me based on the money my priest receives as if I buy God or something. In fact, if I can tell you from real, genuine, personal experience, the prayers that have been answered fastest, most clearly and in unmistakably miraculous fashion, their defining characteristic had zilch to do with how much money I had given nowhere. I can say without fear of contradiction that they were based in HUMILITY. That's it. Those prayers where I know my own weakness and consequently turn to God as a person who has nothing of their own but depends on him for everything--those prayers are so EFFECTIVE that I have to kick myself in the foot just thinking about it, coz Why can't I be permanently humble?
Humility is something I never hear in these people's so called prayers. They go to God believing they DESERVE his gifts, that they can "claim" them, that God is somehow bound to give them what they want because they have given some "mbegu". They forget how much emphasis Christ put on interior dispositions. If you are only giving "to get", then are you realy giving? You are not loving God at all, but yourself. If I can paraphrase Christ,
"What reward have you? Do not even the pagans do as much?" You must strive for genuine selflessness in your relationship with God. It is hard, veeerry hard. And anybody who claims it is not hard and that they are not constantly fumbling is lying. But at least, we should try. Not throw that away and head straight for the opposite approach where we are constantly and deliberately self-seeking, which is what happens on TV these days, all the time.