The Love of Money

by Doug Lynam of Longview Asset Management and author of 'From Monk to Money Manager 

I used to be a monk. Now I’m a financial advisor. For a while, I was both a monk and a financial advisor. For some reason, those facts make me a sort of unicorn to most people. But that is why reconciling faith with finance is so important. For too long, religion and money have been held separate, as if the very existence of one sullies the other. But the cold hard truth of modern life is that we need money. We can’t live our lives and serve others without it. Everyone needs a little bit of wealth — even monks. I discovered this fact the hard way when our community went bankrupt.

However, some Christians will cherry pick quotes from the Bible or parse a single passage to avoid the conflict between faith and finance. One of the more popular justifications is to re-interpret key passages, like 1 Timothy 6:10: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.” 

We need to find a way forward that allows us to care for the poor and our planet, without feeling guilty about having money, and enjoying it wholeheartedly for the good it produces in the world and our personal lives. Here are my ideas on how...

Read Doug's full blog post and his Bio here - https://greenmoney.com/the-love-of-money

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