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Bishop Musa el-Baramousy, the Coptic Orthodox bishop of youth work, is known to be one of the most evangelical among the Coptic Orthodox Bishops. According to Kees Hulsman, editor of Religion News Service of the Arab World (which provides English translation of articles in the Arabic press, including this one), he is especially known for speaking to Muslims in an explicit, yet nonoffensive way. The following article originally ran December 3 in al-Shaab, a Cairo-based Islamic paper that recently attacked the Egyptian government and harshly criticized normalizing relations with Israel. There is no doubt that Christianity, according to the Holy Bible, has its own viewpoint to money, and consequently to the market culture.

First: the Christian viewpoint to money. Christianity believes that:

1. Money is a gift from God. As the Bible says "As God who richly furnishes us with everything to enjoy."
2. Money is not essential in life. As the Bible teaches us, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist of his possessions" (Luke 12:15) and also "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4), because "In him we live and move and have our being."
3. Money is not essential for happiness. Solomon says, "Better is a dry morsel with quiet than a house full of feasting with strife" (Proverbs 17:1). Happiness is a psychological, spiritual value that can't be bought by money.
4. Money is uncertain, as Paul advises the rich: "As for the rich in this world, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on uncertain riches but on God"

What is needed is the minimum necessity to support life, not extravagance because "Whereas she who is self-indulgent is dead even while she lives" (1 Timothy 5: 6), and "There is great gain in godliness with contentment."

In this context the word of God teaches us that "Give us each day our daily bread". "If we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content" (1 Timothy 5:6). The word of God advises us "Be content with what you have" (Hebrews 13:5) and "So that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8).

The Bible teaches to be content in all the essentials of life, like food, drink, housing, education, health, etc. This does not mean that a young man can't develop his life with a good investment in his educational or administrative talents for a better life standard. He should be sure that man is making every effort with the power of God who gives man talents for the glory of the Lord. God gives man these talents to trade with them for the glory of God not for a materialistic ambition that replaces the love of God with self-love and extravagance. That is why we prefer the expression "investing talents" to "ambitions" as the first expression means trading sincerely with the talents given by God for the glory of His name.

Through what we have mentioned, we can study the viewpoint of Christianity to the culture of the market: Christianity is not against economic freedom. Christianity is encouraging self-motivation, investment and increasing the agricultural and industrial production.Christianity warns against making these mistakes:

1. The love of money, because " For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs" (1 Timothy 6:10).
2. Craving for materialistic richness, because "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into the snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plug men into ruin and destruction" (1 Timothy 6:9).

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December (Web-only) 1999, Vol. 43