Would you agree that certain banks are evil Mammon?Matt. 6: 24 24 ΒΆ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 3 Ne. 13: 24 24 No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to... |
The distinction here is "serving" Mammon versus being "friends" with Mammon. I think this goes along with being in the world but not of the world. We have to learn to deal with all kinds of people and we have to learn how to survive in a worldly way without making ourselves slaves to those worldly ways.
You have brought up the case of bankers, which might represent anybody who focuses too much on money. Truly, money is one of Satan's greatest tools. If we have control of the money we can get just about anything in the world that we want. Satan knows that and puts greed and covetousness into our minds and hearts to pull us away from things of the spirit, such as faith, obedience and sacrifice.
I take Mammon to represent anything worldly that tends to take over our lives. When we make friends with worldly people, then we are able to share spiritual values with them and they will not treat us unfairly as they might otherwise do. I like to think about the strange alliance that Orrin Hatch had with Ted Kennedy. Somehow they managed to work together in the Senate even though they represented opposite sides of the political spectrum. Romney is trying to do something similar now. If he does get elected, he will have to make friends with his enemies in order to get anything done in government.
Does it help us to work with the bankers of the world? Yes, it does as long as we keep those relationships on our own terms, honor the agreements or contracts and don't let them control us. We have to keep all of our accounts within reason, pay our obligations and then both sides remain happy.
No, I don't see banks as evil. I see them as businesses which helps people accumulate the capital they need in order to make free enterprise work. They also help ordinary people save money and earn interest. They make available loans to the needy, under reasonable business conditions.
Banks are inanimate inistitutions, incapable of sinning.
But the directors who manage them are fallible humans.
They may be motivated by greed & be dishonest.
There have been many class action law suits,
against their deceptive practices.
To date most banks have regarded their clients as commercial commodities and with some contempt. I see little chance of that changing.
