Religion and Capitalism

One of the most interesting points I got out of reading The Rhetoric of Hitler's Battle was Burke's mention of religion's losing struggle with capitalism on page 194. Burke states that capitalist materialism was religion's "powerful enemy long before atheism". And it's this materialism Hitler used as a weapon.

According to Burke, religion and capitalism butt heads due to their core goal; "religion is based upon the 'prosperity of poverty' while 'capitalism is based upon the prosperity of acquisitions'. Religion builds meaning and use from suffering and poverty while capitalism is concerned with only gaining the most "gadgets". With religion, the "high standard of living" is based on how one puts their sufferings to good use, finds the meaning within a negative. Capitalism is in stark contrast in that the "high standard of living" can only be achieved through "vast private accumulation". So as capitalism strengthens through the centuries, the values and ubiquity of religion decrease.

But what really interested me was when I applied this concept of opposing forces in a character diagram of Jesus. Jesus Christ, as described in the Bible, was one of the least capitalistic dudes ever. He was constantly giving (bread and fish and things) and, more importantly, never accumulating, never preaching the benefit of accumulating goods, truly living the exemplary religious lifestyle. How would Jesus, the chosen one to whom Christians should model their lives, have felt about America's raging capitalist-founded society and those who so adamantly support capitalism?

Today's America is ridden with religious perversion (especially as it coats everything within politics, the one place where it shouldn't come to play), and one of the biggest perversions seems to involve capitalism in our society. How can one who claims to be a Christian, or any religion for that matter, support today's extreme capitalism? How can one worship Jesus as the son of their God while at the same time immorally hoarding and accumulating, doing the exact opposite of Jesus's actions? Jesus wasn't a capitalist; he was the anti-capitalist. Burke was right about the fight between religion and capitalism, yet today we somehow convince ourselves that they can be mixed, soluble even. But how can an American "Christian" support our political process (the way our politics thrive on perverted capitalism and greed as a means) in the face of their own religion? It's up, that's for sure.