I appreciate your wit, Stu, though I think even you will agree Christ had more pressing things on his mind than making a buck...
1 Thessalonians 4:17: "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands... so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."
sounds like capitalism to me, like the life of a trader even... "not dependent on anybody" includes the government... Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Solomon, David, Job... all were seriously rich dudes...to borrow a phrase from Chris Rock, ain't nuttin' wrong wid dat...
a lot of the confusion comes from the fact that scripture condemns usury, which is lending at excessively high rates of interest.... in otherwords, don't be a loan shark and don't try to rip people off
the verse madison quoted in which the rich man was told to sell all his possessions was not a sweeping economic statement... it was a specific observation directed at a specific individual.... Christ looked at this man and saw that his money was his god, and so advised him to get rid of it... it's possible to idolize / make a god out of just about anything- health, wealth, social status, athletic ability, trading ability, nintendo, deep sea fishing, whatever... even virtues like humility and tolerance (a liberal favorite) can be turned into false gods...