“Don’t ever listen to what they say,” you tell me
As you’re turning money into your god

I could see you failing from a long way off
Why don’t you just cut your strings off
You’re turning into a puppet

I used to look up to you so much
You’ve ruined my thoughts toward you
Why don’t you just cut off your strings
You’re taking children down with you

I wish I could stop you, but you’ve seen
Seven years of momentum

Your foundation has been ripped straight from under you
You seek greed by His name
You’ve seeked the shaded of green
Take your “ticket” and burn your lives away

–Society’s Finest, “7 Years of Momentum”–

—

⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
–Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NIV)–

⁹ Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
–1 Timothy 6:9-10 (NIV)–

One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing;
    another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.
–Proverbs 13:7 (NIV)–

⁷ “Two things I ask of you, Lord;
    do not refuse me before I die:
⁸ Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
    give me neither poverty nor riches,
    but give me only my daily bread.
⁹ Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
    and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
    and so dishonor the name of my God.
–Proverbs 30:7-9 (NIV)–

Whoever loves money never has enough;
    whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.
    This too is meaningless.
–Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV)–

—

The Methodists grow more and more self-indulgent, because they grow rich…And it is an observation which admits of few exceptions, that nine in ten of these decreased in grace, in the same proportion as they increased in wealth.
–John Wesley–

—

—

Godless manager bullies dad.

Dad feels controlled or humiliated at work.

He starts believing he has no power.

His confidence drops.

He becomes irritable, withdrawn, or bitter.

He stops leading at home.

He buys luxury items for stress relief.

Kids sense weakness or instability.

Respect erodes.

Family tension rises.

Kids become alienated and estranged.

—

Dr. John R. Rice, False Doctrines Answered (Sword of the Lord, 1970), pp. 382-393.

Richard Steele, The Religious Tradesman (Sprinkle Publications, 1989).

Larry Burkett, The Word on Finances (Moody, 1994).

—. Business By the Book (Thomas Nelson, 2006).

William Mathews, Getting On In the World (S. C. Griggs, 1879).

Irvin Wyllie, The Self-Made Man in America (The Free Press, 1954).

Paul Edwards, Secrets of Successful Self-Employment (Nightingale Conant, 1995).