How did the Puritans reconcile their religion with the profit motive?
They had no trouble up to a point, but didn't like "usury." They acknowledged passages in the Bible where good servants do their best to increase the wealth intrusted to them, not just keep it stable and safe and unchanged. Puritans were not "communal" and valued individual effort, with social classes soon becoming arranged in their settlements.
What were the differences between the Pharisees and Sadducees...?
The Pharisees originated during the Grecian period as a vigorous reaction to anti-Jewish Hellenism. By Jesus’ day, however, they were rigid, tradition-bound, legalistic, proud, self-righteous proselytizers and teachers who sought to control the nation through synagogue instruction. They came mainly from the middle class and disdained the common people. Jesus viewed most Pharisees as self-seeking, merciless money lovers who oozed hypocrisy. (Matthew, chapter 23) They accepted the entire Hebrew Scriptures in the light of their own explanations but attached equal or greater weight to their oral traditions. They said that their traditions were “a fence around the Law.” Far from being a fence, however, their traditions invalidated the Word of God and perplexed the public. The politicized Sadducees were chiefly wealthy aristocrats, known for their adroit diplomacy ever since the Hasmonaean uprising in the mid-second century B.C.E. Most of them were priests, though some were businessmen and landowners. By the time Jesus was born, most Sadducees favored Roman rule of Palestine because they thought it was more stable and was likely to maintain the status quo. (John 11:47, 48.) A minority (Herodians) believed that rule by the family of Herod would better suit national sentiment. At any rate, the Sadducees did not want the nation to be in the hands of Jewish fanatics or to have anyone other than priests in control of the temple. Sadducean beliefs were conservative, mainly based on their interpretation of Moses’ writings, and reflected their opposition to the powerful sect of the Pharisees. (Acts 23:6-8) The Sadducees rejected the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures as speculations. They taught that the Bible’s historical, poetical, and proverbial books were uninspired and nonessential.
Was Martin Luther King a Communist?
Martin Luther King surrounded himself with communists from the beginning of his career. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, formed in 1957 and led by Dr. King, also had as its vice president Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth who was at the same time president of the Southern Conference Education Fund, an identified communist front. King maintained correspondence with Carl Braden (communist, sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for sedition) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Braden Also on the board of SCLC was Bayard Rustin (member of the Young Communist League) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayard_Rustin In 1957, King addressed the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tenn. which was originally called Commonwealth College until it was sited by the House Committee on un-American Activities as being a communist front http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_College,_Arkansas In 1960, King hired Hunter Pitts O’Dell (member of the Communist Party U.S.A ), to work at SCLC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Pitts_O%27Dell According to the St Louis Globe Democrat (Oct. 26, 1962) “A Communist has infiltrated the top administrative post in the Rev. Martin Luther King’s SCLC" http://christianparty.net/mlk.htm It’s strikes me as sad that Dr. King, the most influential leader of the civil rights movement wasn’t an advocate of the capitalism that was already leading to such great economic strides amongst African-Americans in his day. He sneered at “the profit motive” without explaining why African-Americans shouldn’t seek to profit to the best of their ability Dr. King’s imperious stand toward his own people would stand in contrast to an advocacy of genuine freedom, the development of self-rule, self-sufficiency, private ownership, and the accumulation of capital resulting from achievement. Dr. King was not advocating the American system of free market capitalism. Instead, he stood for a system that has stunted the growth of African-Americans as well as the rest of us.