I've just been reading some yahoo articles and found one about toys that kinda fits this topic, and which I thought was quite relevant.
An American invention, the Slinky was dreamed up by naval engineer Richard T. James, who hit upon the idea while working at a shipyard in Pittsburgh. Over 300 million have been sold in its 60-year history, earning James a fortune...which he abandoned in2 1960 when he went nuts and disappeared to join a Bolivian religious cult. But that's all beside the point.
What makes the author think James went nuts? Because he forsook his wealth or his family?
Is it really insanity to give up wealth? Well, according to the systems of man, yes. It is considered to be insanity to care less for money than one does for God.
But what did Jesus say? Luke 14:33 .
Out of curiosity, I googled James and found this article. My comments on the article will appear in bold.
-------------
Dear Cecil:
In a new book, Inventing the 20th Century: 100 Inventions That Shaped the World, I read that the inventor of the Slinky, Richard James, joined a cult in Bolivia to which he donated much of his profits. What cult? Do proceeds from sales of Slinkys still go to the cult?
— KenP, from the Straight Dope Message Board
Cecil replies:
What's your problem with cults,Ken?
Why, just this spring while writing a check I said to myself, this money is going to fund religious zealots bent on subverting everything I hold dear. But I mailed in my income tax anyway.
In any case, I don't know that we want to call Richard James's coreligionists a cult. Details about the group are scanty, and it's possible they were just an exceptionally enthusiastic bunch of Episcopalians. Besides, it's been more than 40 years since any Slinky money found its way into the organization's coffers.
[
NOTE: we do NOT know what the beliefs of this "cult" really are. Everything about this group, so far, is based on what the common understanding of the word "cult" means. Generally speaking, it is a pejorative term meant instill a sense of fear or mistrust.]
During the 1950s, however, quite a bit did. Here's as much of the story as I could piece together, based on conversations with Richard's ex-wife, Betty, a remarkable woman who saved the Slinky company after her husband bailed.
[
NOTE: Please remember that this entire article is based on what the WIFE has to say about it. It is ONE witness.]
It all started in 1943, when Richard, an engineer at a navy shipyard in Philadelphia, noticed a torsion spring fall off a table and wiggle when it hit the floor. In the metallurgical equivalent of Newton's apple, Richard recognized a toy waiting to be born.
Having succeeded in finding steel with the right combination of lightness and springiness — no small feat in wartime — he was ready to take his product to market by late 1945. Realizing that the key to selling the Slinky was showing it in action, he fabricated a display in which the toy walked down steps and persuaded the Philadelphia branch of Gimbel's department store to let him give demonstrations.
Shoppers went nuts, and in 90 minutes Richard's entire stock of 400 Slinkys had sold out. The thing was a hit at a toy fair the following spring and soon had become a national phenomenon.
By the 1950s Richard was pretty flush. He and Betty lived with their growing family on a 12-acre estate near the suburb of Bryn Mawr on Philadelphia's affluent Main Line. But he wasn't content and at some point got religion. Previous accounts have been vague on how this came about, and
Betty herself doesn't have a lot of specifics.
[
NOTE: The word "cult" raises A LOT of fear in the general public. In a sitution where there are very little specifics, why use such a strongly NEGATIVE word to describe someone who gave up his wealth for God? Could it be that forsaking wealth for God is seen as one of the most despicable things a person can do?
Please remember that the wife herself, the closest person to James at the time, had very little information to share about this religious group. Why is that? You wil read, a bit later, that James sent many letters to his estranged wife. How is it that she never bothered to listen to what her husband had to say about something significant enough to cause him to forsake his fortune?]
She doesn't know what religious organization Richard got hooked up with, only that it was an evangelical Christian sect that
she termed a cult. Richard began consorting with what Betty considered dubious characters,
made sizable financial contributions, and testified at revival meetings. She attended one and found it mortifying.
[
NOTE: She doesn't know who they are, but she termed them a cult and dubious characters? Really? I don't know who 99.9 percent of the people on this forum are. That doesn't mean I can declare this forum to be a cult of dubious persons.
But wait! Could it be that betty's REAL problem is that James made "sizable contributions" to this group? Of course, anyone giving away their wealth as a response to faith in God MUST be part of a religious cult, even if we don't know what this supposed cult even teaches!!!]
I asked Betty what had gotten into her husband. She said Slinky sales were slumping in the mid-50s and that Richard, a charismatic man who had gotten used to being a big shot, liked the attention he got while confessing his sins.
[NOTE: He liked the attention. Remember this point from Betty, the wife who feels upset that James is forsaking the wealth that he acquired.]
Wondering what kind of sins we were talking about, I asked: "Did Richard have, ah, personal issues that led to his religious conversion?" Yes, Betty said. He'd been a philanderer. She'd found out about it, they'd had discussions of the sort that usually ensue, but she'd stayed with him for the sake of their six children.
[NOTE: Okay, so he apparently cheated on his wife. When he tried to confess his sin, as the Bible says we should do, she wasn't happy with that, either. She said he was just doing it for "attention". ]
Finally, in February 1960, Richard announced to Betty and their two eldest children that he was moving to Bolivia to work for his religious group. They could either sell the business or run it themselves; he was cutting all ties.
[NOTE: Remember what Betty said about this guy only confessing his sins for attention? Why would someone who only wants attention suddenly give up all of that attention so freely? It doesn't make sense.
A lucrative, multi-million dollar business and this guy was just giving it all up. He didn't even put up a fight about it. He said they could do whatever they wanted with it. Sounds very much like what Jesus told his followers to do, and very much like a wife wrapped too much up in the systems of man to care about her husbands faith.]
By July he was gone. What exactly he did in Bolivia, Betty doesn't know, although there's no reason to think it was anything along the lines of Jim Jones in Guyana — more like a mission, from the sound of it.
At one point she heard he was printing religious tracts.
[NOTE: So she did know SOMETHING about what he was doing. He was printing religious tracts. That's what she knew about him BEFORE this interview took place, and yet, she still decided that it was worth testifying that he was pulled into a "cult"? Really? Because he printed religious tracts?
A woman smart enough to rescue a failing financial business on her own would be smart enough to realize that ALL religions print tracts. She was not honest in this interview. HER beef was that he gave MONEY to this group. Her beef was that he forsook all his wealth to follow his conscience. To someone who believes that we cannot live without money, that is insanity of the highest degree.]
To provide for her family, Betty decided to keep the Slinky business going, but it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Richard had diverted the company's resources to his religious interests and left millions of dollars in unpaid bills. Betty begged her creditors to be patient, and miraculously they all agreed. She wangled a TV advertising deal, moved the Slinky plant to her hometown of Hollidaysburg in central Pennsylvania, and slowly put the company back on its feet.
Every so often she got accusatory letters from Richard urging her to repent. At one point he asked that she leave the children and join him in Bolivia. She never replied. In 1974 she heard that he had died of a heart attack, and that was that.
Betty ran James Industries, as the Slinky company was officially known, for nearly four decades.
[NOTE: Accusatory letters to repent? Jesus himself said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". Here is a guy who forsook all his wealth to follow his conscience, based on what we know of the story, and yet his wife feels it is an accusation for him to ask her to do the same. Who has more authority in a situation where one person lets go of everything and the other person claims it is insanity to let go of everything? Who is more consistent with the values of the kingdom of Heaven?
Why is "forsake all you have" seen as an accusation? Jesus himself said the very same thing. Luke 14:33
Could it be that the love of money is at work here, in a very subtle way?]
In 1998, having produced close to 300 million Slinkys since the founding of the company,
she sold out for a boatload of money to a Michigan company that promised to keep the Slinky plant and its 120-some jobs in Hollidaysburg. Your Slinky buck may have supported some dubious ventures prior to 1960, but it's been well spent since.
— Cecil Adams
[NOTE: Remember the parable of the rich man and lazarus? Here we have a millionaire who became a poor man in a 3rd world country because of his faith in God, and a very wealth woman who got everything she wanted because she believed her husband to be crazy.
How do you think God sees it?]
