One theme I'm seeing as I read is that Thomas realizes that self-reliance, as opposed to reliance on things like quotas and government handouts, is an important key to overcoming poverty and social prejudice. It got me thinking about the self reliance I was taught in CS. I don't recall specifically being told to "rely on yourself" in CS, but I think that's the underlying message behind a mindset that guarantees success if one will only learn how to correctly apply a set of principles such as CS -- at the same time teaching a person to downplay and even live in denial of negative symptoms and circumstances in an attempt to demonstrate their nothingness. It's a fact that CSists are usually fairly successful people, and I have heard it argued that "it's easy to be CS when you're well off and naturally healthy." I agree with this, but I'm also wondering if the overall mindset of "self reliance" fostered by CS helps propel people to financial success.

Anyone have any thoughts on the subject?

It is true that a positive sense of personal self-worth, competence, and confidence have a beneficial effect on the general course of one's life.  But CS takes this to an unnatural extreme, declaring that all of one's life's quality is determined by one's degree of spiritual attainment.  Obviously, natural adversity and authentic personal limitations will play their part.  CS cheerfully claims ("affirms"?) that everything can be overcome--and if it isn't, then whose fault is that, anyway?

I had a recent chat with a guy who was getting deep into CS's metaphysical kin, the health-and-wealth gospel of Benny Hinn and kin.  I challenged him with this question, applicable to CS:  "Take this teaching into the concentration camps of Third Reich, the Soviet Gulags, the Chinese prison camp-factories.  And maybe a cancer hospice as well.  Will it deliver success, freedom, prosperity and health in these places?"

Authentic Christianity is for everybody, whatever his station: the rich and poor, the strong and weak, the rich and poor.