The belief in karma is enticing, that you don’t have to punch that jerk, karma will take care of the jackass. The belief that the good you do is rewarded is also enticing.
The concept’s origins are murky, but karma as we know it today was first preached by the Hindu religion, and when the Buddhists split off like Christians split off from Judaism they of course continued.
Unfortunately for us Christians, it violates several tenets of our religion. Firstly, it depends on reincarnation. How else could you explain why a braggart and a bully like Donald Trump who was born rich isn’t cast down to poverty, covered in slimy sores? Why does someone born into wealth deserve that wealth? Hindus and Buddhists explain it by reincarnation, a basic tenet of their religions. Our Bible, however, says when you die you immediately go to judgment.
“Aha!” the fundies say (I say “fundies” because you should have to actually understand the fundamental concepts before you could truthfully call yourself a fundamentalist). “You are judged for your sins!”
If they taught you this in church, your preacher was what Jesus called “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” because the very core of Christianity is that Jesus paid for Christians’ sins so you won’t have to pay for yours!
Rather, a Christian is judged on his or her good works. It’s payday.
Yes, both the Bible and the Hindu’s Mahabharata both say you reap what you sow, but that is taken out of context in both books and the meaning is completely different.
Mahabharata says “As a man himself sows, so he himself reaps; no man inherits the good or evil act of another man. The fruit is of the same quality as the action.” From what I’ve seen in my life that simply isn’t so, I’ve been harmed by the actions of others through no fault of my own many times. The Hindus and Buddhists say it’s punishment for my misdeeds in the past, in this life or the previous. I say “Bullshit.” The Bible in Matthew 5:45; actually, Jesus Himself, says “it rains on the just and the unjust.”
The context of “reap what you sow” is in Galatians 6:7, but is continued in 6:8-10. It says “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”
As Jesus said in Mark 4:3-9, not every seed you plant will grow.
So please, if you’re a Christian, let go of the idea of Karma. It is not compatible with Christianity.