Evangelicalism’s longstanding preoccupation with sex over just about everything else is unfortunate on many levels, but fascinating. We were champions of chastity during America’s Sexual Revolution and today are exhaustingly outspoken opponents of all things LBGTQ, as if it’s the most evil agenda the world has ever seen.
According to some, there are a few passages in scripture that condemn same sex relationships, but few will argue that there are far more – exponentially so – that condemn greed. How is this not the number one sin on our list? The New Testament book of Timothy claims that greed is the “root of all evil,” while St. Paul equated it with idolatry. If there’s a really bad sin in the Bible, one that we should all be condemning, greed is it.
“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” ~ Jesus in Luke 12:15
For Americans, Christian or not, that might be a problem; some economists believe that our financial systems are driven by the idea that it’s OK to be greedy, i.e., to take as much as we can get our hands on, regardless of who it might hurt. If everyone operates on that principle, the models tell us, our economy moves along just fine.
To economists like Walter Williams and many others, there’s nothing wrong with that.
For me the noblest of human motivations is greed. I don’t mean theft, fraud, tricks, or misrepresentation. By greed I mean being only or mostly concerned with getting the most one can for oneself and not necessarily concerned about the welfare of others. Social consternation might cause one to cringe at the suggestion that greed might possibly be seen as a noble motivation. “Enlightened self-interest” might be a preferable term. I prefer greed since it is far more descriptive and less likely to be confused with other human motives.
But is it fair to say that greed lies at the core of American economics?
it’s interesting to note that many experts claim that self-interest – a close cousin to greed – is the prime motivator, subordinating all other factors, altruism included.
Economic theory‘s assumption of self-interest maximization is so dominant and pervasive that the field of economics often overlooks other human motivations: homo economicus cares primarily about self-gain and little (if at all) for others‘ welfare. Thus, others‘ outcomes and the social utility that may be created become, at best, secondary concerns.
Add that nobody knows where self-interest ends and greed begins. The two are closely related, to be sure, and humanity has a long history of pursuing things it doesn’t need, so often at the expense of others. I don’t have to go far into my personal history to mark a moment where I expended great energy in the pursuit of something that I didn’t need, convinced that it was fundamental to my existence.
We buy huge houses, for example, not because we need a huge house, but because our neighbor’s house is bigger than ours. If it wasn’t, the idea that our house is inadequate wouldn’t have entered our minds.
Currently, I live in the biggest house I’ve ever owned, and you won’t hear me complaining. It’s nice to feel like the five of us aren’t on top of each other all the time. The kids each have their own room, and we have a nice basement for TV, exercise, and some space for friends and family to stay should they visit.
But because everyone wants a bigger, better house, prices in our neighborhood are going up, increasing the cost of living. The single mom that lives down the street will have to move somewhere else because she can no longer afford to live in my neighborhood. Sure, her house is worth more, but she’s being uprooted because myself and others “need” a bigger place to live.
When it comes time to sell, I won’t consider what my house is worth – i.e. construction costs + inflation + a little extra profit – I’ll set the price solely on what I can get for it, what “the market will bear.” Currently, that would be double what we paid for it, driving prices up even higher, along with the cost of living.
Ultimately, more people will need to find another place to live.
If we define greed as “the pursuit of self-interest at someone else’s expense,” the way we do houses has greed at its core. The same holds true for why/how the cost-of-living changes so dramatically in an “up and coming” neighborhood.
Inflation itself is said to be driven by the same phenomenon. Bernie Sanders once claimed that inflation is driven by corporate greed, but that’s not true, greedy as corporations can be. Inflation is the relatively simple result of people who get their hands on some money and start buying things. The more we buy, the more prices go up because there’s nothing wrong with folks charging what they can get away with. If I can get $5.00 for something that cost $0.50 to produce, why wouldn’t I charge $5.00?
According to The Economist, that was the cause of our most recent bout with inflation. “Red-hot demand, linked in part to massive stimulus programmes in 2020-21, is the true source of price pressure.” We want things, especially after a nasty pandemic, and have the money to get them, inviting our favorite vendors to charge as much as they possibly can, encouraging others to do the same.
In this, low-income households struggle to get by while the rest of us complain that our beach vacation cost more than it should have.
There are other, much more complicated issues that drive inflation, and I’m no economist, nor do I have time to pursue an expert-level understanding of how things work. I simply have a hard time believing that a system that so worships self-interest, with little or nothing to keep it in check, has kept it in check.
We’re not unlike a group of kids surrounding a piñata, waiting for the candy to fall. There’s a limited amount, and all the kids will get some, but the bigger kids and/or those nearest the piñata will get the most. The more they grab, the less everyone else gets. Every once in a while, a big kid will share her candy, or a parent might butt in and make things more equitable, but the rule of the day is “grab as much as you can.”
That’s a weak analogy far as personal achievement goes. I have friends who have busted their asses to get where they are, with parents who faced insurmountable odds to give them the opportunity. They might have a bigger-than-average paycheck, but they earned it.
At the same time, money is a zero-sum proposition – there is no unlimited amount. If someone gains, someone else loses. For everyone with a large paycheck, there are many more who’ll work just as hard but can never hope to make half as much.
Currently, because most of the world has bought into Piñatanomics, a very small number of people command the vast majority of financial power. According to an article by Harvard staff writer Christina Pazzanese, this gap between rich and poor is widening.
“Smart poor kids are less likely to graduate from college now than dumb rich kids. That’s not because of the schools, that’s because of all the advantages that are available to rich kids.” ~ Robert Putnam
“[The United States has] some of the lowest rates of upward mobility of any developed country in the world” ~ Nathaniel Hendren
Add humanity’s propensity to take too much for itself, along with its long history of being swept up into blatantly immoral. godless cultural currents, and it’s no stretch to suggest that greed is, at the least, a fundamental pillar of American economics.
“…vast forces of greed and aggressiveness… are the mainsprings of economic activity in a private enterprise economy; not the best but the strongest motives of humanity… ~ Kenneth J Arrow
If that’s true, every one of us, Christian or not, is guilty of one of the biggest sins in the book, one that is condemned with much more frequency and clarity than the Bible’s alleged anti-Gay passages.
But I’m not writing this to make you feel bad, or to condemn you, or because I think we should all come together and fight to overhaul our system, good as that would be.
I’m just as guilty as anyone else.
I’m writing solely to my anti-LGBTQ/Trans Christian friends, to invite a change of posture. None of us are so righteous that we can segregate from alleged sinners, then condemn them as destroyers of America, enemies of God, abusers of children, etc.
Let’s admit that the anti-Gay agenda is not driven by any concern for the Bible and/or “What God Wants.” If it was, we would be exponentially more appalled at the economic system that we all live under. At the least, bible-believing Christians should be pushing for some level of reform, but every time someone suggests that our system is unfair, or inequitable, it’s the Christians who get angry more than anyone else.
Why? Is greed so baked into our system that we can’t even see it? And are we so blind to our own sin that the only sin we can see is someone else’s?
In his letter to the Christian church in Rome, St. Paul listed a bunch of sins that would appall any first-Century Jewish person, then condemned his listeners for condemning the people on the list.
Same sex relationships were on the list, and despite Paul’s very clear warning against judging that particular behavior, we do it with much fervor, while uncritically placing so much hope in this Western system of economics.
In short, the Christian anti-LGBTQ agenda is yet another exhausting moment in our history where folks who have a skewed sense of their own righteousness seek to point out some alleged unrighteousness in others. And despite the Bible’s exhausting attempts to steer us from this, it will always be a big, sad part of our story.
