Thinking about Greed

Lately, I’ve been thinking about greed. Thinking is a dying art.

But greed, what is it?

Living in a 3000 square foot house (twice the size of mine).
Living in a 6000 square foot McMansion.

Not tithing to a church.

Not selling all of your possessions and giving the money to the poor.

Buying a $2.00 cup coffee in the mornings.

Buying stocks in hopes of large profits.

Spending money on books that the local library owns.

Spending too much on Christmas gifts or spending too little.

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas talks about greed in this video. Be warned, he curses a bit: http://vimeo.com/6852729. His line about owning two SUVs is classic.

Greed is subtle. And it’s the American pastime. See, baseball is on a long decline. Greed is on the upswing, bating a thousand. It’s one of the reasons we had the financial meltdown. It’s probably the greatest sin of the American church and American Christianity. As Will D. Campbell said while standing in the opulent pulpit of Riverside Church in NYC for a conference on racism, how can we free ourselves of racism (Greed is the economic engine that runs racism.) and keep all of this, the riches created by John D. Rockefeller? Campbell says we can’t.

--Dayne