Our
Epistle lesson raises two basic issues:
First, is greed a good or a bad basis
for our individual lives
and for our society?
Second, what is the true nature and
destiny of humankind?
James
takes the Christian view. He is against greed.
“Where there is envy and selfish ambition,” James says,
“there is disorder and wickedness of every kind . . . .
Those conflicts and
disputes among you,
where do they come
from?
Do they not come
from your cravings
that are at war
within you?”
This
was not breaking news.
Jesus
said,
“Be on
your guard against all kinds of greed.”
Luke 12: 15
In the
6th Century B.C., Lau Tzu said,
“There
is no greater calamity . . . ,
no greater curse than greed.”
Buddha
said,
“There
is no fire like greed . . . ,
no sickness like hunger of the heart.”
A
thousand years before Jesus, the Vedic Scriptures said,
“Greed is the root cause of all sin.”
It’s
core Christianity.
Greed
has been listed as one of 7 soul-killing sins
since St. Evagrius Ponticus in the 4th Century.
But
since Darwin, Western culture
has taken the opposite view.
Charles
Darwin did not invent the idea of evolution.
Lots of
people, including Christians, believed in evolution
before Darwin.
Darwin’s
new idea was survival of the fittest
–
that human nature has been defined
by a cut throat
struggle for survival
and we continue to
progress
through that same dog eat dog contest.
As a
matter of pure biology,
it turns out Darwin overstated his case.
Today,
biologists like Mary Beth Saffo know
that evolution is shaped by many different factors
including our own choices and
what appears to be
random chance.
But
nobody reads them except other scientists.
The
popular books are by another group called sociobiologists.
They
are still unscientifically stuck in Darwin’s idea
that we evolve, we become better,
through cutthroat
competition.
Even if
we don’t read their books, we are indoctrinated
in their pseudoscientific faith
through pop culture like the t v show
Survivor.
I once
knew a head of the medical records department
of a hospital who ordered her staff to
watch Survivor
because that was how she was
going
to run her
department.
Kill or
be kill, betray before you are betrayed,
was her deliberate, explicit personnel
policy
for a medical records department.
George
Mason University economist Walter Williams,
writes in his atheist blog,
“It’s human greed that gets
the most wonderful
things done. . . .
Unfortunately,”
says Williams, “
many people are
naïve enough to believe
compassion and concern are superior human motivations.
So they fall prey to charlatans.”
Those
would be charlatans
like Lao Tzu, and Buddha, and Jesus.
Sociobiologists
E. O. Wilson and Robert Wright
claim that human nature is innately
selfish and greedy.
That
turns out to be just wrong as a matter of science,
since biologists have identified
human genes and hormones
that make decent, caring behavior
natural.
But let
not the facts interfere with a faith that sanctions
whatever is worst in us.
Greed,
Wilson and Wright contend, is better than natural.
It is a
good thing because
selfishness and greed promote progress.
Wright
explains that ideals like brotherly love are ok as ideals,
but – Wright actually says this –
“Wherever brotherly love is practiced
society falls apart.”//
He
offers no evidence, examples, or proof
of that sweeping claim.
But
when I read it, so many things suddenly became clear.
At last
I understood the chaos and terrorism in Somalia.
It was
an outbreak of brotherly love.
Northern
Sudan did not commit genocide and atrocities
in Southern Sudan because they wanted the oil.
It was
brotherly love.
Greed
did not cause the wheeling and dealing
that wrecked American banks in 2007.
After
deregulation,
the bankers just ran amok with
brotherly love.
But
here in Nevada, I wonder.
When
children are bought and sold on our streets,
our addiction rates top the charts,
we lead the nation in divorce
but rank 49th in high school
graduations,
is it the contagion of
Christian spirituality
making society fall apart
-- or is the Bible
right after all?
“Where there is envy and selfish ambition,” James says,
“there is disorder and wickedness of every kind . . . .”
Maybe
atheist economist Walter Williams is right.
Maybe
the most wonderful things in his life
are the results of his own greed.
But
when I consider the most wonderful things in my life
--the love of my wife and children,
the support of my
friends,
the consolations of
prayer –
none of
my most wonderful things came from greed.
They
came from grace – the merciful grace of God
mediated to me by caring, compassionate
people.
How
about you?
What
are your most wonderful things
and where did they come from?
Last
Friday night, a single mom in our diocese
tucked her daughter in bed
then had go back to kiss her goodnight one more time.
She
banged her head on the bunk bed
and her daughter ran to the kitchen to
get her an ice bag.
Where
does that fit in Darwinist social theory?
If
grace and kindness are the source
of the most wonderful things for us
individually and as families,
how is that when we think of ourselves
as a neighborhood, a state, or
a nation,
avarice becomes the fount of
every blessing?
Everything
turns on who we believe we are
and who we want to become.
Darwinist
theory claims we are the selfish product
of a ruthless power struggle,
and that our highest aspiration is to
stand,
hands dripping with blood,
atop a mound of corpses of the
conquered.
The
Bible says we are created in God’s image
–
that the love which created the cosmos
is imprinted in our
hearts.
And our
destiny is to be like Jesus.
Williams,
Wright, and Wilson can fight their way to the top
if they like.
But I
want to be like Jesus.
I
raised my children to be like Jesus.
And by
God’s grace, they are.
How
about you?
Who do
you believe you are in your heart?
Who do
you want to be?
