A few days ago I was hanging up the things which had fallen to the floor of the front entryway closet. I hung up my teen's hoodie, my middle boy's backpack, placed my youngest son's wellies where they go. Each boy is allowed one hoodie, one backpack, one pair of wellies, one pair of water shoes, one pair of dressy formal shoes, and one pair of sneakers; that is my summertime standard for the hall closet. I looked at the finished, neat arrangement and realized that my old, stained and torn hobo bag had been unpacked into it, when I meant to toss it after it was used to help move things. That put two bags in the hall closet for me, breaking my own rule. I should have only one, and I have a backpack right now that I quite love. I felt a wave of irritation go through me. As I pushed hoodies aside to collect the extra thing off the hanger where it'd been neatly stored by some well-meaning helpful person, I saw that there were six hoodies and sweaters for the girls hanging up to one side of the closet, too. And I knew that a girl had been sent to our house from her other home in another hoodie that was sitting on the floor of the front porch at that very moment.
That was when I had the thought. "This is downright disgusting." And it was that word that clued me in to my own thinking. Disgusting, like pigs. Pigs, who are greedy. Taking more than you need is immoral. Greed is immoral.
It was in that frame of mind that I chanced to click on a Facebook friend's liking of this article at the desiringGod blog against the legalization of gay marriage.
Here's the thesis, if you don't want to click through.
The writer quotes 1 Corinthians 6:9–10. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Then he says, "It’s not the only sin mentioned, but it is different from all the rest, at least right now. At this moment in history, contrary to the other sins listed here, homosexuality is celebrated by our larger society with pioneering excitement. It’s seen as a good thing, as the new hallmark of progress."
I counted the following nine sins in that list:
- sexual immorality
- idolatry
- adultery
- male homosexuality
- stealing
- greed
- drunkenness
- reviling
- swindling
Does our culture celebrate one of these more than another?
- Sexual immorality is pretty vague but even the most liberal amongst us could say we're into that because we're still living in rape culture.
- We dig idolatry as this god defines it too. We all think diversity is a good thing.
- Adultery is frowned on, but stats show a majority of married people engage in it, so I think we can't say we don't embrace it. Plus it's legal, which seems to be the standard we're using for "embraced" in the blog post.
- Our culture embraces homosexuality, yup.
- Stealing is legal if you're a corporate bigwig or a politician.
- Drunkenness is an honored part of so many American traditions that one can't avoid it and expect to socialize normally. It sneaks in to barbecues and potlucks or shows and festivals. As a society, we reward and forgive corporate swindlers and thieves by allowing them exemptions to laws against such things.
- Reviling is the entire job of the 24 hour news cycle.
- Swindling... see above regarding corporate bigwigs and politicians.
I left greed out of that list, and that's because there was too much to say about it. In fact, after going item by item through that scripture verse, if I had to pick one of these that we're into more than any other, one that everyone universally accepts as a good thing, I'd say that's greed.
Having more is the American religion. When times are hard, we're encouraged to shop. We judge each other by how much we have, by how expensive our lives are, by our buying power. We allow people to hoard the primary resource we exchange, locking away billions of dollars out of the flow of the economy, and we worship those billionaires as "the job creators", worshipping them for their ability to give us more of the stuff we use to get more stuff. Not a one of us needs a whole half-acre suburban lot, but we think of that as a moral, wholesome, and modest place to raise a family. We all have perpetual translators on that turn "more than we need" into "a modest, acceptable home", as though more than enough is the bottom line of what we deserve. A closet full of shoes is more than anyone needs to survive and we accept that as normal, as not overly much. No one gags in disgust when you have two cars, even if you live in the city where there's good public transport. No child anywhere needs plastic toys but we give them to impoverished families like we're doing them a favor by teaching their infants to experience the joys of having more than they need. We've redefined greed so we can do it and call it a sin at the same time. But in reality we've entirely reversed what the scripture writer says here: we embrace it and honor having more than one needs as the righteous, wholesome goal of any decent human being.
When everyone around me incessantly, unconsciously judges my goodness by how much gay sex I manage to have, I might agree with the writer of that blog post that homosexuality is the most celebrated sin of our times. In the mean time, living in a world where my ability to parent is questioned if I can't put each of my children in their own bedroom, I think that blogger is silly and y'all are blind as a bat to your own cultural biases.
It's a shame, because the scripture writer was correct about greed. Having just enough and nothing more makes everyday life feel like the Kingdom of Heaven. I hesitate to say that you can't enter the Kingdom of Heaven, because I'm a poor judge of such things. But if I had to advise someone, I'd guess that you would have a hard time entering it if you have six extra hoodies. You'll be too busy picking them up off the floor, cleaning them, matching them to your other clothes, working to pay for a house with a big closet, and otherwise worrying over material objects that don't matter. Give them away to six people who want them and you'll feel heaven sprouting up in your heart.
For fun, I read through the article with "greed" or "possession of extraneous goods" in place of "homosexuality" and "gay marriage." What a sweet lecture that was! I'd encourage y'all to try it any time you see a blog post against that sin. For example, this passage from the desiringGod post, translated:
"Distancing ourselves from both the left and the right, we don’t celebrate having more than we need, we acknowledge God’s clear revealed word that it is sin; and we don’t hate those who embrace middle-class standards, we love them enough to not just collapse under the societal pressure."
That's better, isn't it?