#RevTread #107
The Portfolio
1/ A friend was standing on Wall Street the other day, talking about politics with her host. A young man in a nice suit with a briefcase was nearby, waiting on the light. She asked him if he supported Trump. “Yes I do. I vote my portfolio.”
The Portfolio
1/ A friend was standing on Wall Street the other day, talking about politics with her host. A young man in a nice suit with a briefcase was nearby, waiting on the light. She asked him if he supported Trump. “Yes I do. I vote my portfolio.”
2/ That was a new line for her, so she asked, “Even when Trump puts children in cages and separates families?” “I vote my portfolio.” “Even when he botches hurricanes and thousand of people die?” “I vote my portfolio.” He said it calmly and smiling.
3/ “Even if he insults Africans and African Americans and Muslims, even if he is revealed to be a mobster?” “I vote my portfolio. Now if you’ll excuse me . . .” and he headed to work.
4/ “Put to death, therefore, what is worldly within you: sexual immorality . . . and greed, which is idolatry.” So says Paul in Colossians 3:5
5/ Paul learned that from Jesus, who warned us, “Be on your guard against all covetousness.” (Luke 12:15) “Covetousness” and “greed” translate the same word.
6/ Why is greed idolatry? Why is idolatry wrong?
7/ Greed, the constant desire for more money, is a kind of worship:
8/ money is my source of security -- my measure of worth and value. Not that I am a child of God; not that God created all of us in the divine image; not that God has called us to steward this glorious home he has provided.
9/ Nope. It’s money that gives me value. The more I have the more worth I have. Greed turns money into my "summum bonum", my highest good, my very own little god.
10/ What’s wrong with that? Idolatry is worshipping something man has made. It’s a big deal, forbidden by both the 2nd and 10th commandments.
11/ Money is a powerful human invention. If I regard something I have made as a god that I will happily serve, what does that reveal about me? I must unconsciously consider myself the creator of gods. That would be significantly f’d up.
12/ Donald Trump is, among other things, a revelation of the pervasive idolatry of greed in our culture -- a greed powerful enough to threaten both justice and liberty.
13/ That smug kid will probably walk into a voting booth and choose to support the injustice greed produces, his portfolio. Unless he repents, I fear he’s doomed.
