“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works.”
–Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglass, in the 1987 film Wall Street
The gospel recently was from the 12th chapter of Luke, and it was all about greed. Rather than “greed is good,” we are told in the parable of the rich fool, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed,” for you cannot be greedy and also be rich toward God.
The “greed is good” ideology sits on the opposite end of the spectrum of what we heard in the gospel. The character of Gordon Gekko is an extreme example, of course, but we all can fall into the greediness trap now and then and in varying degrees.
We need resources to survive, and fear of what the future might hold can, understandably, makes us think of ourselves first.
So at what point do we cross the line over to greed?
How do we know when we’ve crossed that line?