A response to CT: Love thy Trillionaire

Luke Simon published an article on Christianity Today about the need to love Trillionaires. Let’s talk about it.

In seminary, we are told to not only read the text, but also to explore the author, the author’s intent, the context etc. So first, let me begin by saying Luke is a writer for the Gospel Coalition, an increasingly nationalistic publication which enjoys aligning itself with making sure women know their position in the church and in the world among other things. He is a self professed Gen Z’er (somewhere in his mid 20’s ?) and is in seminary. Note the reformed baptist mindset and their love of American wealth (or just the thought that maybe it could happen to them) and hierarchy. The way to jockey for power in these systems is to be power adjacent (this goes for women and men) and you do this by defending the most powerful even when they act in ways that are unjust and need repentance. Instead, they go after those in the congregation who don’t fall in line and correct them, usually with weaponized scripture.

With that said, Here is a snippet of his Intro

Simon asks the same question at the end (nice framing, I’ll give you that as a former English teacher): “It forces the moral question: Is it wrong to be a trillionaire?” He goes into what those crazy democratic socialists are out there doing and gives them a little nod of validation, “Tax the rich. Close the wealth gap. Make billionaires pay their fair share. Many Americans across party lines support higher taxes on the wealthy. You do not have to be a socialist to think Elon Musk’s trillion dollars raise legitimate questions.”1

Here’s where it gets interesting. He talks about research showing that 1/3 of Americans think it’s morally wrong to exist as a billionaire and that among dem’s 1/2 think that too. When people talk about hungry children, Simon says now we’re into “moral crusade” territory. You guys bringing up gutting Medicaid and Medicare and SNAP? Outrageous crusaders, apparently.

He says this kind of moral crusade leads to… MURDER. A la Luigi Mangione killing a healthcare mega wealthy CEO and quotes a survey that young people think it’s ok to sometimes be violent against the rich (65+ are like NO WAY). This is not 35% of Americans, but 35% of 18-29 y/o’s (to which we could write about why that generation is so violent, but alas). A portion of Americans on the right would choose violence and have as seen by violent ICE raids, murders and detentions. 1 insurance CEO has been killed while ICE has killed 8 people in their shootings. Extreme ideologies really do have bad results.2

But overall 17% of Americans say it’s ok to take violent action over the rich, while 82% say it’s never justified. That’s good news, I think.

He then talks about how all roads lead to Isreal (of course) and gives a dig at the democratic socialists being anti-Semites? I couldn’t quite make the jump with him there but it is on brand. At least the right stays consistent on holding hands with Israel and calling those who don’t stand by the atrocities they’ve committed “anti-Semites”.

I am interested that the article is framed as those on the left “wrap resentment in the language of justice and solidarity…” while those on the right “wrap it in the language of protecting Western civilization from shadowy elites…”. Essentially, the left is resentful and covetous and to hide this, they want to… help the poor, restore humanitarian aid, and stop Musk from using loopholes to not pay his fair share of taxes which help communities? That doesn’t sound covetous, or resentful, it sounds like the bible’s commands. It actually sounds like they want to protect civilization from shadowy elites. So maybe Simon accidentally found some unity in his “both sides” argument that mainly leans one sided. He calls the left resentful crusaders: “Compassion looks at someone suffering and asks how to help. Resentment keeps glancing upward, measuring its own circumstances against someone else’s success. One builds. The other burns.”

Uh, ya, we agree there. Any critiques for the right in protecting shadowy elites by defending a trillionaire who quite literally chainsawed through medical care/ food care for our own people and people around the world? Because the Bible has so much to say about this.

That said, the crux of this article asks the question: Is being extraordinarily wealthy wrong?

To even wrap your brain around what a trillionaire is (1000x the wealth of a billionaire worth a billion), you have to talk about wealth accumulation and hoarding.

We are never explicitly told to love trillionaires but I think the closest we can get to understanding what amassing wealth does to a person is to Solomon in the OT. He’s not a bad guy right? Well, his downfall is something worth mentioning. He accumulated what God warned kings not to accumulate: By Deut law, Israel’s kings are not to multiply, horses, wives, or greatly multiply silver and gold. Guilty on all counts for Solomon. He married constantly to make political alliances (700 wives, 300 concubines) and then he built temples to other gods. His continued success gave way to continuous moral compromises. Now this is someone who professed God, unlike Elon who said he’s not a particularly religious person.

Of course, the New Testament has much more clear teachings on wealth and Simon mentions some of these briefly. I will go further.

There is the story of the rich, young ruler who meets Jesus and asks what he must do to be a follower. Go sell all your belongings and give them to the poor is Jesus’ command. The rich ruler walks away. The issue wasn’t that Jesus didn’t love the wealthy man, it’s that the wealthy man loved money more than God. He loved the free market, capitalism, the game, the accumulation and comfort money gave. The story isn’t a command to love trillionaires, it’s a warning. “Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Matthew 19

Jesus doesn’t deal with wealth in the same way with everyone either. And I find that really interesting. His ministry relied on wealthy women’s donations (Luke 8:1-3). The tax collector is wealthy, but he doesn’t quit his job. He makes restitution when he meets Jesus, not because he’s commanded, but because he is compelled. “But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.” Luke 19

The compulsion towards generosity is what happens when you meet Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea was wealthy. No command for him to sell everything, but he is compelled to provide his own tomb for Jesus (most ordinary Jews were buried. A rock-cut tomb was a luxury item, and expensive. Many people would be buried in there. Think of it as a long-term investment. And he gives up his NEW tomb, no death had ever donned it.)

I think the question here is not even do we love the most wealthy person on the planet? But instead of critiquing hoarding such wealth with the many MANY verses available in the Bible, Simon cozies up to wealth by telling the reader to love a trillionaire. And he does this by assuring them they’re on a moral crusade because they just want all Musk’s money.

Could I present a different idea? Could it be that Elon Musk paid $0 in federal income tax in 2018 and that to avoid taxes, billionaires like him borrow against their stock instead of selling it, allowing them to access cash without triggering capital gains taxes. He did all this while crushing the weakest among us. Perhaps it is that we want our people to have good medical care and food. And we’re watching the people who taught us WWJD salivate over political figures and wealth with questions like, Did God really say amassing a lot of wealth was bad while hurting the least of these?

NO ONE IS MAD AT SUPER WEALTHY PEOPLE WHEN THEY GIVE THEIR MONEY TO HELP OTHERS. No one is writing articles on loving billionaires when Mckenzie Scott gave 7.2 Billion to 186 not for profits. No one is thinking we are annoyed by Warren Buffet for talking about how his life long goal is to get rid of almost all his fortune. No one is upset at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce for donating millions to food pantries around the country as a part of their wedding celebration.

No, because that is what you are to do when amassing wealth. Against such things (love and generosity) there are no laws (Galatians). You don’t have to explain that to people.

Ironically for a religious sect who loves to quote 1 Tim 2 about restricting women’s voice, they give no mention of 1 Tim 6:17-19: “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth… They are to do good, to be rich in good works, generous and ready to share.” Just earlier in 6 he says:” …They think that godliness is a way to make money! ⁶ Actually, godliness is a great source of profit when it is combined with being happy with what you already have. ⁷ We didn’t bring anything into the world and so we can’t take anything out of it: ⁸ we’ll be happy with food and clothing. ⁹ But people who are trying to get rich fall into temptation. They are trapped by many stupid and harmful passions that plunge people into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal.¹¹ But as for you, man of God, run away from all these things.”

RUN AWAY, SIMON.

To his credit, Simon does mention James’ scathing review of the wealthy.

James criticizes people (who don’t know God, BTW) that:

Hoard wealth.

Defraud workers.

Live in luxury while ignoring injustice.

Musk is guilty of all those things.

Simon writes that when times are hard economically, it’s easy to feel envy, “envy is a weed that Scripture takes seriously regardless of how justified it feels.” Scripture takes greed very seriously too. There are 2 to 3 X more verses on greed than envy.

But I don’t think the left is mad at Musk because they want what he has, just like I don’t think the right is coveting Musk’s wealth either. I believe the right just likes capitalism and money and they want to protect that in case it might happen for them. So the idea moves from “Command those who are rich to be generous and ready to share (Paul’s words),” to commanding those crushed, those hungry for justice, to love their oppressor. James says,

“Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.”

Do I wish violence on Musk, No. Do I think he is made in the image of God and valuable, yes. In a sense, Simon is right that we should love everyone even when they don’t love us back. Maybe Musk is busy with his own family which includes 5 ex-wives, and 14 children betwixt 4 baby mama’s, to be loving the marginalized citizens of the USA and world. They have no problem with morally corrupt people holding insane amounts of power/money, as we have seen by their presidential choice. But they do have a problem when you call out their hypocrisy and use their own bible to do it.

Lastly, you can see someone as made in the image of God and call them out for being abusive, unjust, greedy and racist. Sometimes the most loving thing you can do, is stand up and say, THIS IS WRONG. I wish the right would do more of that instead of jockeying to be power adjacent. To signal that they are still with the right political party to their peers. To correct those who dare to correct those in power. But as I explained earlier, I know this system in and out too well and it is par for the course.

The religious right is quick to warn about resentment toward the rich, but often slow to examine its own relationship with wealth and power. It points out the speck of unlovingness while the log of capitalism, political loyalty, and idol worship remains in their own eye. The right needs to ask themselves whether its affection for trillionaires has eclipsed its allegiance to the kingdom of God. And why they’re so quick to command love for trillionaires without commanding the trillionaires love and care for the people. Ironically, Musk could care less about Simon and if ever given the chance, would happily pull any assistance away from him or his grandmother should they ever need it. That’s what so bad about this deal. Defending trillionaires is a loss for everyone.

Thanks for reading,

Jami

Share