Monday, July 6, 2009

What Is Excess?

Many vociferously claim "Pastor David" shouldn’t live in a $2,000,000 house and own a $100,000 Bentley! Well then, what house or car is acceptable for him to own? A tenement in the slums and a Ford Pinto perhaps? 

Starving kids in Africa won’t likely see the difference between a $2,000,000 mansion and my humble $100,000 abode. To them, these houses are in the same class. Both have a stable roof (I think?), clean running water, heat, air, etc. Yet here, many people resent what they see as “excess”. But what constitutes “excess” is so relative it renders this whole argument frivolous.

This resentment is ultimately grounded in envy. Many will retort something to the effect that they are not jealous of one who has a big house because they don’t even want a big house. Then why would they be so upset that somebody has a big house? Probably because they don’t think anybody should have a big house! This is envy. Again, why do they care if they are not jealous?

One should also question the implication that the pastor should not have a house considered excessive. Are not or at least should not all “followers” of their respective religions essentially be pastors as well? Why should the standard(s) they live by be much different than the standard by which the pastor lives? He or she is just a human being like the rest of us, right?

Again, keep in mind the fact that we don’t even know what “excessive” means. It means a thousand things to a thousand people. The point of my rambling is to expose the sheer absurdity of this argument!

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