Richard Littledale's
Views on the News: March 2009

It's not often that you see a Rock/Country & Western star and a big city banker mentioned on the same page. Their worlds have very little to do with each other. However, recent scandals about enormous pension payouts have brought her simple philosophy to mind. "It's not having what you want - it's wanting what you've got". The banker in question has clearly got what he wants - but it is a world away from what he needs.

The pension payout works out at £1898 per day for the duration of his retirement (see BBC website). In famine struck East Africa, according to Tearfund, this daily payment could feed 48 families for one month. In Myanmar it could feed 3700 people for one day. The realities reflected by that money here…and there are so far removed from each other as to make almost no sense to us. Trying to measure them on the same moral scale is like measuring the distance from London to New York with an old-fashioned six inch ruler. The enormity of the task is so absorbing that you are likely to forget why you are measuring it at all before you have finished.

As Christians, however, we regard the world as a single moral entity. God's expectations are the same the world over. He scrutinises the beggar sharing his bread with the same vigour that he scrutinises the businessman sharing his millions. Generosity and humanity are measured on a scale of depth rather than breadth. For this reason, Jesus singled out a widow giving her tiny coin at the temple rather than the religious show-offs tossing in their gold. Her's was a costly generosity, whilst their's was a cheap gesture.

It is not for us to say what a man retiring at 50 on nearly £2000 per day should do with his money. Hopefully his retirement will benefit him and others in some way. The affront which we feel at his wealth (whether merited or not) should give us cause to reflect on how we use our own.