It looks like the media are again raising the specter of inequality.  The New York Times, whom no one would confuse with a conservative newspaper, in a November 15, 2014 article, now seems to be lamenting the fact that some “super rich” people are purchasing bigger private jets, “leaving behind” the mere wealthy.  I didn’t see Thomas Piketty’s name mentioned in the article, but his presence was felt.  Piketty is now famous for writing a very big book entitled Capital in the Twenty-First Century, spending 500 or so pages showing how inequality of wealth and income has increased, and then telling us it just shouldn’t be that way.  He suggests a steep global tax to make us all more equal.  Here we are again, this time however hand-wringing over the fact that the top 1/100 of 1% (the writer calls them “nine figure billionaires”) can afford 747s and the mere rich can’t.  Of course, the rest of us can’t either.  I ask for the fiftieth (or more) time, why is this an issue?

I think we know why at two different levels: (1) the continuing influence of the works of Karl Marx and the socialist movement and (2) a basic envy most of us have, which can be stirred to a flame by those in category (1) or by mere politicians seeking a cause.  But as I have written before, the factors we have to look at are not absolute income and wealth, but actual well-being, difficult as that sometimes is to measure.  Another way to ask it is, what is the relative purchasing power of individuals?  What can they purchase today that they couldn’t afford say fifty years ago?  And what do people have that they didn’t have then?  What is their quality of life?

We should expect the NYT to make this an issue, but it seems to be one that won’t go away in general.  What can Christians bring to this discussion?  I believe quite a bit.  Several excellent articles and books have been written by Christians on the subject of inequality.  Names such as Anne Bradley, Art Lindsley, Jay Richards, Ronald Nash, and others come to mind.  Their collective (though not monolithic) view is that inequality is not necessarily an evil, depending of course on what kind of inequality it is, but results from the different gifts and capacities God has given to each person (Genesis 1:  Imago Dei), combined with the inescapable fact that some gifts are more “demanded” than others and that, after the Fall, some individuals will not fully utilize their abilities.  This is not to say that God considers any particular abilities as better than others, since our ability to reason, to be creative, and our propensity to be social creatures all flow from the imago Dei.  All we are endowed with by God can be used to glorify Him and is thus good, if used for good.  But inevitably, because some gifts are desired more than others, incomes and wealth will be different.  I as a college professor at a private Christian university will not earn as much as Bill Gates, but my calling is fully as important and to be pursued for God.

The parable of the talents reinforces this.  Jesus (the master in the story) knows full well that the three individuals given talents do not possess equal abilities or gifts.  But each could make something better from what he was given—and two did.  The third wasted what he was given.  Notice that the three didn’t begin equally and they didn’t end with equal outcomes.  But the two pleased their master and flourished in their respective positions.  This story is to be taken seriously not just in a purely spiritual sense but also as having real economic lessons embedded in it, and not merely materialistic lessons but lessons for the whole life as a believer.

The upshot from a Christian perspective is that we ought to know better than to think that we all must be equal in terms of outcome.  But the reality is that we don’t know better.  Christians can be just as guilty as non-believers.  Unfortunately, this attitude can be reinforced by the desire to bring those with more down to our level rather than seeking to raise ourselves up.  In addition, a prevailing idea is that when the “1/100%” make a lot, they have taken it from the rest of us.  This misinformation is particularly damaging, since it leads to all sorts of schemes to take from the better off to redistribute to those less well off, some of these schemes being pretty radical—like Piketty’s 80% global wealth tax or 94% income tax rates (at the highest brackets), or taxing away inheritances, or minimum wage laws.

The underlying envy, which is sometimes promoted by politicians and activists, is also especially problematic for Christians, since envy is clearly a sin.  Christians of all people ought to reject this attitude in no uncertain terms.  We need to be called back to Genesis 1 to see once again how God has called each of us to a life of flourishing within the context of the purpose for which each of us has been created—to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.  Only then can we get away from the world’s wrong-headed obsession with inequality.