From the Editors: On Billionaires and Luxury Pizza

IF YOU PROVIDE 48 hours’ notice and $2,000, Industry Kitchen, a New York City restaurant near Wall Street, will serve you a pizza covered with edible 24-karat gold. In response to an article promising “7 gold-covered foods” that “will break your bank,” Washington Post opinion columnist Elizabeth Bruenig tweeted that “covering good food in expensive garbage” is “for rich people who have so much money they can’t think of anything else to do with it than literally turn it into [excrement].”

We don’t have that kind of money; our idea of fancy food is forking over an extra buck or two for avocado on our sandwich. But though we don’t eat gilded food, we have to confess that we’ve fallen short on following Jesus’ instructions to sell all we have and give to the poor. “I drive a car, go on vacation, and eat at restaurants with friends,” writes John Thornton in “What the Bible Doesn’t Say about Financial Security.” “I have health insurance, a bank account, and a job.” So do we.

The most extreme incarnations of racism provide “an easy way out of introspection and self-recrimination,” writes Jay Wamsted in this issue. In a world where Dylann Roof, Confederate flags, and Nazi tattoos take center stage, it’s easy for white people to think “‘This is what racism looks like,’” writes Wamsted. “‘Racism screams at people of color in the streets. It bullies and threatens, trolls and tweets. I do none of these things.’ And then the devil whispers: ‘Therefore, you cannot be racist.’”

Something similar happens when we talk about money: It’s easy to talk about Jesus’ radical economics when the problem is billionaires and luxury pizza. Yet figuring out what the gospel means when it comes to our own paychecks, bank accounts, debt, and retirement savings (or lack thereof) is trickier. What would a gospel-centered approach to our finances look like? And could we dare to follow it?

“Precious few saints take a vow of poverty, get rid of their possessions, give to the poor, and follow Jesus,” writes Thornton. “But the rest of us can’t just dismiss Jesus’ words as hopelessly unrealistic.”