In the eco-community sin carries a slightly different connotation, but I have to agree with the principle. Treehugger has an article that basically consists of an exception, a second-home-owner with a conscience about their second home.
This caused me to think afresh on the subject (I feel like environmental care is intimately related to our care for others.) I live on the “North Shore” in Massachusetts, and it saddens me to so many beautiful victorian seafront homes go unoccuppied as the owner pays for heat and AC and ground maintenance so they can weekend there throughout the summer. I hope that Christianity can meditate on the fact that we are often worse than the Levite (Luke 10) who walks by the battered and abused, we aren’t even walking by – we are driving by (both figuratively and literally) in oppulence and luxury. It is time to ask ourselves if we are worse Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5), they kept a little and were zapped… we keep a lot. We may not live in an era where the church is communal, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try to create a Church that is self-giving and self-sacrificing. More and more everyday I see the root of many sins, selfishness, in me and I, similar to when I would pick weeds as a child, try to clean out a path only to find they have grown where I’ve just cleared. I’m not saying all consumption is a sin, but I fear that if we don’t try to at least assess our present state we put ourselves at risk.
#1 by Rob on August 19th, 2006
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Hi, Tom.
Well, if it makes you feel better about the summer homes, the owners have probably been toiling away in Boston law firms for years, and you and your wife are much happier than they are.
Just think: They’re barely able to enjoy the house they’re striving to pay for!
But more seriously, you’re quite correct that excessive consumption causes a multitude of problems, for the person, for the environment, and, through the opportunity cost, for others who might otherwise have been helped.
Best wishes,
Rob.