Endorsement of Self-Interest?

Okay, so I’m willing to listen and think about it, when the CEO of Barclays, John Varley, gets up at St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London and says “Is Christianity and fair reward compatible? Yes.”

I’m even willing to listen and think about it when Lord Griffiths, of Goldman Sachs, stands up in St. Paul’s Cathedral to insist that “we have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.” The preferential option for the poor may well be best achieved by increasing universal prosperity.

But Griffiths is just not going to get much traction for the idea when he uses this phrasing: “The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest.”