Kindness and Compassion 59
ousness of Saul: ‘‘Don’t be afraid, for I will surely show you kindness
for the sake of your father Jonathan. I will restore to you all the land
that belonged to your grandfather Saul, and you will always eat at my
table.’’ (2 Sam. 9:7)
SHARING THEWEALTH
In both biblical and modern times, we have had inequities of wealth.
Jacob had great numbers of cattle and sheep, while many of the other
tribesmen had few. An investment banker may make fifty times as much
as the back-office operator who inputs the trades.
It is probably impossible to eliminate all the inequities in any society,
be it biblical, feudal, communistic, or capitalistic. But it is highly possi-
ble to maintain the attitude (and corresponding actions) that wealth and
resources should be shared. John outlines this premise in a very straight-
forward passage from Luke 3:11: ‘‘The man with two tunics should
share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the
same.’’
Our modern world is more complex, but the principles of sharing
remain the same. One industry that has never been particularly known
for its ‘‘sharing’’ mentality is investment banking. A friend of mine who
worked on ‘‘The Street’’ once described his coworkers as ‘‘monetary
titans and spiritual dwarfs.’’ But an exception (at least in its leadership)
is Bear Stearns. Ace Greenberg, the chairman, requires that all 300 of
his senior directors give away at least 4 percent of their gross income to
charitable causes every year, a sort of corporate tithing. And amazingly
(perhaps not so amazingly considering the amount of disposable income
these directors have), most of them give much more. Notes Greenberg,
‘‘We don’t care what they give it to, but we audit them to make sure
they do.’’^12
Gary Heavin of Curves for Women also believes that the more he
gives, the more he gets. ‘‘I’m constantly trying to outgive God,’’ he
says. ‘‘If you give, you’ll be given back in multiples.’’ Heavin believes
in sharing and tithing so much that he’s reversed the equation: 90 per-