'...the sin most insistently called abhorrent to God is the failure of generosity, the neglect of widow and orphan, the oppression of strangers and the poor, the defrauding of the laborer. Since many of the enthusiasts of this new theology are eager to call themselves Christians, I would draw their attention to the New Testament, passim.
I have heard pious people say, Well you can't live by Jesus' teachings in this complex modern world. Fine, but they might as well call themselves the Manichean Right or the Zorastrian Right and not live by those teachings. If an economic imperative trumps a commandment of Jesus, they should just say so and drop those pretensions toward particular holiness - which, while we are on the subject of divine abhorrence, God, as I recall, does not view much more kindly than he does neglect of the poor. In fact these two are often condemned together.'
Marilynne Robinson, 'Family' in The Death of Adam, p.102.
