In 1916, Dorothy Sayers was among the first women to graduate from Oxford University,1 and she went on to become a successful author and playwright. A committed Christian, she sought to apply biblical orthodoxy to all areas of life. Speaking in Westminster, England, on October 23, 1941, she highlighted the presence of the Seven Deadly Sins in contemporary society, calling on the Church to tackle covetousness, particularly in the financial realm.

The Church says covetousness is a deadly sin—but does She really think so? Is She ready to found Welfare Societies to deal with financial immorality as She does with sexual immorality? Do the officials stationed at church doors in Italy to exclude women with bare arms turn anybody away on the grounds that they are too well dressed to be honest? Do the vigilance committees who complain of “suggestive” books and plays make any attempt to suppress the literature which “suggests” that getting on in the world is the chief object in life? . . .

Let us ask ourselves one or two questions: Do we admire and envy rich people because they are rich, or because the work by which they make their money is good work? If we hear that Old So-and-so has pulled off a pretty smart deal with the Town Council, are we shocked by the revelation of the cunning graft involved, or do we say admiringly: “Old So-and-so’s hot stuff—you won’t find many flies on him”? When we go to the cinema and see a picture about empty-headed people in luxurious surroundings, do we say: “What drivel!” or do we sit in a misty dream, wishing we could give up our daily work and marry into surroundings like that? When we invest our money, do we ask ourselves whether the enterprise represents anything useful or merely whether it is a safe thing that returns a good dividend? . . . Have we ever refused money on the grounds that the work that we had to do for it was something that we could not do honestly, or do well? Do we never choose our acquaintances with the idea that they are useful people to know, or keep in with people in the hope that there is something to be got out of them? And do we . . . when we blame the mess that the economical world has got into, do we always lay the blame on wicked financiers, wicked profiteers, wicked capitalists, wicked employers, wicked bankers—or do we sometimes ask ourselves how far we have contributed to make the mess? . . .

The virtue of which Covetousness is the perversion . . . is the love of the real values, of which the material world has only two: the fruit of the earth and the labor of the people. As for the spiritual values, Avarice has no use for them: they cannot be assessed in money, and the moment that anyone tries to assess them in money they softly and suddenly vanish away.2

Footnotes:
1
At the time, women were not awarded degrees, but a few years later when they were, she was among the first to receive one.

2
Dorothy L. Sayers, Creed or Chaos?: Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster (Manchester: Sophia Institute, 1949), 136-141.

article was adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located at 4800 W. Pulaski Hwy., Perryville, MD