Mammon as "God's Work"

Reuters article link
Goldman Sachs boss says banks do "God's work"

LONDON (Reuters) - The chief executive of Goldman Sachs, which has attracted widespread media attention over the size of its staff bonuses, believes banks serve a social purpose and are doing "God's work."

The Business Insider article link
Goldman Sachs' God's Work Comments Are "Truly Unsettling" (GS)
Lawrence Delevingne Nov. 10, 2009

Goldman Sachs' (GS) latest public relations offensive involves its executives saying their capitalistic endeavors are not just tolerable, but spiritually beatifying. CEO Lloyd Blankfein is recently said to have said he's "doing God's work" by raising money for clients and investing in businesses, according to the Sunday Times. And international adviser Brian Griffiths said last month “The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest...We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all,” according to Bloomberg.

The Sunday Times article link
November 8, 2009
I'm doing 'God's work'. Meet Mr Goldman Sachs

The world’s most successful investment bank likes to hide behind the tidal wave of money that it generates and sends crashing over Manhattan, the City of London and most of the world’s other financial capitals. But now the dark knights of banking are being forced, blinking, into the cold light of day. The public, politicians and the press blame bankers’ reckless trading for the credit crunch and, as the most successful bank still standing, Goldman is their prime target. Here, politicians and commentators compete to denounce Goldman in ever more robust terms - "robber barons", "economic vandals", "vulture capitalists".

The Street article link
Wall Street Hypocrisy Invokes Jesus to Justify Bonuses: Opinion
By Ron Insana

I couldn't believe it when I read on Bloomberg today that Brian Griffiths, an international adviser at Goldman Sachs (GS Quote), uttered these words in a British church last month:

"The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest," Goldman's Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul's Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London's financial district. "We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all."

Mammon as "God's Work"