I never thought I’d say this, but I think I might actually agree with the radical leftist singer, Billie Eilish. Let me explain.

Recently, a video of Eilish giving a speech after receiving an award went viral in conservative circles online. Eilish is speaking in a monotone, lifeless fashion, which is so very common amongst those who have rejected Truth for the sake of serving the gods of our times.

I couldn’t name one of her songs. I actually only know her from seeing a previous video of her screaming in favor of abortion during one of her concerts. So all of this was setting up for me to agree with the criticism she was receiving from the political right.

Here is what she had to say:

“We’re in a time right now where the world is really, really bad and really dark and people need empathy and help more than kind of ever, especially in our country. . .Love you all, but there’s a few people in here that have a lot more money than me. If you’re a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yeah, give your money away, shorties.”

Many of her online critics were quick to put her in the Bernie Sanders camp. That is, the group of people who complain about millionaires and billionaires until they become millionaires. Then, they suddenly lose all the fervor against millionaires after becoming one themselves. Now, only billionaires are evil.

Bernie is also known for being extremely stingy with his money when it comes to charitable giving. Here is Rev. Ben Johnson explaining this in an article from the Acton Institute:

“In his belief that philanthropy should not exist, Bernie has put his money where his mouth is. He [donated](https://dailycaller.com/2019/04/16/bernie-sanders-donations/) less than one percent of his income to charity in the year he became one of America’s “millionaires and billionaires.” This crept up to an annual average of 2.2 percent over a decade. (By way of contrast, Joe Biden [donates](https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2019/08/14/how-charitable-are-the-2020-presidential-candidates/#22078b0325ee) about nine percent of his money to charity.) “Unless we learn more from Sanders, which might put these numbers in a different context, he is a victim of his own critique: He is not paying his fair share,” [wrote](https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/how-sanders-charitable-giving-may-undermine-his-central-message) Charlie Camosy in the National Catholic Reporter.”

The Sanders types believe that everyone with more money than they have should be giving all, or at least most, of their money away. It’s the exact opposite of the view of Christian charity, which starts with the personal call to give and then preaches to others to follow your example, as St. Paul did.

There are many progressives out there who act this way. The problem is that Billie Eilish is not one of them.

You see, the editing of the viral clip that conservatives were reacting to misses a very important part of the video. Just after Billie accepts the award, Stephen Colbert comes up to announce that she is donating all of the proceeds of her upcoming concert tour to charity. He estimates that to be worth over $11 million.

For a 23-year-old with a net worth of about $50 million, that’s pretty impressive.

Now, it’s fair to note that Billie’s causes of choice are particularly woke wastes of money. She’s giving mostly to combat the popular climate hoax, which is one of the greatest deceptions, I think, in all of human history.

But that doesn’t change the fact that she is giving over $10M, roughly 20% of her net worth, away to a cause she believes in. It does, though, reject the idea that she is anywhere close to the same as the perpetually stingy Bernie Sanders.

The edited clip makes the assumption that Billie is telling other people what to do with their money, which is a hallmark of Socialist ideology. But she’s not doing that. She’s telling them to follow her example. And she is, in my view, pointing out something that Christian conservatives have become far too comfortable with.

Throughout the Gospels, we see Jesus offering some severe demands for the rich. “Go, sell what you have and give it to the poor” is a message we’ve all heard many times. Jesus breaks some hearts by calling for people to give everything they have, an act that some of our greatest saints have replicated throughout the last 2,000 years.

I am firmly of the belief that money or wealth isn’t inherently evil. Money isn’t the root of all evil; the love of money is. Conservative Christians like myself love to make this point frequently. But what does it mean to love money more than God and our neighbor? That question gets asked and seriously considered much less often.

I’m willing to say I agree with Billie Eilish. I do not think that Billionaires should exist. We probably disagree on how we should eliminate the existence of billionaires. Many progressives think we should tax them into oblivion. I think they should willingly give a lot of their money away.

I do understand that not every billionaire has $1B in liquid cash. I know that equity, real estate, and many other factors add up to that net worth. And I think that matters a lot in regard to taxes and legislation, but much less in the discussion of generosity, greed, and the Gospel.

I often say that we need to determine our values before they get tested. Bernie Sanders is a clear failure in this regard. He thought he was against millionaires until he became one. The same thing can happen to us Christians. We can criticize those who partake in a sin that has not yet tempted us personally, but then fold when the opportunity arises in our own lives.

What does this mean for the young Christian striving for professional and financial excellence today? It means that we ought to make as much money as we can while having a serious limit on how much we can personally spend.

If you can make $100M - that’s great. How much do you really need to live on? I don’t think you must live in poverty in order to be a good Christian. But I do hold a belief that is unpopular in some conservative Christian circles: there is such a thing as too much.

As Jesus shows us in the parable of the widow who gives her last two cents in the temple, it’s not enough to just donate exorbitant amounts of money. You have to give until it hurts.

Unlike the Progressives, I believe it’s up to the individual to decide when and where to give. But I do belief it’s a moral demand from God to be generous until it hurts and to recognize when enough is enough.

This is the challenging nuance of the Gospel. We are called to create a society where people have the freedom to do what is right and follow God, as well as the freedom to, within reason, do what displeases God. We tend to ignore the harsh reality that God can sometimes be more demanding than even the greediest Socialist politician we see in the news.