The Gotcha! press has been all over President Obama's imprudent comment, during one of his routine rallies for whatever, that he thinks there's a limit to what people should be allowed to earn. Of course, that's not really what he meant. What he meant is that he thinks there's a limit to how much of what people earn they should be allowed to keep.

That's a fair enough statement of his position. He seems determined to put in place policies to sync with his beliefs, promising to tax wealthy people while he lets the middle class and below off the hook. We'll see.

It does raise the question of how much is enough. The answer seems to be something along the lines of anything up to the point of what the government decides it needs in order to put in place the programs and personnel to manage the nation toward its version of utopia. You can make as much as you like up to what the President and Congress determine you should be required - not willing, necessarily, but required - to pony up as your "contribution" to the good society.

Ahab had a similar view of matters with respect to the vineyard belonging to Naboth (1 Kings 21). In Ahab's view of the good society, he should own that vineyard - a little plot of his own, you know, right near the palace. But Naboth was not willing to relinquish this family property. Short version: Ahab whines to Jezebel, his vicious wife; Naboth, falsely accused of sedition, meets an untimely death; the vineyard comes to Ahab. The good society - as defined by Ahab - becomes more of a reality.

It all comes down to definitions and who's making them. How do we define the "good society"? How do we define "enough"? Note that no absolute standards of right and wrong, good and just, true and fair are in play here. Only politics. Politics - the acquisition and wielding of power toward the realization of one's own vision of the good society - is the driving force in the question of "enough." And, increasingly, of just about everything else as well.

To which, unless the Christian community begins to stand up and disagree, and to work for a different definition of the good society, as soon as the wind goes out of the Democrats' sails, the Republicans will rise again, and, trust me, it will be more of the same. How much of the Church's failing to address these critical and seminal issues is enough?

T. M. Moore