Or you could point out that the other man with a speaking part in the parable (Abraham) had also been ‘a rich man’ when he was alive. Still, despite the author’s obvious Marxist axe-grinding, it is true we have an excessive love for wealth in the country; you can just check out the “health and wealth” preachers to see that ugliness in action.
One reason I suggested that parable dealt with spiritual
riches was that in Matthew, chapter three, when the
Pharisees and Sadducee's met John the Baptist he told them
their claim of Abraham as a father meant nothing since God could raise children to Abraham from the stones.
They could claim Abraham as a physical forefather but here
they presumed to say to themselves, “As a father, we have
Abraham.”, spiritual sons of Abraham, unlike the rabble.
But in the parable the once poor Lazarus now has the “bosom position”, leaning back in closeness as a friend might when
reclining at a meal with Abraham.
I agree completely about the materialistic preachers. Their
crass message of religious hucksterism is disgusting.