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Good morning. There’s been a lot of criticism recently about the pay of top executives, but until yesterday charities have been immune. But the Chairman of the Charity Commission, Sir William Shawcross thinks that some well-known charities are risking their reputation by paying their heads too much. Charitable giving may be in decline but bosses in at least thirty charities are getting six figure salaries with pay rises on top. Sir Stephen Bubb of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations came on this programme to defend the policy. Top charity jobs were extremely demanding, he told us and it necessary to pay competitive rates to attract and keep the best talent. He supported this familiar argument with a quote from the Bible ‘the labourer is worthy of his hire’. That quote sounded odd to me in this context and so I looked it up. There are two occasions when the phrase crops up in the New Testament. One is in a letter ascribed to St Paul in which the writer speaks of those who preach and teach in church. They are to be treated honourably, he says, and not to be handicapped in their work - you must not, as he puts it ‘muzzle an ox while it is trying to tread out the grain’. In other words, tha labourer is worthy of his hire’ The other time the phrase appears is in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus has sent seventy of his followers on a mission to prepare for his arrival. They are sent in twos, but with no back up. They are to be like lambs in the midst of wolves, without money, or resources. When they arrive they are to trust that someone will take them in and feed them for ‘the labourer is worthy of his hire’. The point here seems to be that the missionaries are to be vulnerable. They are to depend on those they serve, not talk down to them from a position of privilege of power...