“The Preacher Collects” by Gavin Levin is so ironic to the point that it is almost funny but also exposes the injustices carried out on the people involved. In this story, we meet Reverend Sanborn although his actions are anything but holy. From the start, he looked for any opportunity to take advantage of others to better his own life. He talks about the many institutes he attended, which were listed similarly to his resume, and explains why he took his current job “My job came with the security of a home, just next to the church, where I lived with my wife, Ruth, and our four children.” He never mentions God or why he chose to become a Preacher.He feels no remorse for stealing from others. He even uses the church as the gateway to taking advantage of Marion. He knew that Marion was the sister of the famous artist Edward Hopper so he uses it to hid advantage. When Edward’s wife, Jo, says she expected that Marion’s church friends would help care for her sister-in-law, he says “That is where I came into the picture”. By distracting Marion with a new television, Sanborn finds old art pieces of Edward’s and starts to “collect” them for his financial gain.
An eye-opening and disturbing part of the story is where he quotes Ephesians 4:28: “He who steals must steal no longer but he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.” Since he is a narcissist he relates this to him being able to give back to himself and his own family even though the people he is stealing from were the ones in actual need. It shows how deeply delusional he is to believe his acts are justified.
During the Hoppers’ last years alive, the couple suffered misfortune with their health. An example: Jo developing glaucoma to the point where she couldn’t see. If Reverend had used the money he had stolen they could’ve gotten her surgery, instead, he tricked her into changing her will so that he was in it.
When Gail Levin comes to help authenticate the paintings, we as readers, hope she will catch on to the Reverend’s deceit. It’s a very prominent saying that “ what is done in the dark will come to light” and I think this is what we expected to see. Unfortunately, real life is not a fairy tale so evil does sometimes prosper. When it is revealed that Levin has caught on to the Reverend and his thievery, our hope of the truth coming out is quickly diminished. Greed overcomes both the Reverend and Levin’s boss as they make a deal to exchange a record book for the firing of Levin. The irony of evil overcoming good shows the darkness of the world we live in and that no one is absent of sin.
I find it interesting that he never really mentions God; seeing as he is a preacher, you would expect there to be some sort of references to his religion, but there don’t seem to be any. He focuses only on the things that really, truly matter to him, and that seems to be Edward Hopper’s artwork (and the money he can gain from it).