As bonus season comes around, and the Government Grinches like Kenneth Feinberg close in on major financial institutions, bankers have taken to literally praying for their bonuses. Last night, Barclays CEO John Varley told the packed pews of a London church that “profit is not satanic.” And a couple of weeks ago in the same city, Lord Brian Griffiths, Goldman Sachs international adviser, took to the lectern and insisted that financial inequality was God's will.

“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said ... his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”

Wow, we knew Jesus was all about the meek inheriting the earth, but we never realized he meant for it to happen through trickle-down.

Profit `Not Satanic,’ Barclays Says, After Goldman Invokes Jesus [Bloomberg]