Last week, I claimed that Christians should always be prophetically critiquing the economic systems in which they find themselves, primarily asking if these protect the weak. I also suggested the form of global capitalism presently being practiced in our society is found wanting in this regard. It is not that people have grown more greedy, but that they have removed protections that formerly helped check covetousness.
Biblical theology helps us understand what has happened and offers guidance for healing the situation. The scriptures continually emphasize that loving God involves getting your priorities straight. You hear that, for instance, when the Psalms counsel placing your trust in God above kings and their war chariots, when Jesus promises if you seek the Kingdom first everything else will follow, and when Paul pictures Christ’s salvation putting all authorities in their proper places under him.
When economic values increasingly govern the whole of life, our priorities are obviously out of line. When commercial development trumps all other considerations, any regulation from government, morality, custom, family, or religion is destroyed. When buying and selling is used to understand actions in areas of life where they don’t belong, the way we understand ourselves and our relationships with other people is radically changed. Citizens are treated like consumers who can be bought and sold. Social problems are thought to be solved with monetary incentives and deemed unimportant if people are not willing to spend money on them. Personal relationships are understood as business transactions that can be abandoned when they no longer bring us profit.
How far this kind of thinking has permeated our society is evident when people take for granted that the private sector does things more efficiently than the public and the government should be run by business people rather than politicians. Both claims ignore that we are talking about two areas of life with completely different functions. Working toward the common good demands the two co-operate, not suppress the other.
Both US political parties have participated in this dangerous exaltation of economics. Since the 1960s they have competed on their ability to stimulate business, promoting the idea that the health of the stock market is the main indicator of the good life. This political speak has led to incredibly unrealistic actions. Perhaps the most telling came during the 2008 meltdown when “Alan Greenspan, who as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve had served as high priest of the market triumphalist faith, admitted to ‘a state of shocked disbelief’ that his confidence in the self-correcting power of free markets turned out to be mistaken.” (I am pretty sure I took this from Michael Sandel’s What Money Can’t Buy.) The self-destructive nature of our situation became evident when just about everyone disregarded his warning and resumed doing to this day what led to the crisis.
I think Jesus’ warning that we cannot serve God and mammon falls into this context. He was not badmouthing economic systems, but putting them into their proper places. For instance, there might not be too much harm in claiming the goal of corporations is making a profit. There is, however, great danger and even heresy if you apply this goal to other areas of life, especially if you imply wealth is a sign of God’s favor.
Notice I have not been talking about corruption that has been as omnipresent as greed. Nor am I necessarily condemning capitalism in favor of another economic system. I am, however, pointing to the failure of the self-defeating form of capitalism prevalent in our time and place.
Next week l want to look at other biblical values that offer some guidance for coming out of this situation.
