While preparing to write some posts dealing with ecology, I was revisiting an essay on stewardship in Toward an Evangelical Public Policy written by Scot Rodin. He has four wonderful paragraphs on capitalism and economic systems. I present them below but for these paragraphs to make sense you need to know that Rodin has been talking about “one-kingdom” living. He has described the great temptation of Christians to claim citizenship in a “spiritual” Kingdom of God while trying to build their own personal Kingdoms here an earth. Rodin is making the case that there is only one kingdom to which we belong and we are to live as citizens of that kingdom in all aspects of life. Here are his observations about economic systems:
No earthly economic system can incorporate the ethics of the steward in God’s Kingdom. In our fallenness we can only at best construct systems that appropriate the spirit of such an ethic, and even then we will constantly be at risk of giving in to our nature as kingdom builders. In regard to our relationship to the world, Scripture and history of the church instruct us to reject both isolationism and establishment of a new Christendom. Instead, we are to live as critical and cautious participants in the economies and social systems of our day. To be “in” the world but not “of” the world obligates us to cooperate within these systems but never to be conformed to them.
Therefore, we must seek to be one-kingdom stewards in a milieu that promotes two-kingdom living as the norm. In doing so, we must understand our responsibility as evangelicals to speak and live in a way that defines us as nonconforming participants. To do so we must understand the socioeconomic systems in which we live in order to operate as godly stewards within them. For those of us who live in a capitalistic system, we must acknowledge that capitalism is based on the premise of ownership and the power that comes with it. Buying and selling are the foundations of capitalism, and by definition, every buying and selling transaction requires ownership. Positively, capitalism promotes a strong work ethic and a system that links consequences with behavior. Perhaps no other economic system has the potential to lift the poor and create opportunities for those willing to work, invest in good ideas, and create businesses that produce needed goods and services while gainfully employing others in the process. In the hands of good and honest people capitalism can bless society.
However, capitalism has also brought about the dominance of having over being. Financial and societal pressures can turn godly capitalists into kingdom builders perpetuating a system fueled by an ideology of profit as the ultimate determiner of success. In this system money – and the power behind it – becomes moral value, an ethical standard. The Enrons we have suffered in our recent history are testimonies of the corrupting power of kingdom building fueled by capitalism unchecked. Michael Novak gives us an important reminder that such scandals are “three times evil,” harming the perpetuator, his peers, and the poor worldwide whose hope lies, in part, on a strong, expanding free economy. Therefore, while the freedoms and respect for human choice and free will in a capitalistic system are certainly closer to kingdom ethics than either socialism or Communism, as Christians serving only one Master, we cannot adopt the capitalistic system uncritically. Any sense of the merging of evangelicalism with capitalism should be increasingly troublesome to one-kingdom stewards. Capitalism may be the best we can produce this side of heaven, but we must operate within it as a cautious and critical and even begrudging and sometimes rebellious participant.
The challenge for evangelicals is to preach and teach biblical, one-kingdom stewardship to a people living in the midst of a society that is based fundamentally on the pursuit of building a second, alien, counterfeit kingdom. We cannot let our theology become the predicate of our society. As evangelicals, let us rise to the challenge of speaking against those aspects of our systems that are an anathema to the ethics of the kingdom of God and to its people. As evangelical churches, let us reject the old dichotomy between soul and body and see the whole person as fallen, saved by grace, and called to one-lordship service in God’s kingdom even if it means we find ourselves in an uneasy and often antagonistic relationship to the economic systems in which we live.*
In my Theology and Economics series, I labored to show that the growth of prosperity in the world in recent centuries and its continued expansion in the world is directly attributable to free market capitalism. I made the case that capitalism emerged in Western society precisely because of its grounding in Christianity, which infused it with such concepts as linear time and progression toward a better world, human beings as the image of God, property rights, and reason, just to name a few. I also emphasized that capitalism is much like a computer. What it turns out is directly to what is put in. It is an amplifier of human values and decisions. If restrict free market capitalism in an effort to avoid the amplification of evil, we also reduced the ability of the system to amplify of good. If we move more toward a free market society in an effort to amplify the good, we also increase the ability of the system to amplify evil.
I believe free market capitalism should be firmly embraced. Why? Not because it is the biblical model of Christianity. Rather, because it the greatest economic tool known to us for amplifying the virtuous values and decisions of a virtuous society.
I also believe that free market capitalism should be greatly feared. Why? Not because it is anti-biblical and evil. Rather, because it the greatest economic tool known to us for amplifying the sinful values and decisions of a sin filled society.
Should we embrace free market capitalism or fear it? My answer is a resounding YES!
* R, Scot Rodin, "Stewardship" Chapter 13, 265-283, in Ronald J. Sider and Diane Knippers, editors, Toward and Evangelical Public Policy: Political Strategies for the Health of the Nation. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005. 277-278.
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