by Daniel S. Trout
It’s rather easy to rail (especially from one’s computer) against the modern Church’s cooperation with our decadent culture, but I wonder, particularly in regard to economics, if there is a system of trade/monetary exchange that is more authentically Christian. Both capitalism and communism fall grossly short because they presuppose a neutral arena of exchange where men can equally interact. This is capitalism’s greatest weakness due to its inextricable bond with the optimism of 18th century rationalism and all the “self-evident truth” nonsense that completely ignores the problem of sin, and reduces life to a materialistic quest. Communism is, of course, no better since it simply replaces one materialism with another. Although it attempts to eliminate greed and self-interest, it’s method is essentially violent and, like capitalism, misses the foundational point that mankind is born morally bankrupt and cannot negotiate on fair and truly competitive terms, nor create a peace through bloody revolution. But, as long as people think money makes the world go round, then the theories will continue to abound, be tweaked and used and abused to give people a false sense of meaning, security, and above all, unity.
This is why Christians have to give up this contemporary delusion. To the world, we should be a strange, pilgrim people who have no business pretending that we can have economic fellowship with the world that is just and moral. I mean this, of course, in the long-term. Naturally, on the every-day level, I can superficially buy my groceries, sell stuff on e-Bay or whatever, but this is not true fellowship; this is just a slide along the surface of a larger theory that has, at its center, a principal of material and fiscal domination. For all its exterior claims, capitalism is ultimately the same old story of resource control. Like every other economic theory, capitalism wields an ethic of power: what I can control is just, and any infringement upon my control is unjust (consider America’s current Iraq crusade).
Thus it is just inexplicable how American Christians try to wed their faith with the world’s business. There is (at least, there should be) a deep moral conflict between us and them. Christianity knows no neutral sphere where one may suspend personal conviction for the sake of unity; that’s just outdated modernist bologna. Our faith maintains a servant morality (yep, Nietzsche was right) of love and sacrifice. Absent from the vision of NT ethics is any notion of fellowship underscored by competition, control and a personal achivement/esteem. Jesus says that this is how the Gentile kings lord over their subjects, but he shows them a different way: not sitting at the table but serving. In our current situation, Jesus’ example is simply folly. An economic of this sort would be crushed under the ruthless character of the capitalist spirit.
As Christians, we have no economic theory. Our progressivist modern world deals with theories of all kinds because it is always trying to find a better way to do everything. Christians have something better than a theory: we have a personal discipleship program that’s better than any big idea. In the Church, we are all part of a corporate reconciliation process wherein every member has, as his primary concern, the needs of others, whatever they may be. Christians simply should not have the time for the struggle, the frustration, and the alienation caused by our so-called “rights” of wealth, property and the like. Christian economics means selling everything we have and living like Jesus. This is the Church’s mission, because, on earth, the Church is Jesus. If more Christians actually had an ecclesiology with a christological center, then maybe our Lord’s radical demands might not seem so uncomfortable. As it stands, most don’t, but the call “follow me” endures.
So, to bring this together, let’s just say this: (1) There is no Christian economic strategy; we are not defined by what we own, earn, or dominate, but by what we have given up for the One “who for our sakes, became poor.” (2) We cannot have economic fellowship with the world because they have an opposed concept of morality and justice. (3) All secular economic theory is divisive, authoritarian…violent.
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