Kaz Trypuc

Allow me to make two short points before I respond. One, upon rereading I did have a decidedly anti-capitalist tone, and that was not my intention. I had hoped to merely draw a critique of the apparent view that we want "good" capitalists--and I am not sure that exists--not abandon capitalism altogether. Second, capitalism is a broad idea and I do not seek to attack it head on, since it can come in different forms. Rather, I would like to draw attention to the ways in which the particular brand of American capitalism that we encounter day-to-day often entices the Church away from her true calling to be an alternative social body in the world, where, among others, the poor are blessed.

In many parishes today Christians are looking for new ways to model their local church after the multi-million dollar corporations that stand as exemplars of capitalist success. In turn, parishioners are treated more like consumers and market demographics; pastors like CEOs. Churches everywhere are choosing to recast their missions in the form of bold coroporate objectives to increase attendance, tithing, and "production" (conversion). Christianity has become incorporated.

Here are some instances where we can begin to see the impacts of this development in church history.

In 1998 the Pope was paid $1.8 million by Sabritas Chips (owned by Pepsi-Cola) to use his image on their potato chips during his visit to Mexico City. A dozen other companies signed him on as their endorser as well includes Mercedes=Benz and American Express.

The five largest denominational bodies in the United Kingdom have in recent years launched massive advertising campaigns aimed at getting their names "into the market." TV, billboard, music, and movie ads were added into the 16,000 images people encounter on a daily basis. No "depressing" images were used however, including references to the cross, because we all know consumers want to see the good stuff a product offers. The Anglican Church's communications director now refers to church members as "customers." One bishop advocates scheduling church services around football games, another wants the church to be "on time" so that peoples Sunday afternoons aren't interrupted.

Edward Egan, now a Vatican official, was at one time a Connecticut bishop in the middle of dealing with a scandal where 8 of his priests were accused of child sex abuse. Having been trained in American corporate law, used the argument that priests were not employees of the church but were independent contractors for whom the employer (the church) is not ultimately responsible for in any meaningful way.

Numerous Christian business people, as well as pastors and theologians alike, have written books touting the management and business secrets of Jesus and the Bible. I recently saw a book that took 100 Bible Verses and turned them into principles you could use for increasing company productivity and profit.

Laurie Beth Jones dove into the bestseller market with her Jesus CEO book. It has since turned into a mega corporation with a whole line of books, lectures, seminars, consultants, and newsletters marketed for "any business, service, or endeavor that depends on more than one person to accomplish a goal." The book fails to actually engage the scriptures in any real sense, but turns passages into cliches and self-help mottos; she even turns the cross into a half-hearted joke: "Jesus was such an action-oriented leader that they literally had to nail him to down to keep him from doing more." Not one of Jesus' sayings about money is discussed in substance--his driving the moneychangers from the temple was merely used as an example of passionate leadership.

This is not only what Christianity is about, this is what Christianity is counter to. Nor is Christianity about socialism, but I don't think many need to be convinced of that.

No, something is definitely wrong here...

And if we are looking at all this as managers and CEOs, something is wrong with the Bible too...

If one were to continue to look at the Bible as a source for single-sentence bits of business wisdon as Jones does, we would find God is an unusual business manager.

Matt. 20:1-16 is a parable where Jesus tells of paying everyone the same wage regardless of when they started laboring that day. There are no incentives for working hard, no benefits for working longer hours, and certainly this is one way to throw away money on an inefficient labor practice.

Matt. 18:12-14 tells of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find one lost one. Why leave 99 open to attack or theft from a competitor? Why waste time looking for one sheep when you could multiply and better the other 99. Cut your losses, right?

Luke 14:12-14 explains the need to call to the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. That might get good publicity but is it good business? God's kingdom is for the "least of these"--but they certainly aren't going to maximize profit and move the company into the future.

When Christ repeatedly promises that his followers will be met with the same persecution and abuse he himself underwent, I doubt that increased "demand" for Christ's message. Christ never promises things will be easy, but he does promise affliction and persecution. Not a very good marketing strategy. Those who do sign on probably won't have much motivation or even loyalty (look at how the disciples fled and hid in the wake of Jesus' arrest).

And of course, "the last shall be first and the first shall be last." Doesn't sound very good. There's a reason the first are first and the last are last. That's the order of things, or so the world tells us.

Burnt offerings were meant to curry favor with God, much like incentives provide the edge in market competition. There are some things money can't buy...for everything else there are burnt offerings? Wrong.

Jesus sent away the richest of his would-be followers telling him to give it all to the poor. What a waster investment opportunity! And the forgiving of debts? What kind of backwards business strategy is that? Not only did God command Israel to forgive debts, but to release slaves as well! And then to forgive our debts and pay the price himself by dying for us? Why on Earth would the King let himself go "bankrupt" bailing others out of debt?

To quote Michael Budde's idea on what this leads to, "God needs sober-minded lower managers to protect God's patrimony from God's overly generous heart." The harsh reality of the world means we need to bring some rationality and common sense to Jesus' sayings that keep the orders of supply and demand, opportunity and profit intact. He couldn't really have meant "blessed are the poor," could he have?

Some things are clearly wrong with the way in which I was just referring to the Scriptures. They were never intended to provide business models, capitalist or otherwise. They were meant to instruct God's people on how to live faithfully in the Kingdom that has come in Jesus on Earth as it is in Heaven. The passages that tell directly of God's view of economics, the Sabbath and jubilee laws, definitely favor the poor and the sharing of resources over the maximizing of profit.

Here we have the first of several news ways of looking at capitalism:

Many believe that money is a tool to do good things. I agree. But I have many friends who take that to mean that Christians ought to do what they can to make as much money as possible, multiplying it over and over, into a large sum capable of "helping more." Instead of practicing charity from the beginning, we become utilitarians, afraid of giving $5 to a starving homeless man because we think we can spend that money on something else that will contribute to a "greater good." But then we forget the simple charge to feed those that are hungry. We forget that whatever we do to the "least of these" we do unto Christ. And that the only difference between the sheep and the goats (Matt. 25) is what they did and did not do. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven," (Matt. 7). I do not fault the wealthy, but the desire for even increasing wealth, even to do God, still leaves the poor at the margins. We must never forget the call to care for the poor, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and house the stranger, whether we live on 33rd St. or Madison Ave.

Second, as evidenced by the many examples above, it alters our way of thinking. Christians have become "consumers" and Christianity is just another "product" in the marketplace of ideas. If it is to thrive in that environment, we must spruce it up, make it appealing, create a dynamic image, get some sponsors, and capture a market niche--the yound, the old, the traditional, the progressive, the Left, the Right, the white, the black, the intellectual, artistic, the post-9/11, and on and on. That is why evangelical churches everywhere are splitting services into "contemporary" and "traditional." Those churches realize they need to capture both demographics--the young and the older. The Church is changing is fit the needs and (artificially created) desires of the "consumers," rather than calling its member to shape and form their lives, needs, and desires around the Church that knows what it means to be the Body of Christ.

Third, capitalism is founded on the ideas of utility and scarcity. Whereas the Kingdom is founded on relationship and abundance. The same logic that turns Christians into consumers operates to turn people into commodities--for use, for money, for entertainment. We get people who sell their bodies as factory workers in competition with their neighbor. Which third-world country has the lowest wage this week? Celebrities and pseudo-celebrities on reality TV turn themselves into entertaining products to be consumed by the viewed--whatever it takes for that money. Laborers, investors, citizens are all judged by what they can offer the economy, the country, the company. It was for this reason Nazi Germany began exterminating the handicapped and mentally ill--they could contribute nothing to society and burdened the system with unnecessary costs. Fortunately that is not the case in most countries today. Companies will decide to not fix harmful products if the cost of a potential lawsuit is cheaper than issuing a recall. Human lives become measurable in dollars (the actuarial tables for life insurance). The Kingdom of God on the other hand sees the innate value of all life as it is created in the image of God (imago dei). Relationships and community are valued overall individuals and their use. Because humans were designed to live in community God provides and abundance for all to share. But capitalism assumes that resources are limited and scarce and therefor we are in competition for water, for food, for land, etc. And that means people vie for the rights to purchase these "goods" that were meant to be "common" goods for the people. Companies can buy the rights to rainwater and charge the poor peasants like in Bolivia a few years ago. Companies can clone human beings and sell off their organs (not quite there) because even the human body can be bought and sold like a product. Forests are bought and sold, pollution permits are traded, trade-offs are made between benfits for one country and costs to another. The whole world and every person in it are reduced to commodities to be bought and sold to the highest bidder--and only some can afford a lot of it. The world is not fundamentally in competition, but we are united to one another through the Body of Christ, and Jesus taught us how to share what we have so that no one goes hungry.

I do not propose an alternative economic model because I don't think that is where the life of a Christian begins. Instead we have the Church, where we can practice in small ways the works of mercy, and resist the ways in which the world seeks to teach us on its terms. Instead we can open ourselves to the deep and wide vision of the Kingdom of God where the "least of these" are cared for and we seek to love our neighbors, not our competitors, as ourselves. Perhaps we can find ways around the system we find ourselves to be faithful to the Kingdom where our citizenship lies.

Also, to address a few of the miscellaneous points in your comment, I do see things very wrong with Enron and the harm to workers in cases like that, who are too often footing the bill for CEOs mistakes. My initial reflections were geared towards the Adelphia and Tyco cases where no employees were impacted directly, merely the investors and creditors who lost millions (to my knowledge the employees were satisfied with their leaders). I mean no disrespect to those whose lives were upended by the misdeeds of the Enron (and other) executives. Also, I agree with your remark about laborers and capitalists. That is a false distinction in this age. We all participate in the system just by living and functioning in this society. But that is why we must define ourselves primarily as Christians and flesh out how we can live under that name before we are ever called to bow before the market.

Peace,
Kaz