Buenos Aires, economics and discipleship

In recent months I have come to a realisation that for some years I have lived with a similar dichotomy to that which caused the Church in South Africa to sanction apartheid.  This is a rather shocking confession, I know, but it is true!

Let me explain:  In South Africa the apartheid system was held in place by the Nationalist government because the citizens who had a right to vote did not remove that government.  What is shocking about this is that the largest majority of these voting citizens were adherents of the Christian faith, and in fact many of them were regular attendees in their local Dutch Reformed (and other) Churches.  The Churches frequently told their members that faith and life are separate issues - most particularly that faith and politics do not mix.  So, devout Christians could live a 'Christian' portion of their lives on Sunday, but on Monday they could enter into an unjust political dispensation without feeling that the one compromised the other...

Here's where I've been making a mistake.  I have come to realise that liberal Christians like myself have created the same separation and dichotomy when it comes to economics and faith.  In my instance there are two reasons why I have tried to separate economics from faith:

1)  Because I have seen so much abuse of economics by persons who claim to be Christian (pastors, priests, evangelists etc.,  One need only switch to just about every Christian television station and you'll see preachers manipulating money out of well intentioned believers' pockets!  This shames me, and so I have always tried to separate faith from any form of money.  The sentiment is good, but it has a weakness, which I shall discuss in a moment).

2)  A second reason why I have separated faith from economics is because I have always felt that the dominant economic system of our world is incompatible with the grace, provision, and blessing that I read about in Christian scripture.  In essence, my experience has been that capitalism is driven by greed, personal gain, and it is cut-throat, frequently dishonest, and that it is motivated by a side of human nature that is not truly Christlike (i.e., it frequently is selfish, individualistic, has little care for the desire to see others blessed...  I think you get the point - my perception, which I think is largely true, is that to enrich one's self the pressure has to be shifted elsewhere in the economy, which frequently (most often) means that someone else is impoverished).

So, for these two reasons I have shied away from considering economics in any way other than a critical fashion.  I have written two chapters in books on the problems of the world's dominant economic systems (one in 44 sermons to serve the present age, and one in Methodism in Southern Africa - a celebration of Wesleyan mission).  

Yesterday, however, I came to experience for the first time how destructive perspectives such as mine are for the poor!  As long as I remain on the sidelines hurling insults, and don't address the struggles and deficiencies of this system the poor remain poor and the unjust have claim to more and more wealth!  In the economic forum discussions that we held yesterday were scientists, economists, politicians and educators who have understood that a healthy, Christ driven, engagement with economics, from the perspective of God's Kingdom, can bring about change.

What I realised yesterday is that those persons from the Christian faith who have abused economics are doing so from the same capitalist system that drives persons who do not submit to Christ's Lordship.  There is, however, another approach to economics that can be Christlike.  It is not motivated by greed, personal gain, or self enrichment.  Rather this approach is radically accountable, it seeks to apply one's gifts, abilities, and training to reclaim systems, companies, and economic policies that could be used destructively and redeploy them for the good of the poor.  I met scientists yesterday whose technology could be sold for multiple millions of dollars - yet they have developed them with venture capital funds to deploy 100% of their profits to care for the poor!  I met commodity brokers whose sole purpose in life was to shift the economic weight of nations away from the wealthy few in order to put the gains into social entrepreneurial ventures in their countries, and in so doing to make broad based economic shifts.

The reality is that I am not an astute business person, and that I am still frightened by money, and concerned with my own capacity for greed.  However, the one thing that I can do is write (and of course pray, think, and engage others).  I believe that it is time for me to break the dichotomy which allows the economic systems to continue to oppress the poor.  It is time for me to begin to think about an alternative reality in which the Christian can have a healthy engagement with the economy for the sake of the Kingdom of God and the purposes of that Kingdom.

Of course, this is risky business!  I shall need to think very carefully about what I think, write, and say.  I shall need to remain equally critical, but add to that critique creativity and insight in order to reclaim that which is frequently used to work against the principles of God's Kingdom.

It was great to make this realisation in the two-thirds world!   Argentina has many of the same struggles that we have in Africa - the dominance of American wealth, international debt, a rate of international aid that exceeds 18% (which according to a number of 'secular' economists is the point at which aid becomes a noose to steal the natural and human resources of a nation for generations to come).

I have just recently read two significant books, The Bottom Billion which speaks of why the majority of the world grows poorer, and Confessions of an economic hitman which tells of how America and the World Bank have strategically targeted mineral rich nations to enslave them in debt.  I shall be going on to read Free lunch quite soon which deals with a similar topic.

Have a blessed day!

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[Herman G]

But that we should know that we are only custodians of that entrusted to us and fellow workers with God in a Harvest. But that man should also know this is the dilemma.