Month: August 2012

Christians, Capitalism, and Ayn Rand

cap-socIf you pay any attention to politics, you’ve been deluged with economic talk for the past, oh, four years. We’ve seen the rise of the Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, the return of Gordon Gekko, and polarized political views about how to fix a slumping economy. And that barely scratched the surface of what you’ll get in the next three months.

In the midst of it all, I’ve spent a lot of time wondering what is an appropriate Christian stance and response.

Capitalism and Christian Economics

Let’s look first at the ardent capitalists. Ayn Rand’s fame has soared in the past few years. People like Edward Conard are writing about how growing income inequality is a sign that our economy is working (see this long but interesting interview with him).

So far as the goal is to increase the number of middle-class people and to increase their purchasing power, I agree with nearly everything the capitalists say. I’m concerned, though, that they seriously underestimate how much people will lie, cheat, steal, and oppress because of their love of money. Rand and Conard clearly don’t believe that the love of money is the root of all evil. Actually, they might say that the love of money is the root of all human ingenuity.

Rand summed up her whole belief system for us: “My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.”

The problem: a Christian worldview disagrees with every bit of this. Christ is the hero, who saves depraved humanity from our sinfulness. Holiness, not some secular understanding of happiness, is the moral purpose of life. Service to God is our noblest activity. And reason often fails and deceives.

I can’t get over the feeling that Rand’s (IMHO) bad theology and anthropology led her to develop a bad economic model. She built her model on the assumption that humanity is essentially good and that an individual’s own happiness is the point of life.

Christian theology and anthropology tell me that humanity is corrupt – that without regulation, people will mistreat others to satiate their own greed. Christian theology tells me that greed is at the root of all kinds of evil. Christian theology says Gordon Gekko is wrong – greed is terribly harmful to individuals and society.

I’m not a Socialist

So now you’re thinking I must be a socialist. Or at least a Democrat. I’m not. I’m not going to belabor the point here, but lest all the conservatives begin assuming I’m just another flaming liberal, I’ll admit that I don’t remember the last time I voted for a Democrat.

Governments are run by depraved people, and they’re equally likely to lie, cheat, steal, and oppress. We’ve seen that when we give government more power, they don’t use it all to fight for the little guy. They use a lot of it to pick their own special interests and protect their own power. In a fallen world, socialism is just as flawed as capitalism.

Regardless if your system is capitalist or socialist, it concentrates a lot of power in the hands of the few. That power will rarely be used in the interest of the person without power, status, or wealth. Whether they be at the top of a government bureaucracy or a big business, people love money and power and will fight for more of it.

Chilling for the capitalists is the suggestion that because of that concentration of power, capitalism will lead to socialism.

In the end, I struggle to know what to believe about politics. I think the capitalists’ philosophy only works if humanity is inherently good – or if the goal is creating more middle-class people, often at the expense of the poorest. If humanity were inherently good, socialism would work just fine for those purposes, too.

A Christian Economic View

As economics go, I think Christians should seek to embody an economic culture that reflects new creation — not counting our possessions as our own, selling property and sharing as anyone has need, having no needy persons among us. That’s very different from the goal of creating more middle-class people with more purchasing power, or from forcibly taking from those with more to give to those with less. No policy can accomplish it.

Are Christians today more focused on fixing the secular economy than living out a Christian economy? In a secular world, greed and extravagance will always prevent a new creation economy, regardless of legislation. Someone will always be scammed, oppressed, left on the outside.

Regardless of where we find ourselves in the world — capitalist, socialist, distributist – I wish Christians would give their energy to taking care of the people who got left out of the system. Our culture has been so immersed in the Tea Party-Occupy world of pragmatic, secular economics that I’m worried Christians are forgetting that our economics start from a different place.

If you have the time to read it, the brilliant theologian Jamie Smith participated in a symposium with a Christian economist that is a great depiction of the problem that economists and theologians are having even trying to have a discussion. I think we’re starting with such different sets of “givens” and assumptions that it’s hard to even understand each other in a conversation. Smith’s opening article is great. If you read the whole thing, you’ll see just how much they’re talking directly past each other because of different starting points.

You should also read…

Do Catechisms Create Parrots?

sentinel parrotsYou may have seen some of my suggestions about using a catechism (with kids, as a crash course in theology, instead of just Bible teaching in Sunday School, or in the UMC) and thought the idea a bit odd. Using a catechism is pretty peculiar for most people.

When I began using the Echo catechism with a group it was admittedly awkward for a few weeks. In our group, I actually ask the questions aloud and have either the whole group or individuals recite the answers. That’s an unusual teaching method in the Church today, but I believe it has its place. I’ll share how we go beyond mere recitation in a future post.

Creating Parrots?

When others hear we’re reciting a catechism, they ask if we’re just creating parrots. “Why not help people construct their own answers to these questions?”

A catechism assumes a different starting point. We don’t start with a bunch of individuals trying to figure out their faiths. We start with a Church that God birthed out of Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection.

That Church has a faith which was handed down by the apostles and through the Scriptures. When people come into the Church, they come into a community of faith that has established, common beliefs. We want to teach those beliefs clearly.

Once we teach our people common, concise language about the Church’s faith, I think they can then ask better and deeper questions about whether their faith matches the faith of the Church. They have a starting point for asking what this faith really means and what it requires.

Benefits of a Catechism

When we don’t begin with the Church’s faith, we spend more time on our own thoughts and guesses. It’s good to have space to think through things on our own, but it’s also good to have something with some authority to rely on.

Look at this passage from Sinclair Ferguson, explaining the importance of catechisms for understanding God’s guidance:

Christians in an earlier generation rarely thought of writing books on guidance. There is a reason for that (just as there is a reason why so many of us today are drawn to books that will tell us how to find God’s will). Our forefathers in the faith were catechised, and they taught catechisms to their children. Often as much as half of the catechism would be devoted to an exposition of the answers to questions like the following:

Question: Where do we find God’s will?

    Answer: In the Scriptures. 

Question: Where in particular in the Scriptures?

    Answer: In the Commandments that God has given to us.

Why were these questions and answers so important? Because these Christians understood that God’s law provides basic guidelines that cover the whole of life. Indeed, in the vast majority of instances, the answer to the question “What does God want me to do?” will be found by answering the question: “How does the law of God apply to this situation? What does the Lord require of me here in his word?”

This was quoted in the blog post “The Benefits of the Catechisms,” a good, humorous read if you have time.

In all, I believe a common catechism can be an excellent tool for learning, sharing, and teaching a common faith. The point isn’t to create parrots. It’s to allow the Church’s faith to form our own.

Pastors – How you can transition to weekly Eucharist

Breaking of the bread. Español: Fracción del p...

I’ve heard it from several of you: “I’d love to have weekly communion, but my congregation would never have it.”

They think it will get “stale” or rote, or take too much time.

They say most other churches do monthly or quarterly communion. So why are you getting weird about it?

If they’re Methodist and good with history, they talk about a Methodist tradition of quarterly communion.

My last post made the case for weekly communion. I’m assuming you’re convinced. If not, go back to that post. Or read Robert Webber’s Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative for a starter or Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy for some real depth (affiliate links). Those will both be great references for the preaching series suggested below.

Now, how do you make that transition?

First, if you have a congregation that isn’t used to weekly communion, it’s understandable that they’re not all gung-ho. We’re creatures of habit. When you grow up with something, it’s what you come to see as the norm. I grew up with butter in the refrigerator. My wife grew up with it on the counter. We were both shocked to learn anyone would do it differently. I digress… My point: be patient. Weekly communion isn’t part of their history. They haven’t been taught to value it, so you can’t expect that they will.

Second, plan some time for teaching and preaching on communion. Do a 6-8 week series on communion. There’s so much rich theology here that 6-8 weeks should be no problem. Use that series to show your congregation how the Eucharist historically was the climax of the worship service. Use it to tell them that the Methodists only started doing it quarterly because they couldn’t get an ordained pastor there more often – and they rushed the table to get to it on those occasions! Also, it just makes sense that you should take communion each week during the series.

Third, memorize a Eucharist liturgy (we call it The Great Thanksgiving in the UMC). When you learn this by heart, it will begin to change how you see the Eucharist. It will change how you present it to the congregation – not as a dry reading, but as something that you have begun to internalize. Something you pray. Give it a try! You can do it, and I think you and your congregation will benefit from it.

[Edit: You should go read this brilliant article, “Praying the Church’s Prayer in the Eucharist,” suggested by Holly Boardman in the comments.}

Fourth, my hope is that spending 6-8 weeks in the depths of eucharistic theology will lead you and your people to ask, “How could we ever go without this anymore?” Perhaps you can just suggest that as you move along. “This is really good, the way we should always worship… why don’t we just keep doing it?”

And if the people don’t go along with it? They suggest that you just offer communion in a back room after worship for those who want it. Or to have a special early morning, or Wednesday evening service for communion. Just don’t mess with the main worship service.

I’m biased, and perhaps a bit hard-headed here, but my opinion: make the change anyway.

Let’s put this in a different context… You show up to a new church where there’s a Scripture reading and sermon once a month. The rest of the weeks, there are other things in its place: dramatic dance to contemporary Christian music, readings from the Koran, testimonies about social justice work… How long will you go before you require a change?

If you accept the Eucharist as an equally important part of the Church’s worship, won’t you require the same change for it? Even if people aren’t all on board with it?

Yes, some (many?) will be upset. This is why I at least suggest step two above before an immediate, permanent change – to help educate. But at some point, if you really believe in this, I think you need to make the change.

I hope this was helpful. If it was, would you click here to JOIN my e-mail update list?