Christian Capitalism Part III

Part II
Part I


In my previous post, I discussed how that the problems of capitalism in America may be more a result of the Calvinist and Puritan ideals of obtaining prosperity as a proof that you were indeed saved and blessed by God causing an obsession with making as much money as possible. We also discussed that the problem of the inherant meanness in capitalism is a result of the greed and selfishness of the capitalists themselves with the example of Charles Dickens' Scrooge.

In this obsessive rush to profit, it's amazing how multinational corporations take on a life of their own. CEO's and officers put all the energy into the good of the company, it becomes like a multi-celled animal that only seeks to survive by devouring whatever it needs. When company officers retire or die, people remark how they were so loyal to the company, how they were a "company man". You should be loyal to the interests of employer to a point, but what about more eternal things? To die only having enabled the speedy distribution of small plastic widgets, but never blessing your fellow man, is truly a waste.

I have to acknowledge that one of the best promoter of fair and equitable treatment of workers in the church world is the Catholic Church.
Pope John Paul IV defined "Authentic Development" this way:

"In this process development is measured not just by material enrichment or rising per-capita incomes but by how much technological, medical, and educational improvements actually pass on to the common people. In this authentic development, economies are put to the service of people, not the other way around, in a process of relationship building and mutual cultural respect. "

To summarize, the idea of truly Christian Capitalism is actually a foreign concept to the majority of hyper-patriotic protestants in the United States today. There is a possibility of change if we can move past the remnants of our Puritanical heritage and the economic ideas of profits as the most important thing and people as merely the resources that ensure the survival of our bloated corporations.


  ¶ 1:23 AM