Measuring our economy

I haven't posted here in a really long time because I've been hard at work on tumblon. However, I think this is probably still the ideal context to reflect on gospel entrepreneurship, however fitfully.

In working on tumblon, I came to this realization: I yearn for the day when we measure our economy not by the goods it produces, but by the good it does. Then, and only then, will "growth" find its rightful place in economics.

Confession as witness

Not long ago I heard a Christian say that he was concerned about being forthright about his faith in Christ with his co-workers because he was afraid of bringing shame to Christ. I think that his motives were sincere; it wasn't just a cop-out. He had seen others make verbal confession, and by their actions bring reproach rather than honor to Jesus. So the question stands: Is this a substantial enough reason to be silent?

As I sat listening to his "testimony" of why he didn't feel free sharing his faith, it occurred to me that there is a way to live authentically that does not run the risk of bringing reproach. That way is confession and repentance.

My friend's tacit assumption was that in order to bring honor to Christ, we need do consistently do what honors Him - and to stumble from that is to bring Him dishonor. And I just don't think that is true of the gospel. What honors Christ is our integrity and repentance. We make public confession in two senses. We confess that Jesus is our hope and our Savior, and we confess our own shortfalls. If we do the first without the second, we give the impression that to be saved is not to stumble (which is simply not true). If we confess our failings in order to excuse them, then we have been unfaithful to Christ and His gospel because He cam to deliver us from the power of sin.

However, if we confess our failings to unbelievers with repentance, this is a compelling witness to them of the truth that we believe: God saves sinners. He does it not because of any merit of ours, but because of His merit. Further, our hope is not in our performance of His will, but in His continuing grace to give us a spirit of repentance. This kind of integrity is far more compelling than keeping up the appearance of having been made holy - and it is far more true to Christ and His gospel.

To say this is easy; to live it is not - precisely because to live this way is to believe the Gospel that my merit is not my own, my pride is my enemy, and that God gives grace to the humble. O Father give me that grace that I both lack and need, to readily admit my failings with repentance so that you get glory.

How to share the gospel through business

I've been busy working on tumblon, and haven't made time to keep blogging here. However tonight I participated in Redeemer's Entrepreneurship Fellowship, which was a great prompt to get me writing again. The theme of the night was "sharing our faith through our work," and prompted some excellent discussion.

Several outstanding questions emerged:

1. How are Christians different from other ethical persons in the marketplace?
2. How do Christians act in such a way as to not limit their dealings to other Christians?

I love having a context in which to listen to others who are asking these questions, and seeking to live out the answers!

An inevitable conflict

As I work on tumblon, I'm intensely aware of the public/private and fact/value division that Lesslie Newbigin describes as the central feature of the modern scientific world view. He captures that tension well in this passage:

Of course, if religion is construed in essentially mystical terms -that is terms for which the idea of purpose is not central - then there is no clash. The modern scientific world view coexists peacefully and naturally with that kind of religion. But if we are talking as the Bible talks about God, who is Creator and Governor of all things, who acts in specific ways, and whose purpose is the criterion for everything human, whether in the public or the private sectors, then there is an inevitable conflict. Is it or is it not the case that every human being exists for the joy of eternal fellowship with God and must face the possibility of missing that mark, forfeiting that prize? If it is the case, it ought to be part of the core curriculum in every school. It will not do to say that the determination of character by the structure of the DNA molecule is a fact that any child must learn to understand, but that the determination of all proper human purposes for the glory of God is an opinion that anyone is free to accept or reject. The question of which world is real simply cannot be permanently evaded. There can be no genuinely missionary encounter of the gospel with our culture unless we face these questions. (Foolishness to the Greeks p67)

That question, Which world is real? is the question that parents must answer for their children. To answer that the material world must be understood by school children, but not the God who made it is simply to say that God is not the really real. That is precisely the message that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of school children have internalized from their parents answers and actions.

I am coming to realize that the conflict is inevitable. It can be hidden or dismissed; but it is inevitable. From this conflict flow two questions:

1. How do we demonstrate integrity to children in teaching them the truth about God and the world?
2. How do we demonstrate integrity in conflict with the dominant world-view in a way that is confessional and not isolationist, and in ways that are humble and not arrogant?

Those questions need working out every day.

Love your neighbor as yourself

And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

One of the reasons that I am passionate about gospel entrepreneurship is because this dual mandate is at its core. When we create meaningful work that allows and calls us to love God with all our heart, and our neighbors as ourselves, we can work with joyful abandon. There need be no conflict between our vocation and mission, because vocation can fulfill our mission.

That's why I love working on tumblon. I am convinced that loving my neighbor means doing what is best for that person in the long haul. And I am further convinced that equipping parents to fulfill (and enjoy) their responsibilities is the most powerful mechanism of love . . . and justice.

The first five years set the trajectory of a child's life. It is during these years that her character, personality and abilities are most definitively shaped. She can learn a strong sense of integrity, truth and justice - or learn to treat these with contempt. Take, for example, Ruby Bridges. As a six year old, she was "integrated" into a white school. Her parents' love and care for her during those critical first years of life bore fruit, by the Holy Spirit , in love and justice. She loved and prayed for the people who hated her; she was courageous when surrounded by cowards. By God's grace, she was an instrument of love and justice in our society. Equipping parents to love like that is what I aim to do.

Here is the logic:

1. Love does what is best in the long haul.
2. Parents are the most important figures in a child's life.
3. Equipping parents promotes:
1. Character formation, which results in good citizens.
2. Personality shaping, which results in healthy relationships.
3. Ability development, which results in contributions to society.

Love treats people (both parents and children) as responsible agents, not as mere objects of pity or contempt. As such, it calls them to responsible behavior, and provides what is needed to fulfill that call.

That is precisely where the gospel speaks. I know no better instructor in humility than parenting. We discover more darkness in our hearts in impatience and selfishness, and feel equally powerful desires for good for our children. The answer to both of those feelings - our need, and desire - is Christ.

I have much to learn yet about how to faithfully do what I do; but I honestly can't imagine a better vocation than daily learning how to call people to Christ, and equip them to love their children.

The language of testimony

It is rare to find Christians articulating statements of faith in the public square. We tend to treat them as 'internal' documents within the Church that differentiate us one from another. This is but another example that we have accepted the unexamined assumption of our culture that these things belong to the private realm of belief and taste, and not to the public world of knowledge and truth.

Lesslie Newbigin expresses brilliantly what a public confession of faith looks like in engagement with the world.

As a member of the Christian church and from within its fellowship, I believe and testify (and the shift to the first person singular is, of course, deliberate) that in the body of literature we call the Bible, continuously reinterpreted in the actual missionary experience of the church through the centuries and among the nations, there is a true rendering of the character and purpose of the Creator and Sustainer of all nature, and that it is this character and purpose that determines what is good. Because I so believe and testify, I reject the division of human experience into a private world, where the "good" is a matter of personal taste, and a public world, where "facts" are regarded as operative apart from any reference to the good. (Foolishness to the Greeks p88-89)

This is a creed that I can, and must, confess.

Looking forward to the heavenly city

There is, if I am not mistaken, a gulf that typically separates two approaches to Christian action. One reads the following:

"For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10)

and concludes that since we are awaiting a kingdom that cannot be shaken, we are to draw apart from the world. The other camp tends to read salvation history as being much more immanent, and looks for the establishment of the Kingdom on earth, not descending from heaven.

This division is tragic, since what is needed is a marriage of the two: looking for the heavenly city, while engaging in the earthly city; expecting manifestations of the Kingdom now without triumphalist illusions.

Not surprisingly, I have found the language of Lesslie Newbigin to be most helpful in understanding this paradigm. He consistently speaks of the church being a sign, instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom of God. As a sign it points away from itself (and pushes off the triumphalist illusions); as an instrument it brings the reign of God to bear now in this world in real ways; and as a foretaste it gives this broken world a small taste of what it is to live under the righteous rule of Christ.

May this generation live as sign, instrument and foretaste!

The gospel of the Kingdom

No state can be completely secular in the sense that those who exercise power have no beliefs about what is true and no commitments to what they believe to be right. It is the duty of the church to ask what those beliefs and commitments are and to expose them in the light of the gospel. There is no genuinely missionary encounter of the gospel with our culture unless this happens. Here we must face frankly the distortion of the gospel that is perpetrated in a great deal that passes for missionary encounter. A preaching of the gospel that calls men and women to accept Jesus as Savior but does not make it clear that discipleship means commitment to a vision of society radically different from that which controls our public life today must be condemned as false. (Foolishness to the Greeks p132, emphasis mine)

Preaching the gospel means preaching the kingdom of God, which is 'a vision of society radically different from what controls our public life today.'

The REAL missionary encounter

In his call for 'the energetic fostering of a declericalized, lay theology', Lesslie Newbigin states:

"And we need to create, above all, possibilities in every congregation for laypeople to share with one another the actual experience of their weekday work and to seek illumination from the gospel for their daily secular duty. Only thus shall we begin to bring together what our culture has divided - the private and the public. Only thus will the church fulfill its proper missionary role. For while there are occasions when it is proper for the church, through its synods and hierarchies, to make pronouncements on public issues, it is much more important that all its lay members be prepared and equipped to think out the relationship of their faith to their secular work. Here is where the real missionary encounter takes place. (Foolishness to the Greeks p143, emphasis mine)

I long and labor to see that sharing, and that missionary encounter take place.

Loving our neighbours

Lesslie Newbigin makes no mistake in going back to Augustine in order to understand how citizens of the city of God ought to live in the city of man.

God, the Instructor, teaches two main laws, love of God and love of one's neighbour. Here man finds three beings to love, God, himself and his neighbour. He who loves God makes no mistake in loving himself. Consequently, since he is ordered to love his neighbour as himself, he advises his neighbor also to love God. . . . He wishes to be similarly cared for by his neighbours if the need arise. So far as in him [it] lies he will be at peace with all men in that ordered harmony which is the peace of men. (Augustine's City of God XIX, 14, quoted in Foolishness to the Greeks p104)

For Augustine, the logic was inescapable. The great commandment and great commission are wedded; one who loves God cannot love his neighbor without advising his neighbor also to love God. Thus, under God, the commerce of the city of man is designed for each to call his neighbor to love God. Hence the call of gospel entrepreneurship is to embody these two main laws in the public square, and not merely in the realm of private belief.

Love is the basis of society

It is very common to hear people cast both naive and cynical views about government. For those who seek a well-considered view of society, Augustine's City of God is extremely helpful. Lesslie Newbigin notes:

"Augustine was very realistic about the evils that tear all human communities apart - the family, the city, the nation. In The City of God he has no sentimental illusions about natural brotherhood among human beings. Yet he insists that love is the basis of society; even in their wars men are in fact speaking peace. But peace is only possible when there is order, and order depends on proper government; but government in which one is subordinated to another is only right if the one who is called to govern does so for the sake of those he governs -as their servant. The motive power of order is therefore love." (Foolishness to the Greeks p103)

All the natural goods of peace and order that result from good government hinge on the one who governs acting in love. Thus the character of the one who governs is of utmost importance to the order and peace of the state.

By extension the same is true of those who 'rule' in the economic sphere by employing others. The subordination of one to another is only right if the one who is called to so rule does so for the sake of those he leads - as their servant.

Confessing the Kingship of Christ

As I continue to reread Lesslie Newbigin's Foolishness to the Greeks, I find myself essentially blogging through it. Page after page is full of rich missionary insight into my culture, the things that I don't naturally see because they are so familiar to my view. So on that path I will continue.

In his chapter on Christian engagement in politics, economics and culture, Newbigin writes:

"From the eighteenth century onward, Europe turned away from the Christian vision of man and his world, accepted a radically different vision for its public life, and relegated the Christian vision to the status of a permitted option for the private sector. But for the modern church to accept this status is to do exactly what the early church refused to do and what the Bible forbids us to do. It is, in effect, to deny the kingship of Christ over all of life - public and private. It is to deny that Christ is, simply and finally, the truth by which all other claims to truth are to be tested. It is to abandon its calling." (Foolishness to the Greeks p102)

What he points out is that Christianity in the West has, by and large, accepted the status of a permitted option for private belief for personal salvation. Newbigin points out elsewhere that:

"Such private religion flourished as vigorously in the world of the Eastern Mediterranean as it does in North America today. It was permitted by the imperial authorities for the same reason that its counterparts are permitted today: it did not challenge the political order" (ibid. p99)

This is where the rubber meets the road for economics and entrepreneurship. The claims of the gospel prevail on every element of public and private life, calling all people everywhere to order their lives around the One for whom all things. There is not a tidy world of business in which one can bracket his 'personal' beliefs in order to be a faithful employee or employer. To be a Christian means to believe and announce the rule of Jesus over everything, and to witness to that Reality in all aspects of life. That challenges the political and economic order, and is a genuine call to repentance.

An encounter with the gospel

"What would an encounter of the gospel with our post-Enlightenment cultured involve for the public arena - the political, economic, and social aspects of our life?" (Foolishness to the Greeks p95)

I think about that question daily. Where are the places that the good news of Christ calls political, economic and social life into question? As I ask the question, I hear the answer, "Everywhere!"

This morning I read in Ecclesiastes 4:4

"Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind."

To be born again by the Spirit is to be born to a new reality that is no longer governed by envy. There are new reasons for toil and skill; and there are abundant reasons to call for repentance from envy. We are now to manifest a new social and economic order defined by love, not envy! This is but one area where public life is questioned and transformed by the gospel.

Governed not by envy

"What would an encounter of the gospel with our post-Enlightenment cultured involve for the public arena - the political, economic, and social aspects of our life?" (Foolishness to the Greeks p95)

I think about that question daily. Where are the places that the good news of Christ calls political, economic and social life into question? As I ask the question, I hear the answer, "Everywhere!"

Recently I read in Ecclesiastes 4:4

"Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind."

To be born again by the Spirit is to be born to a new reality that is no longer governed by envy. Toil and skill are no longer the servants of envy, but the servants of love. When Christians engage in the economic life of their society, we ought to do so in a way that demonstrates a radically different relationship to work. Our toil and skill should be engaged to love our neighbors as ourselves - to seek their good as ours, rather than to desire their good for ourselves.

To live in this way is to blaspheme Adam Smith's doctrine of the invisible hand. It proclaims that the way the betterment of the public life consists not in each person seeking his own private gain, but in each person seeking the good of his neighbor - and that the miracle of new birth is essential for this reality to take hold. This is our call to conversion, the call to the Kingdom of God.

What is the real truth about the world?

"We have come again, from another angle, to the cleavage running through our culture between the private and the public worlds, a public world interpreted in terms of efficient causes and a private world in which purpose and therefore value judgments still have a place. I have affirmed that we cannot accept the situation in which Christian faith is admitted as no more than a possible option for the private sector. We cannot settle for a peaceful coexistence between science and religion on the basis of an allocation of there spheres of influence to the public and private sectors respectively. We cannot forever live our lives in two different worlds. We cannot forever postpone this question: What is the real truth about the world?" (Foolishness to the Greeks p79)

I feel precisely what Newbigin is saying here, having been raised with this "two different worlds" mentality. As an employee, when I shared the gospel with co-workers, I was told that matters of belief are personal and do not belong at work. When I was a teacher, I was told that religion had no place in school, because it was a matter of faith and conviction. And so I, like many others in my generation, have lived a schizophrenic life, postponing the question, What is the real truth about the world?

Now I am in a unique place as an entrepreneur. I don't have organizational forces telling me that I am not permitted to say certain things; yet I feel very deeply our cultural taboo against the truth of the gospel. Certainly it is a permitted opinion, but it is not admitted in any sense as truth. Science is what we consider sacred, and must not be defiled by religion, which is scientific blasphemy.

So my challenge is to do precisely what Newbigin calls for: "instead of trying to explain the gospel in terms of our modern scientific culture . . . to explain our culture in terms of the gospel." To accept the division between public and private, fact and faith, is to surrender the field - and to fail to confess Jesus as Lord of all. I am not claiming to have figured out how to do it, but I know it is what I must do. I must press the question with those we engage through tumblon: What is the real truth about the world?

The light of the Gospel

"The dichotomy between a world of so-called objective facts that can be 'scientifically' known apart from any faith commitment on the part of the knower and a world of beliefs that are solely the personal responsibility of the believer is precisely what has to be questioned in the light of the gospel." (Lesslie Newbigin "Foolishness to the Greeks" p50)

This is precisely the tension that I feel as I work on tumblon. I'm working with 'scientific' facts called developmental and literacy milestones that we will present to parents on the basis of scientific research, and I'm working with a set of values [parenting, literacy, virtue, etc.] that cannot find their origin in that 'scientific' world precisely because they are claims about what should be, a realm which the scientific world-view has relegated to 'belief' rather than knowledge.

The only way (that I can see) to faithfully present the facts and values with appropriate confidence is to do exactly what Newbigin is suggesting: to question the dichotomy between the 'world of so-called objective facts' and the 'world of beliefs.' There is no question in my mind that this confrontation is necessary; the remaining question for me is how to do it in my situation.

Recession, Repentance and Remission

Right now 'recession' is the word on the street. There are two words that are no less important but get far less press: repentance and remission. As I have quoted Lesslie Newbigin elsewhere:

". . . Increased production has become an end in itself; products are designed to become rapidly obsolete so as to make room for more production; a minority is ceaselessly urged to multiply its wants in order to keep the process going while the majority lacks the basic necessities for existence; and the whole ecosystem upon which human life depends is threatened with destruction. Growth is for the sake of growth and is not determined by any overarching social purpose. And that, of course, is an exact account of the phenomenon which, when it occurs in the human body, is called cancer." (Foolishness to the Greeks p114, emphasis mine)

We are entering a time of recession because our growth has been cancerous. This is a mercy if we will receive it with repentance. God may even see fit to put our cancerous growth into remission if we will repent.

True repentance requires not just limiting our spending, but changing our entire trajectory. It is not merely about limiting unsustainable production, but radically altering the purposes for which we produce. Furthermore, there can be no genuine repentance without reference to the One whom we have offended. As Christians in our time, the desperate need is to exemplify and call for repentance that has Christ as its center of reference - rather than the environment, or industry, or anything else.

In order for this repentance to occur, we must transgress the public/private divide that says that religious language does not belong in public dialogue. This is part of our repentance, the claim that Christ's authority is not limited to those who confess Him, but is over all of humanity. I know no other way to begin this call than through humble, prayerful study of the Scriptures, and faithful, consistent action in the world. God grant us repentance!

House of Cards

Over the past week or so, all eyes have been on Bear Stearns, as it suffered from a "run on the investment bank." It came down on the basis, as I have heard, of rumors. If I am not mistaken, other investment banks are in much the same position. By the very nature of their business, they are not liquid, and so a "run on the bank" puts them into crisis - and either bankruptcy or buyout.

When I look at it, I am astounded by how many other industries are built around investment banking. Many real estate and service industries exist to support the investment banking industry, and a great many others derive secondary revenue from that industry. So if one bank can disappear in the course of a week, the effects will necessarily be wider than the investment banking industry.

The point is that the financial markets, with investment banking as a very important element, are a house of cards. They rise and fall on investor optimism and pessimism, and their fall will have consequences far beyond the financial markets.

Cancerous growth

As I continue to hear pundits talking about recession, Lesslie Newbigin's words ring in my ears:

. . . Increased production has become an end in itself; products are designed to become rapidly obsolete so as to make room for more production; a minority is ceaselessly urged to multiply its wants in order to keep the process going while the majority lacks the basic necessities for existence; and the whole ecosystem upon which human life depends is threatened with destruction. Growth is for the sake of growth and is not determined by any overarching social purpose. And that, of course, is an exact account of the phenomenon which, when it occurs in the human body, is called cancer. (Foolishness to the Greeks p114, emphasis mine)

I think there can be no question that at this time in history, growth is for the sake of growth, and is not determined by any overarching social purpose - except perhaps the rebuilding of Babel. So dire is our condition that our 'prophets' (those on the television, who tell us what is to come) mourn that the growth might abate.

I cannot think of a better description of our economic system than cancerous. It is therefore incumbent upon Christians not to engage mindlessly in a terminally ill system, but through purposeful businesses to function as a sign, instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom of God.

Sound fundamentals

For the last several months, I have heard our President and others saying that despite the instability of the stock market, there are "sound fundamentals" of our economy. I want to question that claim.

How can a consumer economy be fundamentally sound?
It is built on wants rather than needs, which can be redirected, or restricted at any time. Furthermore, a consumer economy is, almost by definition, an environmentally destructive economy. As far as I understand, the vast majority of consumable goods are not recyclable, and those that are require further energy resources to recycle. For those two reasons (among others) I cannot understand the claim that our economy is fundamentally sound.

How can a debt-driven economy be fundamentally sound?
All eyes are on the lenders (including the Federal Reserve) as a measure of our economic health because a fundamental assumption of our society is that high rates of lending (regardless of the interest rates) are marks of a healthy economy. One only needs to glance at the mortgage industry to see that this is a flawed assumption. If one looks at how over-stretched the general public is (not to mention businesses) in its borrowing, it is clearly unsustainable. Or is that only clear to me?

Rebuilding Babel

From Genesis 11 we receive the story of the tower of Babel, in which the citizens of that city sought to build a tower for two reasons:

1. For their own renown: "Let us make a name for ourselves. . . " (v4)
   
2. To establish their security: " . . . lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." (v4)
   

At that time they had a common language, and when the LORD stooped low to look at their plan, He said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them" (v6). In order to restrict their power to achieve their ends, He said, "Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech" (v7).

Since that time, there have been a multitude of languages in the earth. Now, through the internet, there emerges the prospect again of a common language: html. Through it other languages can be parsed such that the many peoples share a common language. The ambitions that I observe in web businesses are not often far from those of the citizens of Babel: they seek a name for themselves (which we call 'branding') and their own security - in a multitude of ways. Our common language facilitates what was revealed to Daniel: "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." In the increase of knowledge, we see our own security - apart from Christ. We seek to conquer disease, to anticipate calamities, to destroy ignorance. But do we unwittingly rebuild Babel?

As one who is involved in an internet startup, I'm keenly aware of the temptation to rebuild Babel, and am constantly thinking about how to think and act in a way that is faithful to Christ and His gospel. How do we use this common language to challenge the assumptions of our fellow citizens about how health, peace and prosperity will come? How do we participate in this sphere without accepting its assumptions, but rather exposing them?

I don't claim to have the answers, but these are the questions with which I wrestle daily as I work on Tumblon.

The unprecedented, immensely challenging task

"We are in a new situation, and we cannot turn back the clock. It is certain that we cannot go back to the corpus Christianum. It is also certain - and this needs to be said sharply in view of the prevalence among Christians of a kind of anarchistic romanticism - that we cannot go back to a pre-Constantinian innocence. . . . We cannot go back on history. But perhaps we can learn from history. Perhaps we can learn how to embody in the life of the church a witness of the kingship of Christ over all of life - its political and economic no less than its personal and domestic morals - yet without falling into the Constantinian trap. This is the new, unprecedented, and immensely challenging task given to our generation. The resolute undertaking of its is fundamental to any genuinely missionary encounter of the gospel with our culture." (Lesslie Newbigin Foolishness to the Greeks p102).

As I get more involved in gospel entrepreneurship, I see how I am prone to the romanticism (although not the anarchist varieties). Yet I yearn to witness the kingship of Christ over economic life, which I do see as the immensely challenging task given to our generation. We have been told that Christian faith is a permissible private belief, but is not public truth. Consequently, any attempt to witness the kingship of Christ over economic life challenges our society at is very foundations. This, I believe, is where, as Newbigin says elsewhere, we must be very humble and very bold.

Market economics

In the past several weeks, all eyes (or at least many eyes) have been on the global financial markets. That focus, in conjunction with Newbigin's writings have caused me to think a lot about market economics. Newbigin observes:

In an earlier age, as in contemporary premodern societies, farming and the various skilled crafts were mainly for the use of the family or the local community. The market in which money operated as a means of exchange was only a minor and marginal part of the economy. But as the principle of division of labor gained ascendancy, the market moved into the central place as the mechanism that linked all the separate procedures with each other and with the consumers. The modern science of economics was born. Once again teleology [the study of purpose] was removed, because economics was no longer part of ethics. It was no longer concerned with the purpose of human life. It was no longer about the requirements of justice and the dangers of covetousness. It became the science of the working of the market as a self-operating mechanism modeled on the Newtonian universe. The difference was that the fundamental law governing its movements, corresponding to the law of gravitation in Newton, is the law of covetousness assumed as the basic drive of human nature. (Foolishness to the Greeks pp30-31)

As I have reflected upon it, I cannot see how a motive other than greed would drive a market economy. 'The market' does not add value in the way that individuals, cooperatives or businesses do. So the impulses of justice, love and mercy have no object on which to rest.

In contrast, an individual or group of people can work in ways that express justice, love and mercy. They can add value to a society through creativity and hard work - and in the process create wealth.

Based on this appraisal of the market economy (and I'm open to being challenged), it seems Christians are called to engage not in the financial markets, but in endeavors that employ creativity and hard work to show justice, love and mercy to one's neighbors. It is a call to Christian work, and Christian entrepreneurship.

The Samson economy

In the famous story of Samson, recorded in Judges 16, Samson possesses superhuman strength. When Delilah tries to elicit the source of his strength, he lies three times - about bowstrings, new rope, and weaving his hair - and when each is attempted, his strength remains. At last Samson confides in Delilah the source of his strength:

"A razor has never come upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother's womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man" (v17).

Yet he doesn't really believe that this is the source of his strength, for when his head is shorn, this is his response:

"And he awoke from his sleep and said, 'I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.' But he did not know that the Lord had left him" (v20)

Not long ago, when I was thinking of neither Samson nor the economy, the phrase "the Samson economy" entered my mind. Since it appeared not to have come from me, I weighed it, and as I considered it, I saw some significant parallels - not an exegesis of the text, but a sobering picture.

There have come upon the American economy many threats to its stability and endurance, and it has shaken them off like Samson discarded the bowstrings and new ropes. Such is our confidence in the human spirit and ingenuity (and the rate of growth over the past decades) that when we consider future economic crisis, we say, "We will go out as at other times and shake ourselves free."

When Samson went out that last time, he did not know that the Lord had left him. He presumed upon the great strength that he had received, and suddenly it was gone. So the contemporary American economy has received great strength. Yet what we do not recognize - certainly not in the public square - is that the One who sustains all things can withdraw His hand, and when He does we will be like the bald Samson.

It is hard for me to imagine that our economy is not the Samson economy.

Christ as the truth by which all truth is tested

"From the eighteenth century onward, Europe turned away from the Christian vision of man and his world, accepted a radically different vision for its public life, and relegated the Christian vision to the status of a permitted option for the private sector. But for the modern church to accept this status is to do exactly what the early church refused to do. It is, in effect, to deny the kingship of Christ over all of life - public and private. It is to deny that Christ is, simply and finally, the truth by which all other claims to truth are to be tested. It is to abandon its calling. (Lesslie Newbigin Foolishness to the Greeks p102)

Employment in the post-Enlightenment West is virtually synonymous with accepting that Christian faith is a permitted option for the private sector only - while denying the kingship of Christ over all of life. As a teacher in the public schools, signing a non-proselytism agreement was a condition of employment, and as an employee at a major financial services firm, I was reprimanded for sharing good news with my colleagues - precisely because they believe that belief is 'private' and not public. My experiences are anything but isolated.

In such a situation, I see little alternative but for Christians to have integrity by announcing the kingship of Christ over all of life. Some will be forced out the door of their current employment, while others will see their colleagues converted through their courage. I believe that the call of the gospel to entrepreneurship both proclaims the kingship of Christ over all of life and creates workplaces that are truly tolerant. As long as Christians accept the public/private division, I see little hope that the Spirit will be pleased to turn many to Christ through our witness.

Growth for the sake of growth

"Since Adam Smith, we have learned to assume that exponential growth is the basic law of economics and that no limits can be set to it. The result is that increased production has become an end in itself; products are designed to become rapidly obsolete so as to make room for more production; a minority is ceaselessly urged to multiply its wants in order to keep the process going while the majority lacks the basic necessities for existence; and the who ecosystem upon which human life depends is threatened with destruction. Growth is for the sake of growth and is not determined by any overarching social purpose. And that, of course, is an exact account of the phenomenon which, when it occurs in the human body, is called cancer." (Lesslie Newbigin Foolishness to the Greeks p115, emphasis mine)

In light of looming recession, Newbigin's words are extremely apropos. We have come to think that cancerous growth is normal, and even essential - even though we are aware that it is built on greed and exploitation of the poor and the environment. If we would embody the Good News of Christ, we must find ways to engage in sustainable, healthy economic growth.

No refuge in the ghetto

"Of course, as contemporary history proves, Christians can live and bear witness under any regime, whatever its ideology. But Christians can never seek refuge in a ghetto where their faith is not proclaimed as public truth for all. They can never agree that there is one law for themselves and another for the world. They can never admit that there are areas of human life where the writ of Christ does not run. They can never accept that there are orders of creation or powers or dominions that exist otherwise than to serve Christ." (Lesslie Newbigin Foolishness to the Greeks p115) [emphasis mine]

It is impossible for us to engage in the public sector without realizing that we have done exactly what Newbigin forbids. We have sought refuge in the ghetto of private, domestic faith - and have therefore denied the truth of it. The challenge for entrepreneurs (which I feel acutely) is to create opportunities in a way that announces Christ as King - rather than denying his Kingship.

Return from haitus

I've taken some time away from blogging here because I've been occupied with working on Tumblon and simply haven't had time. Now, however, my work at Tumblon is forcing me to think again about gospel entrepreneurship, and I have come across some excellent writers who are helping me think through it. So I'll be posting excerpts from their works over the next days and weeks (assuming I can keep my head above water).

I'll be posting business related stuff on the Tumblon blog.