But he didn’t leave it at that, so the wealthy people of his day or the wealthy people of our day could justify our greed and materialism in some silly way like we’re “meeting people where they’re at” or “it’s ok to be wealthy.” No, one thing Jesus DID address scathingly and systematically was the expectations of God’s people; that they would so internalize his teachings that they would serve as a counterpoint to any economic system they were a part of.

Now, given, the model we have from Jesus and the early church looks a heck of a lot more like socialism than anything else, but it ultimately is a model of radical generosity and radical love combined with a radical commitment to meeting the needs of the world. The principle wasn’t to “sell everything you have and give it to the poor,” it was to create a core community of folks where every need was being met;

“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

We live in a system of capitalism. Fine. But these verses underscore the importance of two things for me:
1) the need for a local community of followers of Jesus incarnating the gospel, where we get a chance to put this teaching into practice (because this is an essential part of the church), and
2) this local community will have no needs. We should ASSUME this as a foundational goal for the church. I subvert my wants for my brother or sister’s needs. Period. If I have to sell my XBox or HDTV to achieve this, then I do. No questions asked. I think all of us should make a laundry list of the things we have that are necessary and unnecessary, and have a willingness to sell those possessions which are not necessary for the sake of the kingdom.

Imagine, if you could, loads of these communities of caring and great love existing all over the world and how much the lack of need within them would testify to the gospel. Jesus dealt with the people of God FIRST and CENTRALLY. If we are not meeting the needs in our local community, we are sinning. Pure and simple. And Jesus definitely wasn’t benign about that. I cannot be comfortable in my relative wealth if a brother or sister is suffering under my very nose.

After we establish this, then we can talk about what that looks like outside the walls of the local church community, I think.

Capitalism is quite simply an economic system with great potential as well as great flaws. Christfollowers subvert it by their very presence, as they do with socialism, communism, and any other economic model.

I look forward to your thoughts on how to grow a business without becoming top heavy or without poor customer service and whatnot. In my opinion, growth is the most difficult aspect to wrestle with concerning capitalism, simply because if you don’t have growth, you don’t have capitalism. Therefore, those who try to implement moral principles into business ethics are constantly challenged to keep up the integrity as they go. You must grow in order to stay afloat, and as you grow power is easier to exert.

The growth principle in and of itself is the foundational element of this system, and it is one which makes capitalism an economic system of greed. Looking forward to your thoughts.

eric,
nice thoughts. especially on the diamond industry. and yes all of this came about from my personal thinking as i started a business. what would distinguish and keep me from becoming a top heavy organization with a lack of customer service and a concern for only profit. hopefully later today i’ll post my constructive plan for that.

Do you really think capitalism has a dearth of problems? Just because you don’t acknowledge them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.

The fact is, people (not all of them, but enough) are necessarily going to exploit one another if given the opportunity. I’ve already said this, but it was conveniently ignored in the first post on this topic. People have proved time and time again that if they can hurt someone else (or 100’s of someone elses) to make a buck, it will be done by someone. And when they do that, it makes all the honest people trying to be fair have that much harder time to compete. This is why if you work in a factory and your hand gets crushed on the job by faulty machinery, you can’t simply be fired. Dang government getting in the way of the free market! Fire his ass! It’ll make my widget cost .0001 cents less!

I think its so entertaining that the government keeps coming up again and again. Josh, while letting his thoughts meander into more theoretical economic topics in this last post, is basically asking personal questions. He’s asking about his own business. He’s asking if he should shop at Wal-Mart. He’s asking if his behavior and ability to have what he wants is built by oppressed people. Sure he talks about the system that makes these questions worth considering, but at the end of the day, he’s looking for definable actions that he/us can do. That’s how I see it and perhaps I’m wrong, if so Josh feel free to pwn me.

In fact, if we look back at the history of these posts, the first person to start up on the government was you, Virgil. I’m not trying to defend the government, but by focusing the discussion on it, you’re managing to miss the entire point of Josh’s post. He’s not trying to tell you who to vote for. He’s trying to get people to at least consider all the events involved in the production of a good or service, which could include the work environment of the makers, the company’s other actions, the company’s history, etc. Sure the government has major problems, but harping on it every comment is no more beneficial than emergents crying about mega churches or evangelicals crying about emergent theology.

Why are none of these discussions beneficial? Because no one ever manages to convince anyone else that they’re right (*especially* on the internet). They just manage to get something off their chest and perhaps stir some people up to have their own rants. I think we should focus more on things that are actionable, that we can start doing today.

That said, I’m being somewhat hypocritical in saying that by running my mouth this whole post for no real benefit, so let’s see what I can add that will actually be useful: desire for a diamond is a artificial want created by advertising. While no one can be completely sure of how their own particular diamond was mined, the history of diamond mining has led to wars, health problems, and all sorts of other social ills. They’ve managed to produce a material that is cheaper than diamonds, has a higher refractive index (more brilliant), see Wikipedia:Moissanite. If you’re planning on getting engaged, at least consider this alternative to a diamond. Had I been less ignorant at the time, my wife would be wearing a ring with this material in it.

As a somewhat entertaining side note: please discuss this with the recipient of the jewelry before making a purchase. Buying a “fake” (oh noes! it’s fake!) stone deceitfully is a great way to ruin a relationship.

At the end of the day some people, either not caring or not willing to pay more, will simply reject this line of thinking and continue to buy at whatever the lowest price they think they can get. And that’s fine.

That said, (and without being a pure communist) I think the Marx and Engels quote holds a good deal of truth and is very relevant to our conversation.