The assertion Jon Huer made in the title of his guest column “Christianity and capitalism in conflict” (Sept. 12, 2022) piqued my desire to address the issue from the perspective of an unaffiliated person of faith, whose beliefs include teachings from a variety of religious traditions.
While I believe in a force greater than myself, my concepts of God and Jesus are not traditional, but are consistent with my sense of spirituality. Accordingly, I wonder if the inquiry about whether capitalism is compatible with Christianity is xenophobic in that it implies an agreement with the assertion that the United States is a Christian country, without defining which version of Christianity is the metric by which we measure fealty to the proposition.
It is my opinion that individuals are drawn to faith-based organizations, denominations and sects, to find affirmation, not conversion, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but which has the potential to be so. For that reason, I do not seek to convert anyone to my faith, but I am convinced that it is essential that people of all persuasions have the opportunity to discuss their respective viewpoints in spirituality-based (non-denominational) groups, in order to seek consensus on what is in the best interest of humanity and for our planet.
The one immutable certainty is that not one of us can be certain that what we believe is immutable, for after all, most of the various religions of the world represent the desire to change the traditions from which they sprang, and yet, the vast majority of the world’s population disagrees with the religions to which other individuals belong. Maybe, we need to find a modern-day Tower of Babble, so that we can become able to understand what people who are different from us are saying.
In the United States, our three major faith traditions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, each of which finds its origins in the Old Testament. As Gary Wills, in his book “What the Qur’an Meant and Why It Matters,” quotes Pope Francis as saying, “Authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Koran are opposed to every form of violence.” And let us not forget that emblazoned on the belt buckles of Hitler’s Christian soldiers were the words “In God we trust.”
The point being that none of us is worthy to “throw the first stone.” Rather, we should recognize that throughout history, the admonition to love our neighbors as ourselves, and other fundamental tenets of both our shared and of our respective scriptures have been misused, debased, and corrupted in order to satisfy our greed and our quest for power and domination.
So, I opt to rephrase the question that stimulated this article: Is capitalism compatible with Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the religions of our nation’s Indigenous people, and with our spirituality? My answer: Capitalism and socialism can be compatible with our religious beliefs, but only if we are even more devoted to the imperatives of our shared faith and spiritual traditions.
The purpose of society is to provide for the mutual aid and protection of all its members. Accordingly, society should be focused on that purpose. I firmly believe that in order to ensure that we remain focused, people need to gather as equals, to discuss whether the practices, policies, products, politics, and any and all other aspects of society actually do conform to the tenets of faith and/or spirituality. Our STEM-trained intellects tell us what is scientifically possible. Our much-neglected spiritual intellects need to be invigorated in order to enable us to evaluate whether the products of science (including economics) are “moral.” (Is it moral to exploit workers in foreign countries in order to lower labor costs, thus bringing higher returns to corporate stockholders? How do we bring economic justice to workers in developing nations?)
As for capitalism, I believe that in its current iteration, it is not compatible with our faith traditions because it has embraced an economic theory (free market) that insists that the goal of corporations is to enrich their shareholders, at the expense of all other considerations. It promotes income inequality; it opposes governmental regulations to protect the environment; it suppresses wages and employee benefits; it exacerbates income inequality; it undermines confidence in our electoral processes and in our governmental agencies; it seeks to privatize almost every aspect of government from schools to prisons; and it is a threat to our democracy because it puts power in the hands of the very rich — to name just a few issues. High rates of teenage depression and suicide, high crime rates, soaring deaths of despair, and violent protests are among the symptoms of a very troubled society among people who feel displaced, steamrolled, and defeated by a system that has denied them the justice to which they should have access.
There are too many books for any person to read in a lifetime, but here are a few that I believe address some of the most daunting current issues: “The Man Who Broke Capitalism: How Jack Welch Gutted the Heartland and Crushed the Soul of Corporate America – and How to Undo His Legacy,” by David Gelles; “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good,” by Michael Sandel; “Battling the Big Lie: How Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA Media are Destroying America,” by Dan Pfeiffer; “Caste,” by Isabel Wilkerson; “God: A Human History,” Reza Aslan; “The Market As God,” by Harvey Cox; and “The Destructionists: The Twenty-Five-Year Crack-Up of the Republican Party,” by Dana Milbank.
I wish I had the intelligence, talent, and a sufficient time left on Earth, to write about, and to discuss what I have discovered after a lifetime of searching: we need to nurture the spiritual dimension of our humanity, and to recognize that to the extent miracles are possible, we are the ones who perform them by loving our neighbors as ourselves, and by cooperating, rather than competing with each other. We need, to borrow an admonition from the Poor People’s Campaign: “Cry Justice.”
I believe that almost any economic theory a nation embraces can be compatible with a healthy society, but only if the citizens insist that the intent of the economic system is not to maximize profit for a few, but rather to maximize justice for everyone.
Jim Palermo lives in Southampton.