the marketplace and the wizard to oz

Larry Reed says:

"In the West, however, the market has co-opted Christianity in much the same way that Constantine co-opted the church. Christians have become indistinguishable from any other buyers and sellers in the marketplace, and so our message has become increasingly irrelevant. The Kingdom of this world is ruled by scarcity and death. In such a world, greed and self-aggrandizement have become driving forces. Yet all of us sense within us the presence of another kingdom ruled by the love of its Creator...We can let the values of the eternal kingdom guide our choices in all realms of life, including our spending and investing...We need not fear the great and powerful market, for the market responds to us. Like Dorothy of Oz, we need to peer behind the curtain and recognize that the principle power the market has is our fear of it. Otherwise it must be our servant, responding o our values and desires. If we wake us and see the market for what it really is, a tool that must come under the stewardship of Christ, then we will realize that God has already given us the power to make the changes we desire."

In my last entry, I was challenged with the truth that some of the major underlying pre-commitments in our economic system are inherantly self-oriented, not Christ-oriented. Of course. However, with an already/not-yet kingdom mindframe, that does not mean that we should abandon free-enterpise, market economics simply because it has the potential to feed on our greed and often meaningless demand. (It is scary how easily the market can create demand, and as long as the money-holders buy it, it keeps growing.) I am guilty as any on this. Look at my checkbook and you will see my values. Someone mentioned that one's budget is not a financial document, but an ethical document-one that displays perhaps better than anything what the heart's values are.

Again, we can instead redeem market economy. Christians round the world have a total yearly income of 10 trillion dollars. The Gross Domestic Product of the world combined is 40 trillion. So, in other words, "the income of Christians represents one-quarter of the world's annual production." We do not watch the economy as Christians--the economy works to meet our demands. When we as Christians wake up to this reality, we will not simply sit around and talk (or type on a Blog) about how the market economy is bad bad bad. Instead we will, with Larry Reed, realize that we have the power to "make the market react to our values." This begins with the small things, the micro--personal budgets and what and who we spend money on (not merely how much money we give away). I am asking this question myself. Perhaps stewardship is not merely a matter of money-giving, but moreso one of money-spending. We can support companies that are building societies and employing the poor. We can give our money to micro-enterprise organizations that give small (sometimes 50 dollars) loans to poor folks so that they can get a start (they need a pool of money to account for dropping exchange rates). We can find out what companies are ecologically and socially responsible, and buy from them. etc etc.

All in all I am learning that our Christian faith has far reaching implications in the arena that we are most prone to neglect: the economy. These blog-thoughts are far from complete, but at least he is working within me, challenging my sordid complacency on such money-matters.