A Response to US Economic Issues for Jesus-followers

 Team: Michael, Erin, Paul & Justin

1. Describe the social problem.

There is economic injustice and a great disparity between the rich and the poor in the U.S. This is an indisputed fact. What makes this issue unique for the United States? Such issues as: Racial inequality. Consumerism. Nationalism. Big Corporations. Media influences. All of these factors play into how we as individuals and as a nation spend our resources. It also influences what we value and how we view people. We are the richest nation in the world. We are filled with great potential for many. How do we bridge the gap between the rich and the poor? How do we spend our money better? How do we create jobs that pay well enough to live in the U.S.? How do we live in a way that brings about justice?

2. What are the practices/structures that give rise to this problem?

People think that having stuff is going to improve their lives in every possible way. One example was cited of a man who said he desperately wanted a swimming pool so he could improve his relationship with his moody 13-year-old daughter. This would seem to back up the line of research suggests that insecurity--both financial and emotional--lies at the heart of consumeristic cravings. A man doesn’t feel properly equipped to engage in a significant relationship with his daughter (who is a complete mystery to him and probably a threat to his sense of self-worth as a competent leader), so he buys her what he supposes she wants, shortcutting the path to relational harmony (not to mention love).

“Shopping characterizes all of contemporary life” (p 58). Even if there was no money involved, I still would have shopped and wouldn’t have known about it. I shop for clothes, food, classes, friends, … everything. Or so Peter Ward makes the case for in his chapter “Shaping liquid church.”

Materialism is the great evil of our age – or so many churches think. I really like Ward’s point that it’s not so much what we buy as much as it is why we buy. Borrowing from the ideas of James B. Twitchell, Ward asserts, “the problem is not that we are materialist, but that we are not materialist enough” (p 59). This is a huge change in the way we think as a church. We buy a Lexus not because we need a new Lexus, but because a new Lexus is a status symbol and we want that status.

Products, events, and experiences represent hopes and dreams, aspirations and pleasures. “To shop is to seek something beyond ourselves” (p 59). In bridging the gap between sacred and secular, we can use this consumer culture to bring people (back) to God, but at what cost. Taking this metaphor to its end, when we get tired of God we’re going to get rid of Him just like we got rid of last years’ “in” colors and clothes.

Also, not only is there, perhaps, something spiritually wrong with our desire to consume, but it’s having an affect on our Earth, too. According to National Geographic, “approximately 1.7 billion people worldwide now belong to the ‘consumer class’—the group of people characterized by diets of highly processed food, desire for bigger houses, more and bigger cars, higher levels of debt, and lifestyles devoted to the accumulation of non-essential goods.” An example of conspicuous consumption and our desire/ability to use many unnecessary resources, in America, we have more cars on the road than we have licensed drivers!

In 2001, a World Bank report concluded, "there is a significant danger that the poor are being crowded out, the environment eroded, and global food safety and security threatened."

“The goal is to focus not so much on sacrifice, but on how to provide a higher quality of life using the lowest amount of raw materials," said Gary Gardner, director of research for Worldwatch. "We need to change the way we produce goods and the way we consume them."

Wiki Article to start the discussion on consumerism: Wiki Article. Good article on consumerism. The spread of consumerism. Article on conspicuous consumpion. Article on how Americans spend too much and how the government plays into that need that drives us to consume and spend: CNN Money Article. Documentary which deals with consumerism as it has played out historically in our expectations of suburbia. Interview at the Mars Hill website with Gary Cross on why consumerism and mass production won out in modernity.

Classism is a definite problem in the U.S., differentiating between the have's and have not's.  The structures of classism have existed for thousands of years, and an example which we can learn from Ancient Israel is Solomon. Walter Brueggemann gives insight into the structures of the Solomonic dynasty that gave rise to classism.  These insights can then assist us to apply them to how the church addresses this issue.

Capitalism is an economic system in which the means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market. (See a Richard Hooker article with an historical assessment of capitalism and a well thought out discussion of the difference between capitalism as a cultural practice and capitalism as a way of life).

Several important tactics that capitalists use to generate consumerism:

• Creating new psychological "needs" in people
• Stimulating impulse buying (see below)
• Creating and marketing fads and styles to spur temporary "usefulness" of material goods (or social obsolescence)
• Making short-lived or hard-to-fix goods; many products are designed to have uneconomically short lives, with the intention of forcing consumers to repurchase too frequently. This is technical obsolescence, often called planned obsolescence. 

One of the key problems with capitalism is its blatant encouragment of (even demand for) individualism. The system assumes that if everyone seeks their own good in a market where everyone supposedly has equal opportunity to succeed, then everything will even out. Regardless of teh effectiveness or ineffectiveness of this system, as followers of Jesus we cannot uncritically embrace a system built on systematized forms of selfishness.

Comments from Robert Hessen: "Capitalism, a term of disparagement coined by socialists in the midnineteenth century, is a misnomer for "economic individualism," which Adam Smith earlier called "the obvious and simple system of natural liberty." Economic individualism's basic premise is that the pursuit of self-interest and the right to own private property are morally defensible and legally legitimate."

Media has a huge influence on how we spend our money. A new book out discusses the affect of the media on teenagers and how they spend their money. It is called Branded. Interview with Thomas Frank on the Mars Hill website regarding how media and marketing plays a role in how view ourselves and what we buy.

There are several key reasons why the American economy has dominated the world. To name just a few:

• The abundance of natural resources in America
• The relatively low population density of America
• The development of a strong domestic market in America
• The possession of the majority of the world’s gold (by the 1930s America possessed 75% to 80% of all the mined gold in the world due to gold deposits in America)
• American investment in foreign countries higher than foreign     investment in the US
• The adoption of the US dollar as the international reserve currency.

This, among other things, has contributed to a strong sense of nationalism with the USA. Nationalism could be defined in the following ways: (1) devotion to the interests or culture of one's nation; (2) the belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals; (3) the doctrine that your national culture and interests are superior to any other. There is an intentional escalation in this list, and it is as people approach and assume the third that nationalism becomes a problem. Here's an example to clarify how this works out in practice:

A follower of Jesus might purchase item X with full knowledge that the production of X involved inhumane working conditions in some far off country. Although he would never tolerate his friends, family, neighbors, etc., being treated in such ways, he justifies his action on the basis of his awareness that “that’s just how things work” in our world.

There seem to be a number of issues that we could point out from this hypothetical situation. For one thing, this person is defining himself primarily as an American, assuming a fundamental distinction between what is okay for Americans and what is okay for people in other parts of the world (think of people’s reactions to what happened in New Orleans; according to the above quote, this type of thinking makes perfect sense in our world).

American poverty line: $18,660.00 per year for a family four…realistic? ridiculous? 3.5 million Americans, 1.35 million of whom are children, are homeless. 12.5% of the non-Hispanic white American population living under the poverty line…24.4% of African Americans…22.5% of Hispanic Americans 12.9 million American children lived under the poverty line in 2003 64 new millionaires in the Silicon Valley every day, while poor people in our country and in other countries—mostly people of color—are getting poorer day by day.

An article helpful in seeing some of the roots of the "war on poverty" in the U.S. that has not helped eliminate poverty is an article written by Dr. Larry J. Brown. We have not treated the roots or structures of poverty with the Welfare program. Which is a main reason why we have not seen an end to poverty in our rich country.

Books:

1. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich (ISBN: 0805063897)
2. The Working Poor: Invisible in America
by David K. Shipler (ISBN: 0375408908)
3. Tyranny of Kindness: Dismantling the Welfare System to End Poverty in America
by Theresa Funiciello (ISBN: 0871135787)

Corporations give rise to the structural continuation of poverty in the US. Some examples of recent books on the topic:

The Corporation : The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power
by Joel Bakan
ISBN: 0743247469
The modern corporation, according to law professor Joel Bakan, is "singularly self-interested and unable to feel genuine concern for others in any context." (p. 56) He concludes that the corporation is a "pathological" entity. Also made into a movie.
Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy
by Ted Nace
ISBN: 1576752607
"Gangs of America" stakes out the historical origins of the status of the modern corporation as a preferential legal entity enjoying rights and freedoms superior to that of the individual.

3. Why ought Jesus-followers to be involved?

*God has always given his people economic responsibilities. From her inception Israel was commanded to be a society who cared for people in need, both Israelites and non-Israelites (Deuteronomy 15.1-11; Exodus 22.21-27; 23.6-12). During the days of the monarchy, the ideal king was one who would look after the poor and needy within the kingdom (Psalm 72). Especially notable are the prophets, who called Israel to embody God’s love and justice in their economic practices (1 Kings 21; Jeremiah 22.13-17; Micah 2:2-3; Isaiah 3.16-26; Ezekiel 18.12-13; 22.29; Amos 4.1-3; Malachi 3.5; and many more).

*Jesus places economic demands on his disciples. He called all of his disciples to abandon the pursuit of wealth and instead trust God to provide what is needed (Matthew 6.11,19-34; 13.22) and taught that it was easier for poor people to follow him than for those with lots of money (Mark 10.17-31; Luke 7.20,24). He also placed a demand on his people to care for the poor and needy (Matthew 25.31-46). The bottom line is that it is impossible to confess Jesus as King and not have that affect the way we handle our financial resources (see also Luke 4.18-19).

*The NT church developed distinct economic policies and practices. To name just a few, special care was offered to those who couldn’t provide for themselves (Acts 4.34-35; 2 Corinthians 8.13-15), economic sharing was an integral aspect of their life together (Acts 2.44-45; 4.32), and economically driven favoritism was strongly condemned (James 2.1-13). Everyone was expected to work in order to contribute to the needs of the community (2 Thessalonians 3.6-12), even to the point that ignoring the needs of the poor was considered sub-Christian behavior (1 John 3.16-20).

*Money is an unavoidable aspect of life in our world. Since it is at least partially true that “money makes the world go round,” it is impossible for us to ignore economic issues. Paul’s instruction to “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” necessarily involves the way we spend our money (Colossians 3.17). We have to buy, sell, shop, save, and so on, so as followers of Jesus it is our responsibility to do so in a way that honors him.

4. What is the task of Jesus-followers in response to this problem?

Due to the complexity of our problem, we are going to discuss a proper response on two levels. As individuals, families, and small groups of friends, there are certain small-scale things we can do to engage this issues. This will be discussed as a Micro-level response. On a larger scale, US economic problems are structural and systemic and so our response should reflect an awareness that we have influence on these structures. This will be dealt with on a Macro-level. Our desire is that on some level you would make changes and decisions in the future that affect both your immediate community and the world around you.

MICRO:

• Buy things for their usefulness rather than their status.
• Reject anything that produces an addiction in you.
• Develop a habit of giving things away.
• Reject anything that breeds the oppression of others (for example, refuse to support companies who engage in child labor overseas).
• Support holistic ministries in poorer parts of the world.
• Spend more money helping people in need than on luxury items or experiences (pets, expensive cars, vacations, etc).
• Refuse to allow devotion to savings and retirement override our responsibility to serve those who are suffering.
• Develop business goals based more on relieving economic injustice instead of bottom line profit.

MACRO:

We will focus on some things churches and larger groups can do to help with US poverty.

* Vote for legislation that helps the poor in this country. Issues like minimum wage, welfare and healthcare can be hot button topics for both "liberals" and "conservatives." However, our challenge will be as Jesus followers to think aside from those two distinctives to a way that values and cares for the poor in this country. Also recent legislation on border patrols and how to treat illegal immigration are also issues that need to be addressed on both state and federal levels from a biblical perspective. We need to disengage the discussion from just the polarization of recent political ideology. We need to free ourselves to be both thankful for our wonderful country and able to question the decisions made by our president and policy makers.

* Churches and larger groups can form sponsorships with churches and groups in poorer areas of their cities. Programs from tutoring to investing financially can give neighborhoods that have less opportunities greater access to future jobs. Any influence we have on larger church organizations or structures should take into account how we treat the poor among us.

* We need to spend our own money well. Jesus followers as individuals and collectively should be known as people who are generous. The communities that surround our churches should benefit from our church. How do we challenge each other to spend our own money well? We need to be aware of how our money effects people. Example of Walmart. It is more than just good stewardship. We should as a collective spend money in such a way that it does not force others into a position of disadvantage. We should begin to hold corporations and companies accountable for their ethical practices in regards to wages, working environment and their impact on communities.

* As a collective community of Jesus followers we also need to be aware that what we do impacts the next generation. We need to prayerfully and strategically consider our plans for economic justice in our country.

5. Examples of Jesus-followers in response to this problem.

Los Angeles Based group example of both laity and various churches attempting to deal with poverty in Southern California. Another Los Angeles based alliance wanting to see fair wages put in action.

Foundation designed to help with smart investing for communities and individuals in need of assistance in the form of loans, etc.

We also need to be able to redeem certain practices of U.S. economics from within the structures.  Outsiders do not always have the ability to change the policies and procedures of many of the institutuions we are discussing.

Gangs are a problem in U.S. economics.  Gangs are a social problem costing law enforcement countless millions every month.  This is something that we can change, since  we who live in the Los Angeles area can affect.  Men such as Nicky Cruz and from 18th Century England John Wesley have changed the face of certain classes of people, by being involved directly in the lives of these people.  John Wesley prevented a peasant uprsing, which in turn prevented bloodshed, by preaching the gospel.

Francisco Flores is an example of how a Jesus follower changed the entire structure of a country, El Salvador, and caused the massive reduction in poverty, without implementing socialism.

Discussion on Re-imaging Economic Obedience from Wendell Berry.

6. Resources for Jesus-followers

Sojourners online magazine - Other Jesus followers dealing with economic issues biblically in the U.S.

“An Embarrassment of Riches: Economic Injustice and the Church” is by Jeremy Del Rio and discusses the theology of social justice by Dr. Ray Bakke, author of Theology As Big As A City. Dr. Bakke challenged those at the Summit to "re-dig the wells" of social and economic justice that run deep in American evangelicalism. That doesn't mean a mass relocation of suburban evangelicals returning to cities, but rather partnerships between urban, suburban, and rural Christians that transcend class and ethnic differences.

It is also an opportunity to move. We need to reverse the “great white flight” of the 1960s and have some people do some of the 3 R’s suggested first by John Perkins: Reconciliation, Relocation, and Redistribution.

National Coalition for the homeless. Group's goal is to see an end to homelessness in the U.S.

Living Wage national resource group.

Some stats on poverty in US:

University based website that gives stats on poverty in US.

He is the pioneer of New Urbanism. He is the expert. He has several papers on the effect of New Urbanism onto cities. He is wanting to create communities where people can live, play and work and deal with the car/oil issue. He wants people to walk around instead of drive around. We should be able to shop near where we leave and get to work, etc.

7. Final Exhortation

From Justin:
If there's one thing Jesus hates it's injustice. We, as Jesus-followers, need to make sure to be just in our practices, and stand up for justice in the practice of others. This will not be easy. This will not be the way of the world. This, however, is what we are called to do, who we are called to be. We are to not only speak for the voiceless, but empower the voiceless to speak for themselves. And that means creating a space where they can be heard.

From Michael:
From my own experience in various church settings I think that people who confess Jesus as king have a real desire to do something about the economic problems in our world, and many of those who don't care would change their mindset if they were actually aware of what is going on. So I think that I would just encourage all of you (especially those of you who are pastors) to start and/or continue conversations among people who follow Jesus. Most churches have a small group structure in place which provide a perfect setting for these types of discussions. Give them a list of statistics on poverty,  a list of scripture passages, a few examples of what people like themselves are doing about this problem, and then set them free to do whatever God leads them to do.