Major World Crises, the Kingdom, and Economics of Love

In Auburn there is a wonderful little coffee shop on Gay Street called The Gnus Room. It is decorated to look rustic and old-fashioned with posters from the 1940s and 50s, old book shelves, a creaky wooden floor, books with worn covers, and a somewhat unorganized layout which comforts a stranger who wanders in for no apparent reason other than curiosity. I'm particularly fond of the jazz music that is played softly on the radio as well as one of their hot cups of mocha as I browse, sit, think, and write.

I spent the afternoon there the other day, reading Brian McLaren's book Everything Must Change. It's a powerful book that describes the source of the world's largest crises and how the message of Jesus found in gospels addresses those crises. I want to tell you about it, and then tell you about how it has compelled me to think further. His premise is that all of the world's crises can boil down to three major problems within humanity that have existed ever since humanity was separated from God, as described in the book of Genesis. The first is the security problem, which is man's fear of having his possessions stolen or abused by his neighbors and an obsessive desire to keep his possessions safe. It creates barriers and even resentment between him and his neighbors and actually increases the chances of violent crime to occur. There is also a swelling of personal greed and a refusal to share for the common good. The second is the prosperity problem, which is man's desire for amassing more possessions and wealth, thinking that it will bring happiness. This desire can grow to dangerous proportions when the earth's environment is misused beyond safe limits for the expansion of production of goods and services. Lastly, the equity problem is when man's increased wealth and greed creates an uneven society where people are divided by wealth and other demeaning classifications. Some men enjoy lavish lifestyles whereas other men barely have enough of the basic needs to survive because of the unequal distribution of wealth.

These three problems, McLaren writes, often overlap and support each other. Together they create an unsustainable and destructive global system on which society, economics, and politics are based upon and that will eventually deplete all of the earth's natural resources, widen the gap between rich and poor to unimaginable proportions, and drive nations, communities, and neighbors to violent crime and eventually nuclear war. Ultimately, it leads to humanity destroying itself with this very system it has created. And that's exactly what McLaren calls it--a suicidal system. The entire world is locked into it unless someone changes the system...or creates a new one entirely.

Jesus emerges not as a new leader of the same old suicidal system of humanity, but a leader of a radical new movement to overthrow the suicidal system and replace it with what he calls the kingdom of God. Jesus calls us to defect from this destructive system and join his new kingdom which will bring true security, prosperity, and equity for every man. Rather than trying to protect our possessions, Jesus teaches us to quit worrying about them because they don't really matter. In fact, he encourages to get rid of them by giving them to the poor. Life, he teaches, is not about wealth and possession. It's about neighborly love. Rather than pursuing wealth at the expense of your neighbor, live life in service of your neighbor. And rather than practicing business by expanding production for more profit without regard to the environment, Jesus reminds us that the earth is God's sacred creation and that we were originally given the job of protecting it and ensuring that it flourished. Business should be practiced with a responsibility of respecting natural resources and making sure than they replenish abundantly.

And in regard to equity, Jesus teaches that all men, women, children, nationalities, cultures, languages are of equal importance to God. Once again, he reminds us that we are all neighbors and need to treat each other out of the utmost love. Love is the replacement of the suicidal system--love for God, for people, for creation. Love, as he displays to us through his death and resurrection, has the power to change the suicidal system that humanity is caught in. So he invites us into this kingdom of love, to be agents of change. We no longer live by destructive principles that sin taught us, but we live to love, which we were taught to do by God himself.

So I brewed over this for the entire afternoon. More than just a quiet afternoon in a coffee shop, huh? As I study economics at Auburn University, I've begun to develop an understanding of how the nations of the world are interconnected and dependent upon each other. It's neat to see the ways that our information and technology are becoming less bound by national borders and released into the whole the world. One could call it the convergence of national identity into a global identity. As information and technology spread, so do culture and business. The world is becoming more and more connected each day. But as I study all this, my mind races ahead to a larger and very unexplored question: how do you run a socially, environmentally, and financially responsible business? Better yet, how should a business operate within the kingdom of God? I think that the way business is conducted now and the way God would have us conduct business are starkly different, and I think that the way we do business in the future will have a great effect on whether we reverse these major world crises or not.

This is the question I ultimately came to that afternoon--a question that I am sure will be the beginning to a lifelong search for the answer. I have some basic ideas. First, I believe that a business worthy of the kingdom of God does not focus completely on earning a profit and expanding production to achieve a greater profit. It sets a sustainable level of production that doesn't strain natural resources while providing a reasonable size of profit. Second, I believe that a business worthy of the kingdom does not allow employees to work under inhumane conditions. Third, I believe that a business worthy of the kingdom should seek to use human labor rather than purchasing machines to perform tasks that human workers could accomplish. This would open up many jobs across the world in hundreds of industries, decreasing the unemployment rates of all nations. I know that this idea seems unproductive, as machines are on average more efficient than human labor, but remember that in an economy worthy of the kingdom the goal is not expansion and profit, but equality, responsibility, and neighborliness.

These are just a few of my ideas for a new way of doing business. I know it seems crazy, and I know that it is contrary to what an current economist would advise. However, if we continue conducting business without any responsibility or accountability, there will be dire consequences to pay--some, in fact, too great for humanity to pay. We must begin to change our business plans and create a strategy for responsibility, respect, sustainability, and community. What are some of your ideas?