I just listened to Jay W. Richards, author of Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem (HarperOne, 2009) give a talk at the American Enterprise Institute to a predominantly young evangelical Christian audience, addressing this question (Listen Here).
I would have to agree with Jay that the answers is “Yes” when “capitalism” is properly understood and practiced. This view is counter to a growing number of young American evangelicals who are buying into the viewpoints of evangelical activists such as Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo, who criticize the “capitalist” system and argue that in a nation as wealthy as America the government can and should take care of the poor.
It was good to hear Jay make a very good point that in order to be a Christian, there is no imperative that one must be a capitalist. Rather, Christians my hold to many different economic and political viewpoints and remain Christian. However, this does not mean that all the possible viewpoints are equally valid. Jay states that he believes “capitalism” rightly understood actually reflects the Christian worldview and values more closely than any other economic system, and that the Christian worldview actually contributed strongly to the rise of capitalism. I agree.
What do you think?
I agree wholeheartedly. I recently read Richards’ book and believe he clearly articulates this stance. We often assume that because Jesus calls us to love our neighbor that a socialist system might align closer with His teachings. In practice and even in theory, however, this does not prove to be true, in my opinion.
Chris… thanks! So as someone who works in micro-finance… how would you answer someone who wonders if we would believe and support capitalism if we were a “HAVE NOT” and had little chance of improvement? Is it suspicious to you that it is usually the “HAVE’s” who support capitalist ideology? It that really the case?