Can Christians be Capitalists?

Posted on January 9, 2010 by rbirkey

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?

American Enterprise Institute

Posted on January 8, 2010 by rbirkey

I wanted to make a few more resources available if you are interested in conservatism, and conservative economics and politics, especially from an American Evangelical perspective. These resources come to me from my son Marshall, who is currently employed in Washington DC, and is definitely in the “minority” when it comes to public policy in our nation’s capital. He has attended AEI events there and I have benefitted from the resources he has shared below.

The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) has a long history of promoting the culture of free enterprise. Last year they embarked on The Project on Values and Capitalism, seeking to engage in a conversation with evangelical college students on the topics of economics, values and faith. Here are links to resources that I found very enlightening.

Marvin Olasky – Speaking on: “Social Justice, Free Markets and Evangelicals” – (audio file)
Jay W. Richards speaking on: “Can Christians Be Capitalists? – (audio file)
P. J. Hill, professor of economics at Wheaton College, discussed the Christian doctrines of Imago Dei and the Fall and their implications for a Christian understanding of social institutions. A transcript of his remarks are available here.

Looking for more? Try: American Enterprise Institute YouTube Channel

Additionally, Arthur Brooks, President of AEI spoke on Thursday, January 7, at Calvin College on: “The New American Culture War.” Read his Wall Street Journal article about The Real Culture War Is Over Capitalism: Tea parties, ‘ethical populism,’ and the moral case against redistribution.

Spiritual Eroticism?

Posted on May 5, 2009 by rbirkey

Scot McKnight has gone and done it again… he’s poking around with one of the evangelical church’s sacred cow’s – worship.

Here’s what he says about what we typically do on Sunday morning:

“Let’s call this was it is: spiritual eroticism. And those who are good at it can be called spiritual erotics.”

That’s kind of audacious!

Check it out over at CT’s OutofUr Blog: http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2009/05/scot_mcknight_c.html

OK! – So, Now What?

Posted on November 6, 2008 by rbirkey

As you know if you read this blog, I was not a supporter of Barack Obama. However, he won fair and square and will become the next President of the United States of America. I admire him, and wish him well. I will pray for him and support him as far as my conscience will allow.

My thoughts the last few days have been more along the lines of how will life, work and the living out of an orthodox Christian faith be affected in the next four years? I don’t have lots of answers yet, but here are a few others who have been thinking along the same lines, and coming up with some good early thoughts that I appreciate and find helpful.

Michael Hyatt - President of Thomas Nelson Publishers – My Four Commitments to Barack Obama

Cal Thomas – syndicated writer and columnist – Transforming Culture

Ajith Fernando – National Director of Youth for Christ in Sri Lanka – Thoughts After the US Elections

In the history of the church, sometimes when she faced some challenges to its beliefs and practices, she responded with restatements and demonstrations that presented the Christian truths challenged in a more beautiful, clear, appealing, persuasive and practical light. I pray that this would be the response to possible challenges coming to our belief in the sanctity of heterosexual marriage and the sanctity of human life.
We must always battle for legislation that accords with the plan of the Creator of humanity. Surely, the Creator’s plan alone is what is best for humans. Therefore, legislators must continue their battle for social righteousness. However, no amount of bad legislation can overcome the power, the joy, the appeal and the goodness of biblical morality demonstrated in the lives of Christians. We now have the challenge of demonstrating this afresh.
Whether we like it or not, people in the non-western world associate Christianity with the USA. Recently there has been a growing sense among people in the non-western world that the USA is not concerned about or sensitive to their feelings, sentiments and convictions. There even has been a sense that the US thinks it is superior to others. Because of the unhealthy association of the USA with Christianity, this sense has negatively affected people’s attitude towards the gospel. Insensitivity is alien to the Christian spirit, as Christians are those who become all things to all people so that by all means they may save some (1 Cor. 9:22). Superiority is alien to the Christian spirit because this spirit springs from grace—resulting in the acknowledgment that all our merit is undeserved—and issues in Christians always in humility counting others better than themselves (Philip. 2:3).

Christianity Today – The Evangelical Electoral Map (This is interesting)

Hilarious “Pagan Christianity?” Spoof Video

Posted on April 7, 2008 by rbirkey

This satirical video makes light of the many negative and condemning reviews of the book “Pagan Christianity?” (authors: Frank Viola and George Barna, Publisher: Tyndale) by reactionary people who have not even taken the time to read it!

I think the sad part is that many of us in the evangelical world are perceived to be reactionaries – and justly so – for extreme examples like this. It really irritates me and gives us all a bad name.

Weep and Enjoy!

My Introduction to “Pagan Christianity?”

Posted on February 23, 2008 by rbirkey

I am just finishing reading a book that my father sent to me (Thanks, Dad!) and that has been one of the most challenging and enlightening books I’ve read in recent years. The impact it will have on me personally will take much more time to realize and digest because there are so many ways that this book speaks to me, and the timing is not coincidental. I’ll explain more on that later. The book is called Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the roots of our church practices. It seeks to answer the question: “Are We really doing church by the book?” It is authored by Frank Viola and George Barna, and published by Tyndale House.

Frank Viola is a voice in the contemporary house church movement, and has been gathering with organic house churches in the US for the last 20 years. He is actively engaged in planting New Testament styled churches. He has written 8 books on radical church restoration including God’s Ultimate Passion and The Untold Story of the New Testament Church [www.frankviola.com].

George Barna is the chairman of Good News Holdings, a multimedia firm in Los Angeles that produces movies, television programming, and other media content. He is also the founder and director of The Barna Group [www.barna.org], a research firm in Ventura, California. George has written 39 books including Revolution and Revolutionary Parenting.

The joint venture of Pagan Christianity? is sort of a twin to Barna’s 2005 book REVOLUTION: Worn out on church? Finding vibrant faith beyond the walls of the sanctuary, also published by Tyndale House.

Here’s an excerpt from the book jacket:
Many Christians take for granted that their church’s practices are rooted in Scripture. Yet those practices look very different from those of the first-century church. The New Testament is not silent on how the early church freely expressed the reality of Christ’s indwelling in ways that rocked the first-century world.Times have changed. Pagan Christianity? leads us on a fascinating tour through church history, revealing this startling and unsettling truth: Many cherished church traditions embraced today originated not out of the New Testament, but out of pagan practices. One of the most troubling outcomes has been the effect on average believers: turning them from living expressions of Christ’s glory and power to passive observers.

Like me, have you ever wondered:

Why does the pastor preach a sermon at every service?
Why do church services seem so similar week after week?
Why does the congregation sit passively in pews?
Why do we keep thinking of the church as a building?
Why are we so fixated on the idea of a senior pastor?

If these questions have caught your attention like they did to me, then you might be interested enough to visit the paganchristianity.org website and download a free introduction chapter to read. And, if that increases your interest, you should just buy the book and read it! It’s an easy and engrossing read!

The Pagan Christianity website has other resources including a downloadable discussion guide, as well as links to other articles and resources by Frank Viola and George Barna.

After I complete the final chapter: “A Second Glance at the Savior: Jesus the Revolutionary,” I intend to reread the book, and post my thoughts here on each chapter. I would welcome your comments.

“Experience supplies painful proof that traditions once called into being are first called useful, then they become necessary. At last they are too often made idols, and all must bow down to them or be punished.” — J.C. Ryle, Nineteenth-Century English Writer and Minister