Part II
The 10 Commandments begin with the mandate that we have no other gods before God. This is a Commandment that most preachers pretty much blow off because we don’t have too many worries about Zeus or Apollo these days. The First Commandment, leading into the Second Commandment, is a declaration of not having false gods and not creating pagan images. Part of the economic crisis we are experiencing as a nation, however, is because we have done just that. We have dueling pagan images of Socialism and Capitalism in battle with each other----and both worshiped.
Both Socialism and Capitalism have, at their core, and at their highest octane, people who are their spiritual, and I use the word spiritual very, very loosely, parents.
People are well aware of Karl Marx. It was his writings that created the foundation for Communism in Russia, Eastern Europe, and ultimately China, North Korea, and Vietnam, to name a few. But Marx’s influence went further than that. Much of what he theorized was that as some in a society grew wealthier and wealthier, and the gap between rich and poor grew, the bottom would overthrow the top. His solution, of course, was to share equally amongst everyone. No one would get rich and no one would be poor. Everyone would be the same.
For people at the bottom of the economic ladder, Marx’s words were wonderful. They found great hope in his system and embraced it.
Portions of Christianity embraced much of what Karl Marx had to say as well. Through the 1960's and 1970's many within Mainline Protestantism and within Roman Catholicism were determined to blend the teachings of Karl Marx and Jesus Christ. People embraced Luke’s words in Acts of the Apostles of the people in the early church sharing everything in common as a portent that God wanted people to live in a communal environment and embraced Socialism as a way to do this. In Latin America this was played out with Liberation Theology and seen very clearly when a Roman Catholic Jesuit priest was one of the leaders in the Sandinista movement in Nicaragua.
There were and are three huge problems with all of this.
First, Marx was not a person of faith. He was not only an atheist but he was almost an evangelical atheist in the fact that he preached diligently against religious faith, calling it the opium of the masses. Marx’s faith was strictly in people and his system. Beyond that, there was no other being.
Secondly, Marx embraced the idea that an armed revolution was not only acceptable, but a good idea. He felt that the only way the lower class could overcome the higher class was through violent revolt.
Thirdly, Marx’s system was based on the premise that everyone was going to be equal. The problem is, however, that some people end up being more equal than others. People do tend to gravitate to groups and classes and Communism was completely totalitarian and there existed brutal leaders and people who were forced into submission. Stalin and Mao, for example, did not consider themselves anyone’s equal and to question them meant death.
Marx does not blend well with Christianity. People attempt to justify violence in God’s name all the time but the fact that they attempt to justify it does not mean that they are successful at it.
Marxism has more problems however.
First, it does, by its very nature, have a great ability to cut off human motivation. Working hard to get ahead, getting a higher education to achieve something greater, is lost in Socialism. If a person works eight hours a day and is highly productive, and a person works two hours a day and goofs off most of that time, fairness seems to dictate that they both ought to receive benefits in light of their contributions instead of receiving the same. Why should a person work harder if there is ultimately no benefit?
Secondly, within Christianity, the idea of communal living exists in some segments, but not many. Roman Catholic religious orders live communally, but they do so very much by choice. They take a vow of poverty and all live very much in the same manner. They also take vows to each other and to God and they seek to excel on behalf of God and one another. Through the centuries different groups in Christianity have done likewise and this has been fine. Christianity, however, does not particularly espouse everyone having everything in common. It does espouse caring for the less fortunate----it actually demands it. The rich have a responsibility to the poor within Christianity; helping those in need is a tenet of faith, not a mandate of society.
Thirdly, Socialism as, at is core, anti-faith. Marx would have seen himself very much as a humanist. It is impossible to embrace Socialism in a pure manner and be a person of faith.
On the converse of this, however, is the pagan of Capitalism. Capitalism has been birthed and nurtured by many, but the most recent ‘mother’ of the current way Capitalism is practiced is Ayn Rand. Rand, who was Russian, saw the truly dark side of Communism and reacted in a totally opposite manner.
Rand’s philosophical concept, which she called Objectivism, which she defined as this in Atlas Shrugged.
My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute.
Her philosophical perspective was completely Libertarian and absolute laissez-faire capitalism. People are free to do whatever they want with whomever they want, and as long as there is total consent, no one, especially no government, has any right to exercise control over them.
The same is true of business. To her, the government had no role whatsoever with business. It was the moral right, even purpose, of business, to make as much money as they can with no outside constraints. Taxation, from Rand’s perspective, was pretty much a moral evil. Her mind set was simple. Leave people alone.
If people are poor, from Rand’s point of view, that is their own problem and that is their own moral failing. Society has no obligation to help them. In fact, society is actually committing a moral ill in aiding impoverished people. People, according to Rand, are responsible and accountable only to themselves and no others. If they fail, they fail and society has no obligation toward them. It us truly the survival of the fittest.
For people of means Rand sounds good. Little or no taxes. Make as much money as you want as you have no responsibility for others. Your personal achievement is a moral good. Those who are impoverished are victims of themselves and since everyone has their own personal responsibility, living up to this is up to a person.
Randian philosophy is very present in our modern day culture. I knew a man in a church I served in New Jersey in the early 1980's who espoused and wrote extensively on supply side economics. He based his economic theories on the philosophy of Ayn Rand. While he was devoutly Christian, he embraced her teachings on economics almost absolutely. He went on and was an advisor to President Ronald Reagan, and Congressman Jack Kemp who also embraced this economic theory.
People who listen to Rush Limbaugh are listening to a great deal of Randian philosophy. Rush doesn’t mention this, but his philosophical mind set is very clear.
Rand offers theological problems as well.
First, like Marx, Ayn Rand was a militant, evangelical atheist. Like Marx, she did not have a live and let live attitude toward religion. She found it to be almost diabolical because of its constant teaching of altruism which she felt to be downright sinful. Religious faith was contrary to what she was about and what she believed.
Secondly, from the perspective of Christianity, her teaching is appalling. There are two clear moral teachings in the Gospels; namely to embrace the unembraceable and to care for the less fortunate. This is an irreconcilable difference.
Ironically, like Marx, Rand has found a voice within Christianity. It is incredibly interesting to listen to some in the Religious Right (I’m being careful to use the word ‘some’ because it truly is only ‘some,’ like it was only ‘some’ in the Mainline who embraced Marx.) who talk like Jesus being pro-business, pro-low taxes, pro-limited government.
I have listened (and read) things from people who call themselves ‘conservative Christians’ who speak economically like Ayn Rand and are Libertarians on things that they want to be Libertarians on. On Tuesday they will march to protect gun rights because the government has no right to seize their guns; on Thursday they will march against gay rights because God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because God is against homosexuality. (To say that Sodom and Gomorrah is about God being against homosexuality is comparable to saying “Saving Private Ryan” is a beach story, but this is for another day.)
But enough on this.
My premise continues that our current economic crisis is, at its core, a spiritual crisis. I spoke of individualism and greed as part of the problem and today our focus on Socialism and Capitalism as gods is part of the problem.
Economic theories are not, by their very nature, sacred. They are theories and if history has told us anything it is this. All governments one day collapse. We talk about the ‘youth’ of the United States but the reality is that our system of government, and our existing structure, is one of the oldest in the world right now. While there are nations far older than us, our current structure is one of the oldest in existence. It has survived because society has kept adapting itself.
But now we are in a crisis of competing ideologies that have become so ingrained that they almost appear to be sacred. They are not. We will have great difficulties in solving much of anything if we give Marx or Rand more power than they deserve. Much of the debate we are having right now is actually a pagan debate of ideologies disguising itself as religious. It is not, and until we recognize this, we will continue to be at a loss.
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