Christianity Defending Capitalism

Is Christianity a religion of the poor, the downtrodden, and the less fortunate among us or is it rather a religion for the rich, the very fortunate, and multinational corporations? Many may be forgiven for thinking that Christianity is more about the former than the latter, but there are many ministers and priests who see it as their duty to defend capitalism, corporations, and the free market.

As Bill Berkowitz wrote in Working for Change, a couple of them were invited to speak at a shareholders meeting of ExxonMobil a couple of years ago:

Father Sirico told ExxonMobil stakeholders to disregard the “religious activism” directed against the company because “it stems from the desire of certain religious activists to force what is clearly a left-wing economic and political agenda on ExxonMobil specifically and society in general.” ...Pursue “your duty” to “act upon the reality of consumer demand, obligation to your shareholders, and the needs of your thousands and thousands of employees,” Father Sirico said.

The Rev. Zandstra chimed in by claiming that the presence of so many religious activists was less about ExxonMobil human rights violations and more about “accountability and control.” Religious activists want to “set the ethical tone for ExxonMobil because [they believe] you cannot do it for yourselves.” Religious activists believe that “our nation (sic) business leaders must be soulless, heartless creatures who, if left to their own devices would merely rape and pillage,” the Rev. Zandstra said. He finished by complimenting the company on its “excellent” record “in human rights” and its “excellent” record in the environment.

Now, I’m not attempting to attack capitalism, but it seems to me that Christianity is much closer to socialist economic policies than capitalist ones. It would be wrong to suggest that Christianity is incompatible with capitalism, but it doesn’t work well as a defense of capitalism.

This is, I think, another example of people’s political and economic beliefs dictating how they view their religion. I haven’t seen detailed transcripts, it’s true, but I’ll bet that neither Sirico nor Zandstra offered any arguments on behalf of their position or against the critics which was explicitly based upon the Bible or Christian traditions.

The critics, however, can point to lots of passages in the gospels as well as the rest of both the Old and New Testaments which are very critical of the rich and powerful — calling them to accountability for their actions and for their control over the economy. Christianity works well as a religion of critique against the powerful, but in America it has been transformed into a tool for defending the status quo.

 

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