Michael Moore posted an editorial at the Huffington Post titled ‘For Those of You on Your Way to Church This Morning…‘ 
While Mr. Moore is indeed a film maker, it appears that he is attempting to take up a prophetic mantel in his newest film Capitalism: A Love Story. I haven’t seen the film so I won’t to say any more, but I will point you to a couple lines from his article that will hopefully get you to read it…
‘Is capitalism a sin?’ I go on to ask, ‘Would Jesus be a capitalist?’ Would he belong to a hedge fund? Would he sell short? Would he approve of a system that has allowed the richest 1 percent to have more financial wealth than the 95 percent under them combined?
All the great religions are clear about one thing: It is evil to take the majority of the pie and leave what’s left for everyone to fight over. Jesus said that the rich man would have a very hard time getting into heaven. He told us that we had to be our brother’s and sister’s keepers and that the riches that did exist were to be divided fairly. He said that if you failed to house the homeless and feed the hungry, you’d have a hard time finding the pin code to the pearly gates.
Here’s an interview where Moore discusses his own religious convictions a bit more. Personally I am not sure that ‘capitalism’ in general should be the target, but the particular form we currently have. Well I’ll talk about that more later. Any one seen the movie? What did you think of the article?
Would Jesus approve a setting up a bureaucratic government who forcefully takes from the producers and achievers and gives it those who don’t? I’m all for helping to the poor and oppressed, I just want to do it; not be made to my the “edge of the sword” or by tax law. When I don’t get a choice in charity it is no longer charity but theft. Capitalism has help spread the Gospel further than any other governmental system by allowing people to be free to work and worship as they please.
The United States is not a Capitalist system, it is a strange mix that you could call “Corporate Socialism”; the government takes money from people and gives it to businesses. To use the wording in James, “Pure Capitalism is this, two parties freely entering into contracts without outside interference and government enforcement of those contracts.” Minimum wage, the Federal Reserve, Farm or Business Subsidies, the Security and Exchange Commission, and other forces are not from Capitalism but Marxist or Socialist in nature.
Benjamin Williams gives us a terrible either/or question… one could only wish it were as simple as he frames it. If only the population could be clearly divided into achievers and non-achievers! But the fact is, plenty of poor work VERY hard… much harder than many who are outrageously rich. This “if poor/then lazy” formula is nothing less than a demonic meme foisted upon our bull headed citizenry by the affluent.
No one can say what kind of government or economic system Jesus would like. But what we do know is that he cared a lot about the poor. By extention, members of the church should care about the poor, and be actively working to end poverty. Now, as a citizen of a representative government, and also as someone who thinks the “sermon on the mount” still matters… I am demanding that my government represent my values. It is my duty and right as a citizen of this republic. and my argument is given to me by Baptist pastor Walter Rauschenbush (sp), who argued that a good government is one that calls its people towards good, moral behavior… a government that makes it EASIER to do good rather than evil. He also advocated for what was then called “Christian socialism,” which I’m not sure about, but it’s probably more just than the current state of things.
Lastly, that “socialism” has become a dirty word in our society is sad evidence that people lack a sense of history and context. Marx was trying to create the most compassionate government possible, and because the Soviets used his language to justify murder and oppression, nobody cares to see where socialism has served people very well.
I think people should pay their money to see Moore’s film, and feel free to vigorously debate it. But a deeper hope is that christians will truly examine their values, and attempt to parse out what is a part of a Christocentric, biblical faith, and what is instead, a part of Reagan-ish, GOP brainwashing nonsense.
No where in the Bible does it call for gov’t to feed the poor, clothe the naked, heal the sick; families, neighbors, friends, and the church are called to do so. Gov’t ‘carries the sword’ so that those who do evil will fear it. The day I see those who call so vociferously for socialism (‘capitalism unequally distributes prosperity; socialism equally distributes misery’) in the name of Christianity calling even more vociferously for an end to the slaughter of a million precious unborn human beings a year is the day I might be inclined to give a modicum of respect for their viewpoint.
Providentially, these idiotic ultra-lib viewpoints carry within them the seeds of their own destruction. Most of those who think Michael Moore should actually be taken for anything other than the heathen buffoon he is tend not to reproduce very well. They have one, maybe two designer children at 39 or so. My 3 older sibs, pagans all, illustrate this point: they have only 2 children amongst them, both grown young women, also pagans, no sign of settling down and having children. I’m the black sheep of the family, being that most heinous of beings, a conservative/fundamentalist (in the early 1900′s use of the term) Bible-believing Christian. I have 4 children. All are home-schooled, so the libs in the gov’t schools haven’t been able to brainwash them. My oldest, about to graduate from one of the top 20 secular colleges in the US w essentially a 4.0, says he’s going to have 6-8 kids. Guess whose ‘memes’ will be perpetuated into the next gen? Just think of it as evolution in action; survival of the fittest; last man standing. God works through means.
I agree with Will.
The movie was ok as an argument but good as a conversation starter.
I recently came a superb book titled The Barbaric Heart.
A book which argues that capitalism is the “culture” created in the image of the Barbaric Heart.
The war of all against all and everything now being dramatized all over the planet.
By contrast many people, including who presume to be religious, celebrate capitalism as the “highest” achievement of human culture thus far.
These two very stark images portray the fundamental urge or the drive to total power and control at the root of Western “culture” altogether—the Barbaric Heart.
They are featured in a book titled The Pentagon of Power by Lewis Mumford. A book which tells us much about the historical origins and manifestations of what he calls the Invisible Megamachine–the “god” that now rules to here.
The “culture” of death now being dramatized all over the planet.
1. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel13.html
2. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanmod/mural/panel14.html
Plus this reference gives a very sobering assessment of the state of the world in 2009, and also how we got to here.
The world inevitably created in the image of the power and control seeking Barbaric Heart
1. http://www.beezone.com/AdiDa/reality-humanity.html