Cedric Mayson
SPIRIT LEVEL
Capitalism is theologically bankrupt. Fear not, we can make profits and own a house or savings account, but capitalism has become a world religion. It worships money as the ultimate value of life, and spreads the false gospel that profit equals human development.
Early capitalism used machines and factories to improve production, jobs and ways of life, but was marred because the few who owned the land and capital exploited those who did the work.
Centuries earlier Isaiah had said: “Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field until everywhere belongs to them … By what right do you crush my people and grind the faces of the poor?”
It is theological nonsense to think the world will work that way. Modern capitalism seeks to make money, not build a productive society. Speculation in shares or currency does little for production or jobs. Making products employs millions, but trading in money employs few. Globalisation enables capitalists to make vast profits by zapping resources around the world at the blip of a computer for an extra cent of interest with little concern for society.
Like slavery and apartheid the capitalist dictators benefit some by imposing their imperialist rule on the world, but most people experience globalisation as a crime against humanity.
Religions all warn of the dangers of worshipping money. Paul wrote: “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Jesus saw his main antagonist was Mammon: not sin, Pharisees, Romans or the Devil. “You cannot serve God and Mammon”; “It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” “Man is most extravagant in wickedness when he sees himself possessed of wealth,” records the Qur’an.
The human spirit is depraved by a culture of consumerism which measures success in cars and houses, fashions and gadgets. Real progress asks if people are worthy, not how much they are worth.
Wealth is good for communities, but tough for individuals. Society succeeds by transforming the lives of the poor, not by preserving the perks of the rich. “Glory for me” religion means communal suicide.
Economics needs two theological injections. We need a theology of nationbuilding instead of profit-taking. An ecumenical group in Johannesburg recently said: “The world has gone astray. Economic forces are leading us into an international holocaust.”
Okay, chaps – if Western capitalism and Soviet socialism are washed out, what is the alternative? Can religions unite in a campaign to transform the spirit of society from loving ourselves to loving our neighbour?
How can we use local people, industry, agriculture and faith to design a system which builds our nation? We need a national commitment to banish poverty.
Millions of South Africans today have never had it so good, enjoying jobs, wages, homes, cars, holidays and shopping malls. Can the millions in work begin to invest in people, production, the poor and profits for humanity?
Critics of the moral summit said the clergy should leave economics and politics to the experts. Theologians are experts on how the human spirit operates in community. The economy will be transformed when we invest in the theological truth that success starts by a communal effort to love our neighbours.