Predatory Economics and the Christian Response

The context of ancient biblical history can provide modern American Christians indispensable help in navigating the disastrous plight of predatory economics as perpetuated by America and American companies. While politicians and economists traditionally are the only sort of experts that speak on this issue, this essay attempts to set a series of convictions backed by scripture before modern American Christians. This essay is by no means comprehensive and there are a variety of experts cited that have written multiple volumes of exhaustive books on the subject. What this essay does offer is an alternative viewpoint that both the pulpit and the economist often neglect.

In the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar has a vision in which he foresees the fate of empires throughout time. Within the dream there is a giant statue made of a variety of materials: gold, then bronze, then cobbled stone. A meteorite falls through the sky and demolishes the entire statue and each of the materials is turned to rubble.

The prophet Daniel explains to King Nebuchadnezzar that he and Babylon represent the golden head of the statue. The variety of materials that the rest of the statue consisted of were kingdoms that would supercede Babylon. The meteorite represented a divine kingdom that would replace all other Kingdoms and would establish utopia for all mankind. (Daniel 9 ESV)

In the time of Jewish exile, around 500 BCE, utopian literature like Daniel’s was  rare. Often the prophets of the time would write about how perfect the figures in authority were rather than criticizing them and offering an alternative (Ezekiel 13 ESV). Daniel’s criticism and prophecies concerning the Divine Kingdom gave language for the illustrations Christ used concerning the Kingdom of God in first century Israel. When Christ came on the scene, first century Jews already had a mental picture of a divine kingdom that was radically different from the empires of their day.

By the time Jesus walked the earth, Israelites had been conquered by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Grecians, and finally the Romans. Christ claimed his purpose was to end to the ache of the predatory empires that consume the poor and marginalized. Rather than establishing his divine kingdom through militarism, Christ chose an alternative method: radical generosity, subversive forgiveness and the dignification of the marginalized. After Christ’s crucifiction, the early church continued in these methods. Many early Christian concepts flew in the face of Roman propaganda and so Rome heavily persecuted Christians. When martyrdom only increased Christian identity with the crucifiction and resurrection, Rome cannibalized Christianity and fused it with the very empire Christians universally criticized.

Modern America resembles Constantinian Rome in fundamental respects. America’s ruling elites “consume” the poor yet somehow also claim Christ to be their leader (Masci). It’s telling that Christians living outside American Evangelicalism typically look on with the same sort of prophetic lament common in the Old Testament prophetic books (Elliot 10). 

American Evangelicalism is slowly gaining awareness of its hypocritical nature and is taking its first steps toward addressing the empire that uses its authority to actively assault the poor and marginalized (Grisworld). Now is the time for evangelicals to ask questions about structural oppression, centralized power and how individual citizens participate in creating chaos for the poor and marginalized. Now is the time to start looking at the solutions contained within the “upside down kingdom” that Christ spoke of in the gospels.

Within Christian tradition, man’s sinful nature is at the root of economic inequality. Ancient Issraelites had a communal understanding of wealth that held generosity as an ideal and apathy as moral corruption. The writer of Proverbs condemns “Whoever despises his neighbor ... [as] a sinner, but ... [considers] blessed he who is generous to the poor” (Proverbs 14:21 ESV). The writer of proverbs looks at someone who despises their neighbor as someone who has rejected God on a level. The hope of the writer is that those who are apathetic, prejudice or hateful to reconsider their standing with God, and perhaps seek out the blessing that is available in generosity. This sums up the biblical ethic on relating to the poor.

Modern Christians have elaborated on the simplicity of this biblical ethic, warning against systemic injustice. When personal apathy and hatred become communal sins, the result is normalized, enduring inequality. Ronald J. Sider, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, cites sinful nature as a force which naturally establishes economic inequality. Sider argues if Christians observe the scriptural narrative they will understand that a departure from God’s ethic causes 

sinful people [to] regularly use great inequalities of power to oppress the weak. Again and again the result is unfair social, economic, and political systems that produce poverty. If [Christians] are to understand one of the root causes of poverty, [they] must understand how unequal power nurtures social sin or structural injustice. (Sider 125).  

People tend to draw near to unequal power like “moths to a light”. This tendency is clear in American history. After the American Constitution was ratified, unequal power was the main focus that constituted the debate between the Federalists and the Antifederalists. It seemed essential to the men within the federalist debate that there would be stopgaps to the accumulation of power at the expense of the marginalized. 

Today, any US citizen can clearly observe that that desire has busted through those barriers creating crony capitalism and corporate socialism. World-renowned linguist and secular anarchist Noam Chomsky raises James Madison as a modern day prophet in his book Profit Over People. Chomsky explains how 

The assaults on democracy and markets are … related. Their roots lie in the power of corporate entities that are increasingly interlinked and reliant on powerful states, and largely unaccountable to the public. Their immense power is growing as a result of social policy that is globalizing the structural model of the third world, with sectors of enormous wealth and privilege alongside an increase in “the proportion of those who will labor under all the hardships of life, and secretly sigh for a more equal distribution of blessing,” as the leading framer of America democracy, James Madison, predicted 300 years ago. (Chomsky 92-93) 

As long as sin rules in men’s hearts, they will resist the suppression of desire that a government instills in order for the maintenance of justice. Although James Madison had a premonition of things to come, he could not have foreseen the manner in which the Babylonian empires and the “unaccountable” corporate entities would collaborate to take advantage of the system and the poor. 

Just because America is run by men who identify as Christian does not mean America has been liberated from the governmental corruption that infected empires like Babylon. Within the book of Romans, Paul has to help guide Roman Christians through their own struggle with allegiance to Rome as contrasted with their allegiance to the Kingdom of Heaven. There are Jews within the Roman congregation that believe the mere fact that they are Jews will keep them seperate from the ways of the Roman Empire. (Rom 11:19-18) In parallel today Christians often view themselves, or even the conceivably Christian nation of America as invulnerable from the tyranny that empires bring. Often Christians in modern day America fail to take time to contrast America with the Kingdom of Heaven. Just because Christians have been “grafted in” does not exempt them from the evil that comes with running an empire.

 Paul addresses the entire congregation and gives an illustration where non-jews are grafted into the family of God. He warns the Gentiles of Rome to maintain a healthy fear or caution of drifting away from the way of Christ. Paul tells the Gentiles that even certain Jews emancipated themselves from God’s family and in their stead the gentiles were adopted. The gentiles are just as susceptible to the death that unbelief brings (Rom 11:19-22). This death that Paul speaks of does not merely pertain to any physical or spiritual death. By drifting away from the way of Christ, with violence, discord and disunity, the Jews and Gentiles were “sowing” death into their communities. Churches cannot be sustained when such behaviors abound. This is a stern warning to both the jews and gentiles of that day, as well as the Christians of today. 

Romans provides insight on individual salvation, but it also teaches readers a lot about the political methodology of Christ as well. Elliott gives a sharp rebuke to those who would depoliticize the bible saying “Ultimately, insulating the interpretation of Romans from political and ideological criticism (or marginalized political criticism as only one option as among others) serves to reinforce those ideological constraints that isolate religion from playing any meaningful role in history” (Elliott 11). It's not as if Paul’s exhortation to the Roman gentiles to lay down their arms comes at random. The Jews of that time were being tempted with the culture of warfare that they lived in, rather than adopting the non-violent way of Christ. In the same way, Americans today are tempted to adopt the economic ways of the west and often fail to see that western economics contradict the ethos of the teachings of Christ. Speaking about America, Elliot keenly observes “it is possible for those living at the center of imperial culture to avoid seeing the effects of empire” (Elliot 10) If American christians cannot see the effects of our empire, repentance is nonsensical. 

Just as the brutality of the tax system created centralized wealth and prosperity for the Romans, Americans experience wealth generated by unethical business practices with developing nations. Christians may assert ethically dubious arguments for their right to personal property and self-preservation when the issue of inequality arises. These arguments may fair on a secular table but failure to adhere to ethics of Christ will place us as adversaires to the kingdom of God. Centralized wealth offers liberty and licence to stratified elites, which western audiences view as the goal of all individuals. This works fine as a secular goal for individuals but Christian goals will always affect holy (John 17.20-23 ESV) and secular communities (Romans 10:14 ESV). How can Christians spread the Gospel of the Kingdom yet only keep kingdom economics for themselves? In contrast to secular utilitarianism, when market economies are “measured by biblical standards, glaring injustices exist.” (Sider 138). 

One issue that Christians must specifically consider is wealth distribution. Within our own very rich country, the gap between the rich and poor has only grown. Rather than markets seemingly creating equal opportunity, the opposite is apparent: the opportunities of the higher classes far exceed the lower classes. Looking closer at developed western countries’ economies Sider observes: 

in the U.S., the gap between the rich and poor has grown enormously in the last thirty-plus years. In 2003, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reported that ‘the average after-tax income of the top one percent of the population tripled … rising from $286,000 in 1979 to …  201 percent - over the 21 year period. By contrast, the average after-tax income of the middle fifth of the population rose just 15 percent, or $5,500, between 1979 and 2000, reaching $41,900 in 2000. The average after-tax income of the poorest fifth of households rose 9 percent, or $1,100 reaching 13,700 in 2000’ (Sider 139-140).

Christ addressed the extravagant wealth of the powerful when he told a group of soldiers to be content with their wages (Luke 3:14), and when he celebrated the repentance and financial redistribution of Zacchaeus the tax collector (Luke 19:1-10). For Christ, the problem of extravagant wealth wasn’t merely a spiritual issue, but rather an issue of justice. Zacchaeus's decision to return the money he had taken demonstrated that Christ was concern with retribution through redistribution.

The apostle James also addresses this issue. He rebukes the wealthy by telling them that their riches will testify against them and ultimately become their downfall (James 5:3). James goes on to acknowledge that their crimes of the rich are unfair and unlivable wages (James 5:4). 

Christ and his brother James acknowledge that the injustice of centralized wealth is the exploitation of the poor. Christ asserts that in order for the rich to establish kingdom ethics they need supernatural provision. Without supernatural provision and the accountability of a church community, the pitfall of the accumulation of wealth is an abuse of the poor. 

children of the affluent North. Most of them began years ago as small, local firms. Slowly they expanded into sprawling corporations. For the most part their growth has been gradual, and they have evolved alongside the economy as a whole. Consequently, the developed world, although at times exasperated at the frequent indifference of larger corporations to wider social goals, has learned, at least to a degree, to work constructively with them. (Sider 164)

American companies and some western European companies account for the majority of MNCs. Their very nature creates indifference and apathy, a trait that leads to condemnation. According to scripture, these companies that are filled with individuals, are subject to the same sort of condemnation in Proverbs 14:21. These companies also have the ability to reap the blessing promised by the author of proverbs.

While there is constructive progress with developed nations and MNCs, Sider observes that MNCs have a more predatory relationship with developing nations. Their proponents claim that they bring fresh assets to stimulate dry economies and circulate revenue globally, establishing foreign exchange in isolated areas (Sider 165). Sider claims they “do not really contribute the amount of capital to which they usually profess. Instead, they borrow heavily from the banks in host countries, thereby reducing the funds available to local entrepreneurs and diminishing the level of indigenous business involvement” (Sider 165-166). Although these corporations have the power and opportunity to fight inequality on a global level, often false promises and honest sabotages of indigenous economies are the legacies of MNCs. 

MNCs will either take advantage of political instability or create political instability in order to exploit the poor and rob them of vital resources. Through shifty tax practices and wage cuts, nations lose billions of dollars annually to these corporations (Sider 166). Recently Coca-Cola violated basic human rights by using up the majority of a town’s water and selling them Coke in its stead (Lopez). In Mexico, General Ford would have executions when a branch wasn’t working hard enough (Sider 167) and during the Cold War, General Fruit Co. (now known as Chiquita) worked with the US government to have the leader of Guatemala, Jacobo Arbenz, assassinated (Malkin). While the wealthy may succeed in creating centralized wealth through MNCs and these cruel methods, as the apostle James says, their riches will testify against them.

Since the poor cannot look to western corporations for financial support, often they fall into debt instead. For the third of low income families who work under these large corporations (Achs and Nichols), debt may seem like a lucrative option. Debt is often marketed to the poor as an escape from poverty (Guo). The terrible truth of debt however, is that those trying to escape poverty are halted by debt itself (Woolhouse). In a report by the National Center for Children in Poverty Debt, debt acquisition has increased greatest in low-income families (Wagmiller.) To make matters worse, debt is being attributed to preventing families from pursuing education or developing entrepreneurial careers (Woolhouse). Even in a country as prosperous as America, the journey for low-income families racked with debt can be daunting. Due to predatory economics, these individuals will become paralyzed, uncertain if there are options available for them to find freedom.

Outside of America’s borders, the same principles of debt bring whole nations to their knees. Sider comments on how America has become an empire of predatory lending by showing that “from 1970 to 2000 the external debt … owed by developing countries increased by 300 percent!” (Sider 147). Sider continues on revealing that the effects of this lending has stunted both economic growth and academic growth. Sider describes this in two examples: Tanzania and Zambia. Within both countries 

debt payments have ... deprived children of basic education. In Tanzania, educational spending declined  enrollment in primary schools fell from over 90 percent in 1980 to 70 percent in 1995. Illiteracy rates increased by 50 percent in less than a decade. In Zambia, government spending per student fell by five-sixths over a period of ten years. The Zambian government spent $37 million on primary school education from 1990 to 1993, but its scheduled debt repayments for the same period were $1.3 billion, thirty-five times that amount. (Sider 148)

The consequences of this sort of poverty are beyond losing education as Sider suggests. With the kind of careening debt these nations face their citizens often face starvation. Sider quotes American economist Jeffrey Sachs declaring “No civilized country should try to collect the debt of people that are dying of hunger and disease and poverty.” (qtd in Sider 148). Sider then quotes the heartbreaking commentary of an African President, Julius Nyerere, “Must we starve our children to pay our debts?” (qtd in Sider 148-149). Clearly the answer to this question must be no. The answer must be no especially for the financially fortunate Christians in the west, who though may have drifted from the ethics of Christ, are called still to be generous and self-sacrificial on behalf of the helpless.

Jesus preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17 ESV). In saying this he was telling the populous of Israel that the ways and the power of the Kingdom of Heaven were now available to them. Where worldly methodologies had failed, heaven could now intervene. The problem was, and is, in order for us to adopt the methodology of heaven, Christians must first put aside the methodology of man. Within our inner being, desires for riches may rule, yet history testifies to us that those desires will inevitably produce toxicity and death. 

As individuals and within the context of the corporate Church, saints must give our greedy desires and our hateful apathy over to the cross of Christ. It is only by routinely and prayerfully relinquishing our sinful desires to Christ that our active participation might be abolished. Christian may from that point adopt the only method that will reverse the effects of empirical injustice.

The issue of sin and evil in American economics can seem indomitable, but the Bible makes is clear that the church can overcome it. Through the practice of Jubilee, the Bible presents a practical solution and a spiritual metaphor. The ethos of the Kingdom is illustrated beautifully in the practice of jubilee. As part of levitical law, ancient Jews would let the land rest after six years as part of a seven year cycle. During the sabbatical year (the seventh year of this cycle) servants were released from their labor and all purchased land was returned to its original tribe. Every forty-nine years they would have a celebration called jubilee where all prisoners were set free, and all debt was forgiven. By forgiving debt and releasing servants and prisoners, Israel put up communal measures to push back the harmful effects of centralized wealth. (Leviticus 27 ESV) 

The practice of jubilee became far more radical when Christ appeared in front of Israel. Christ cited himself as being the fulfillment of the “year of the Lord’s favor” which is the prophet Isaiah's phrase for the year of jubilee (Luke 4:19). Christ is claiming here that he is the very substance of jubilee. Mentioned within that year of the Lord’s favor there was good news to the poor, liberty for the captives, sight to the blind, and liberty for the oppressed. In many ways Christ gave spiritual sustenance to all those issues; the Gospel of salvation for the poor in spirit, liberty for those captive to addiction, sight to those blind to truth and liberty to those oppressed by spiritual forces.

Some Christians may mistakenly interpret that verse to mean Christ has come to merely give spiritual freedom, yet again and again, Scripture displays Christ training his disciples to give their lives so that others would have sociological and economic liberty. When a wealthy man approached him asking how to inherit the kingdom of heaven, Christ told the man to radically inact jubilee by selling all of his possessions and giving the profits to the poor (Matthew 19:21 ESV). Throughout the Gospels, the parallel themes of spiritual jubilee and socioeconomic jubilee weave together to create a larger narrative.

These themes of jubilee are apparent in the the core of the atoning work of Christ. As Christ tells us in a parable, men are like debtors unable to pay their debts (Matthew 18:21-35 ESV). So Christ graciously took up the penalty of sin, which is death, so that men might be free of their debt. (Romans 6:23 ESV)  In his resurrection he invited us to the new yield of life he had received and God the Father adopted the outcast into the mainline family. Christ then sent the Holy Spirit as a partitioner of grace, to teach the new children of God about their inheritance and how to share that “yield of life” with the poor and hungry (John 14:26 ESV)

After the ascension of Christ, the apostles and the early Church practiced both spiritual and socioeconomic jubilee. The themes of spiritual jubilee are littered through the New Testament epistles. Within the book of Acts, His disciples practiced communal sharing and though some maintained private property, the majority of property was owned communally (Acts 2:42-47 ESV). Christ and his followers interpreted jubilee in a way that was practiced at anytime and anywhere. 

Jubilee is a vital practice for the Christian Church. Its vitality is evident when attempting to unravel the secular options of government intervention and activism within the marketplace. While Christians have been called to prophetically speak against the evil of empires and powerful elites, Christians at the same time do not expect these men to be able to institute any form of utopia. Christians who read scripture carefully and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit realize that the Kingdom of Heaven is the only utopia that will come into fruition. Christians must therefore press on with Jubilee and the rest of the Kingdom ethos. 

Groups such as The Simple Way in Philadelphia take this to heart. Claiborne, writer of Jesus for President; Politics for Ordinary Radicals, tells a story of a pastor who became sick within their group and could not make his medical payments. His congregation banded together and through strategic tithing they paid off the pastor’s debts. The pastor, motivated by this turn of events, told his congregation that “if you can do that for me, we can do that for each other.” The power of that initial jubilee (the paying off of the pastor’s debts) grew into a larger community who has paid over $400,000,000 of medical debts these past twenty years (Claiborne and Haw 301).

The Simple Way sees Jubilee as more than just a ministry for believers; a few years before the 2008 recession, The Simple Way held a jubilee celebration on Wall Street. They emptied their pockets of change and dumped bags of cash onto busy New York streets. That day an unexpected jubilee celebration paid the bills of needy New Yorkers. (Claiborne and Haw 312)

Many writers recount the power and impact of the Jubilee 2000 event. Along with help from the UN, Catholics and Protestants joined together to help several Sub Saharan countries recover from devastating debt. The impacts of the cross-denominational jubilee established schools and hospitals as well as freeing those countries of 45 billion dollars of debt. For the twenty-seven nations that received this aid, for four years, their annual debt payments fell by 30%. 

As a prerequisite to receive this funding, any surplus budget had to go to relieving poverty. In Tanzania 1.6 million children were able to return to school. Uganda used its extra funds to roll out an universal schooling plan for children. At the summit of the jubilee was this Ugandan schooling, as Sider informs the reader, “The number of Ugandan children in primary school more than doubled from 2.7 million in 1997 to 6.5 million in 2001 (a 94 percent enrollment rate).” (Sider 245)

The education that resulted from the jubilee efforts of a global church changed the course of Sub Saharan Africa. This sort of massive shift in educating the populace is predicted to jumpstart entrepreneurialism for decades to come. While multinational corporations may still practice shifty tax practices and seek to take advantage of corruption, empowered citizens will be able to provide real alternative sustenance to their communities.  By ten of thousands of individuals regarding the African peoples as their brothers and sisters, they were able to radically demonstrate the hope and power of the Jubilee Gospel.

The idea of jubilee needs to soak into the culture of the American church. Within American churches today, the personal salvific gospel is well understood and has become essential to church culture. While it is well and good that American Christians have found freedom from regrets and addictions, it is vital for the church to extend their understanding of the Gospel further so that individual redemption might become communal redemption. Rather than seeing jubilee as mere charitable giving, the Jews saw jubilee as part of the natural order and cycles of life. Christ and his followers saw jubilee as a natural conclusion of an inner transformation. 

Christ's brother James wrote specifically to those who did not believe that acts of justice pertained to the Christian faith by saying, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:14). He thought it was essential to the Christian faith that works of justice are evidence that spiritual renewal has occurred. By seeing the restoration of the soul not as the endgame, but rather fertile grounds for the righteousness required to establish the Kingdom of Heaven, Christian culture will be to adequately address the predatory empires of today's age. To put James’s proverb in the inverse, faith that generates works creates life. What the victims of predatory economics need is a regenerated people willing and able to fight systemic injustice with liturgical benevolence.

In order that Christians might adopt the liturgical habit of Jubilee, they will need a deeper understanding of the economic issues that warrant jubilee and its biblical mandate. They will also need to have faith that the biblical method will indeed redeem the world. The tools to equip both faith and understanding lie within scripture and America’s history. Scriptures like the imagery in Daniel and the calls of Christ and his brother James lead Christians to a better understanding of how different the Kingdom of Heaven is from the world. Scripture also leads Christians to an understanding that God holds them as responsible for the well being of their communities and that by ignoring God’s initiatives Christians actively work against them. The Apostles James and Paul teach Christians that their statuses as Christians do not warrant safety from corruption. They suggest that instead of relying on status that Christians should utilize the gift of salvation to establish the kingdom ethos. 

By listening to men such as James Madison, and Noam Chomsky, Christians will understand that this narrative of structural injustice has been “brewing” since America’s founding. Understanding how America’s Corporations, lending patterns and unrestrained centralization of wealth effects the poor enables Christians to understand that the poor do in fact face predatory economics.

By re-examining the narrative of economics within scripture, Christians will be able to be at peace, because Christ does have a plan to deal with economic inequality. By meditating on the Ethos of the Kingdom, Christs followers can extend the “yield of life” to the poor and fulfill the year of jubilee in the world.

Practicing Jubilee on a regular basis requires faith to press forward with the goal of bringing hope and life to people who are cornered by predatory powers. While this goal may seem nonsensical to individuals, local churches can make significant differences by implementing kingdom ethics as part of their liturgy. Jubilee, and the many other disciplines of the faith, by the power of the Holy Spirit, have the ability to stand up to and disarm the titans of tax collectors, debt collectors, multinational corporations, empires and even Satan himself. The liturgy of benevolence is an enduring liturgy.

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Works Cited

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The Holy Bible English Standard Version. Crossway. 2018