/IPS BULLETIN OF RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS/ UNITED STATES: Is Capitalism Sacred?

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

NEW YORK, Feb 16 1997 (IPS) - With the approach of another millenium, the twin publishing forces of capitalism and Christianity reign triumphant on the bookshelves of the United States.

From books depicting Jesus Christ as the exemplary businessman to essays about the moral ethic behind liberl capitalism, there is a vast range of works intended to show that capitalism has trumped socialism, not only in the former Soviet bloc but also in the eyes of God.

It’s no surprise that such a literary trend is in the works in the United States, where each generation has had its own popular tomes about the virtues of capitalism. From founding father Benjamin Franklin to pornographer-millionaire Larry Flynt, wily businessmen have long defended their actions to U.S. readers by relying on sometimes peculiar appeals to God.

Flynt – briefly a born-again Christian in the 1970s who nevertheless remained publisher of the obscene and misogynist magazine ‘Hustler’ – could be a case study in how such businessmen are taken at their word regardless of their practises.

The trend of religious business books, nevertheless, has taken a peculiar turn over the past year thanks to such books as ‘Jesus C.E.O.’ by Laurie Beth Jones (published by Hyperion for 16.95 dollars) and ‘The Maaement Metods of esus’ by Bob Briner (Thomas Nelson, 14.99 dollars).

These two publications carry a message unusual to most Christians: not that business itself can accomplish holy tasks, but that the lessons of Christianity are actually quite useful when applied to business.

The resulting view of Christianity – in essence, a neat way to get ahead in the world — is one many theologians may find upsetting. For example, listen to Briner summarise the lesson of Jesus’s entrance into Jerusalem during the Passover season:

“New products should be introduced at the most opportune time. Where appropriate, tie them into significant anniversaries and public holidays.” In other words: Jesus sold his spiritual wares on Passover, why not sell your material wares then?

Often, too, Briner is just plain wrong, as when he argues, drawing on the Last Supper, that executives should plan to take meals with their colleagues. But wait – Jesus’s Last Supper was his last one only because one of his “colleagues” betrayed him! Does that mean that the careful executive should also watch out for the nervous colleague at the group meal?

‘Jesus C.E.O.’ is little better, offering short homilies about how Jesus was so successful precisely because eupheld shrewd business practises that Chief Executive Officers can emulate. He was good at building a team around im (the disciples), he gave them specific tasks, and he could prepare a weding meal at Cana from a small amount of bread and fish. As Jones suggests, these are traitsRoss Perot and Donal Trump could learn from (as could ambitious cooks).

Those books feed a perception that some of these books exist simply to make buinessmen feel self-assured and pious as they negotiate the treacherously murky moral grounds of modern-day capitalism. But at least one new book — ‘Business as a Calling’ by Michael Novak (Free Press, 22.50 dollars) — attempts to argue the case that even materialistic big business has real spiritual worth.

Novak, a former U.S. ambassador now at the conseraive Washington- based American Enterprise Institute, is clearly a heavyweight when it comes to marrying religion with cold cash. His book comes with praise from former Vice President Dan Quayle (“exceptional and timely”) and advice from Pope John Paul II (thanked by Novak for 17 years of friendship and intellectual leadership).

In careful, measured tones, Novak tries to make the case for the morality of busines. He notes that 35 percent of the business community in one poll attend church weekly (compared to just nine percent for news media, one of the least religious groups). But, more importantly, he pleads that no one can crave only material things: “Those who have eaten awhile of material success know there is more to life than bread. They desire more than having.”

Through modern-day anecdotes and a look at the lives of such people as philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, Novak tries to show that capitalism — from the trickle-down effects of growth to the good works that entrepreneurs like Carnegie can do with their wealth — achieves moral ends.

At times, though, his defensiveness comes out, as when he argues that any likening between the creed that “all men are created equal” and an equalisation of incomes is “a Continental, socialist and false rendering of the American creed.”

At other times, his defenses are weak. Novak argues that the gas company Unocal can help the cause of human rights in Burma, where it has a large pipeline project, because it can urge the dictatorship there to open its society and end its isolation and because ‘h standards by which Unocal asks to be judged…are high.”

But Novak also concedes he has not been to Burma himself nor does he know Unocal’s representatives there. He adds, “Of course, Unocal has not forgotten that its primary purpose is a limited economic task, which in itself will redound to the benefit of the people of Burma.”

To make that argument, however, he has to ignore the words of Burmese Nobel laureate and democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who herself has lambasted Unocal’s involvement as unhelpful to Burmese; he has to evade reports of forced labour by the Burmese government as it seeks to attract foreign business; and he also has to write off some human rights groups as “reflexively anticapitalist”. So much for an honest effort to defend the morality of big business.

Still, from Novak’s high-road approach to the more crass route taken by Briner and Jones, the mixture of religion and modern neoliberal capitalism is here to stay.

Nor is it confined to Christians: Novak’s think tank, the American Enterprise Institute, has also published a conservative Muslim view on the same subject, ‘A Muslim’s Reflection on Democratic Capitalism’ by Muammad Abdul-Rauf.

Coming up next, no doubt, is a volume on capitalism and Nirvana – although some may picture Nirvana as a place where you don’t have to see these books again.