Against Idolatry
Likewise,
we recall the image of a golden calf molten in the absence of Moses on Mount
Sinai. Were precious metals more seductive to the impatient Israelites than an
invisible power?
But we
probably have forgotten the work of Liberation Theology in Latin America (1950s-1960s),
where Catholic teachings were used to fight economic, political, and social
inequalities. This movement wasn’t condoned by Rome, but had widespread support
from local Bishops who tended to their oppressed flocks.
We also
haven’t made much of the US Bishops’ Pastoral Letter(s) on the Economy (1970s
and 1986) that railed against economic inequalities and the departure from
Christian principles of brotherly love and helping the poor.
Economic
reality, we have been led to believe, isn’t dictated from above—God or the
Treasury Secretary—but moves naturally in the cycles of the “invisible hand”.
So invisible, in fact, that any crisis is explicable after the fact in terms of
“market forces” or the “laws of supply and demand.” Human agency is absent.
The recent
“Apostolic Exhortation”
by Pope Francis focuses on human agency in our economic system. Perhaps it’s
because of his experiences in Argentina, perhaps it’s because his theological
interpretation of a moral life here and now is intertwined with the economy.
To be sure, this is a
Catholic view steeped in two-thousand years of tradition; it is also one that
saw the fortunes of the Mother Church depend on wars and wealth accumulation. Being
the single largest denomination of any religion on earth, the significance of
the “exhortation” is global. The action, though, should be local.
Mindful that he speaks as the Vicar
of Christ, Pope Francis deliberately fuses theological concerns of evangelism
with economic reality: “The great danger in today’s
world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the
feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience.” This
situation, for him, means that “there is no longer room for others, no place
for the poor.”
The Pope describes our
economy as one of “exclusion and inequality.”
But his description becomes more critical when he says: “Such an economy kills.”
It’s not an economy that hurts or overlooks, benefits some at the expense of
others; it kills. Referring to news-media, he asks: “How can it be that it is
not a news item when an elderly homeless
person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two
points?”
When the stock-market index hovers around 16,000, why do commentators even bother to claim the Dow is “up” or “down” when it moves a few points in either direction? The percentage change is so negligible that the very reporting seems hubris. Do greed and fear consume our daily lives? Do these numbers help to reassure us?
Reminding us that the
poor are excluded from our midst, he continues: “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival
of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless.” Have you heard this
assessment lately at your church? Are there more important theological issues?
For the Pope, as for
some critics of hyper-capitalism, the economy is part of his theological
message: its principles either follow or undermine moral principles. If market
exchange of goods and services is exclusively defined in monetary terms, moral hazards
are bound to appear. If economic transactions are justified by their potential
benefits—the end justifies the means—what happens in the meantime? Will
“trickle-down economics” indeed reach the poor?
The Pope answers: "Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power." In fact, “the excluded are still waiting.”
The “tyranny” of the
current system and the “culture of prosperity” are harmful,
according to the Pope. “We have created new idols,” he continues, and we continue to worship
them. There is “idolatry of money and
the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.”
Should we continue to live like this?
Whether one is
Catholic or not, as Christmas is celebrated and New Year resolutions are being
made, it behooves us to think of Pope Francis’ words: “I exhort you to generous solidarity and to the return of economics
and finance to an ethical approach which favors human beings.”
Raphael
Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS. He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com See
previous articles at sassower.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment