July 28, 2004

Ecumenical Economics: Confessing against the Empire

by Jordan Ballor & Gerald Zandstra

For More Information: “That All may have Life in Fullness” WARC 24th general council Accra, Ghana, July 30 - August 13, 2004 “Covenanting for justice in the economy and the earth” Report of the taskforce to the 24th general council “The time has come” South-north member churches forum London Colney, UK, February 8-11, 2004 “Faith stance on the global crisis of life” South-south member church forum Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 23-26, 2003 “New Poll Finds Africans Favorable Toward Globalization, But Think Rich Countries are Not Treating Them Fairly,” GlobeScan, June 16, 2004

Conservative Protestants are wary of ecumenicalorganizations because these groups are so often predisposed toward radicalismand extremism. This disposition may strike some as odd, given that ecumenicalbodies are forever issuing blanket affirmations and urgent appeals for theunity of the faith. But Protestants suspicious about the ecumenists will haveplenty to worry them later this week when the WorldAlliance of Reformed Churches, an umbrella group based in Geneva, takesup the issue of economics and global trade.

For almost a decade, the Alliancehas been working toward a declaration of status confessionis - a binding matter of Christian necessity — regardingthe globalization of the world economy.What, exactly, is about to bring the church to its knees in repentance?Mainly, what the ecumenists call “neoliberal capitalism” and its usefulness asa tool of “empire.” You can imagine where this is going. An Alliance task forcecharged with preparing the Reformed churches for their confession on economicsdeclares that this empire is enforcing “the current trend of militarism as aglobal war strategy in order to secure markets and imposes destructive macroeconomicpolicies on entire countries to serve the ends of the market.” It ultimatelyidentifies this empire with the United States and its “war on terror”(quotation marks courtesy of the task force).

In accord with its task forcerecommendation, the Alliance is likely to declare a status confessionis on economics and globalization at its next generalcouncil, which convenes in Accra, Ghana, on July 30. It has been working in concert with two other like mindedgroups — the World Council of Churches and the Lutheran World Federation. ForReformed Christians, the ecumenical declaration will also offer guidance, ofsorts. The Alliance globalization task force is already promoting “global civilmovements,” such as the ones responsible for the Seattle riots against theWorld Trade Organization in 1999.It might be amusing to picture church ladies and ministers running amokwith grungy Seattle anarchists, but the effects of this throwback activism willhave serious and real consequences for believers.

The Alliance claims to represent 200 memberdenominations in 107 countries, representing upwards of 75 million ReformedChristians worldwide. In theUnited States, its affiliates include the Presbyterian Church (USA), theReformed Church in America, the Christian Reformed Church in North America, andthe United Church of Christ. If, as expected, the ecumenists in Ghana issuetheir jeremiad against free market economics, the statement will unfortunatelybe embraced by many clergy. Some of these clergy have, to put it charitably, animperfect understanding of economic globalization. Paradoxically, although the statusconfessionis will likely be endorsed by agreat number of American clergy, it will be ignored or rejected in thedeveloping world by ministers who see free market economics as the only way tooverthrow their local kleptocracies and wean their nations from foreign aid.

A Vast Neoliberal Conspiracy?

Of course, the Alliance'sconfession on globalization will come wrapped in language that expressesexquisite concern for the poor. But the ecumenists who have cooked this thingup understand neither the causes of poverty nor its solutions. Besides poverty,the Alliance task force on economics blames neoliberal capitalism for nearlyevery ill on God's green earth: disease, hunger, crime, violence, andpollution.

Many Reformed Christians will alsobe surprised to learn - again from the Alliance — that free market economicsis behind the global spread of HIV/AIDS.The proceedings of its Buenos Aires conference last year observe that“economic globalization has created job loss and grinding poverty, anunprecedented rise in crime and violence, ecological degradation, and thespread of HIV/Aids.”

Just how does a system of economicexchange “cause” the spread of HIV?The only evidence offered by the ecumenists from Geneva is that “theeffects of the free market system on the HIV/Aids pandemic are evident in themanagement and treatment of the disease.The policies and practices of transnational pharmaceutical companieshave privileged profits over the health of people, and the high cost ofHIV/Aids drugs and trade agreements exclude the poor from the effectivetreatment and prevention from infection.”

Never mind that the dynamics of thefree market system encouraged the development of these drugs - and their globaldistribution — in the first place.Or that drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS do not function to prevent butrather to treat infection. Or thatthe disease is preventable not by a pharmaceutical product but by a moraldecision on the part of most who contract or spread the disease. How very oddthat religious leaders and theologically-informed people choose to demonstratetheir ignorance of economics and at the same time blind themselves to thelarger moral issue.

Africans for 'Empire'

The Reformed Alliance rightly notesthat the poor are due “humanity, dignity and the autonomy with which God hasendowed every person, every community and every culture.” And the poor aredemonstrating - in a dignified and highly autonomous fashion - a growingpreference for “neoliberal capitalism.” A new GlobeScan poll of more than 7,500Africans, sponsored by the World Bank and the Royal African Society, shows that“two out of three Africans have a positive view of the effect of globalizationon their lives.” Nearly three in four favors “large foreign companies cominginto their country and setting up operations there.”

In its fulminations against richneoliberals, the Reformed Alliance largely skips over the importance and scopeof corruption in the developing world, other than to blame capitalism for theexistence of corrupt governments.But in the GlobeScan poll, only 40percent of Africans say that levels of corruption have diminished in theirnation during the previous year.Sadly, corruption is not unique to free market economies. But what kindof economic system is better at discouraging corruption? One could easily argue that governmentswith central planning ambitions are much more easily corruptible than systemsthat spread economic and coercive power over diverse institutions. Any Nigerianwho has lived under the combination of government ownership of oil and epidemiclevels of corruption could have clued the Alliance in on this point.

The existence of corruption in bothpublic and private spheres, in both socialist and capitalist economies, doesnothing but underscore the importance of pursuing economic activity within asound framework of moral and theological principles. This should come as nosurprise to Reformed Christians whose theology views humanity as fallen andcorrupted. Reformed theology, infact, argues for a prophetic role for church leaders who can speakintelligently about economic and political systems while keeping one eye openfor the corruption that lurks at their door.

This reality has made no impressionon the ecumenists, who see all ills in the free market and posit a fuzzy“economy of community” or “God's economy” in its place. “We are convinced thatthe neoliberal model cannot be transformed or adjusted,” they say. “It hasinherent contradictions and has failed again and again to lift the countries,peoples and natural environment of the (southern Hemisphere) toward life. Weare united in rejection of this model.”

The Reformed Alliance task force,in its quest for a Church-wide confession against globalization, has repeatedand compounded an error that is as old as Marx himself. Despite the failure of communism,despite the loss of millions of lives under despots enriching themselves via centrallyplanned economies, despite the collapse of a Liberation Theology neithertheologically informed nor liberating, those agitating against “neoliberalcapitalism” within the World Alliance of Reformed Churches want to lead thepoor to back down this road again. The ecumenists behind this tragicallymisguided status confessionis areeconomically ignorant and historically uninformed. Their utopian vision of“communities” solving problems at the local level is just a cover for a returnto central planning, economic enslavement and corruption.

While in Ghana, the delegates tothe Alliance conference should take a closer look at the implications of theircampaign to overthrow the “empire.” They might also spend some time with thoseAfricans whose dearest hope is to join it.

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