In a previous blog, "The Cry for Justice," I identified the American trinity of hyper individualism, hyper materialism and hyper ethnocentrism as the unrecognized, underlying cause of our unending massive social problems and of our moral disintegration. In this blog, I will propose solutions, alternatives to the American trinity.
Stewart Burns, author of the book Social Movements of the 1960s, quoted Martin Luther King's goal for America: "a socially conscious democracy which reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism." Burns concluded: "rarely did they [the leaders of the social movements] think about how the two languages of American political culture could speak to each other, how society could be reorganized so that individuality and community could nourish rather than deplete each other."
Individualism
Because of their fear of political tyranny, our founding fathers built the protection of individual rights into the Constitution with the exception of the poor, women, Native Americans and Afro Americans. Former Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote in the 1960s that the American legal and judicial systems had expanded these individual rights so much over the years that as a nation we may be in danger of collapse because we have carried to an extreme the principle upon which we were founded.
Individual rights are precious and must be guarded, but they must be balanced with an equal obligation to social responsibility or they degenerate into individualism; we are now in the state of hyper individualism.
If we emphasize the individual-in-community, we can maintain both individual rights and social responsibility. Galatians 5:13 exhorts us to hold freedom and love in balance---"For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another." Too much emphasis on individual freedom can lead to spiritual self-indulgence; love should counter this dangerous tendency and lead to servanthood.
The Corinthians vigorously pursued the gifts, but often primarily for self-edification, so Paul in chapters 13 and 14 told the Corinthians that the primary purpose for the spiritual gifts was for the edification of others, the church.
Among sociologists, Karl Marx, in reaction to an overly individualized, capitalistic society that was destroying community, stressed the collective which ended up with the individual being submerged in society. Another sociologist, Emile Durkheim, developed a more balanced understanding of the individual and society. Durkheim saw the individual and society or individuality and community as complementary, not as opposing forces.
Individualism leads to marriage and family disintegration. Families flourish when supported by a strong sense of community.
Materialism
Robert Wuthnow, in a 1993 article entitled "Pious Materialism," which studied how American Christians view faith and money, discovered that they were well aware of the evil of materialism, but they lived materialistically anyway. Why? Because there is little in-depth understanding of the biblical teaching on money or mammon or how widespread the condemnation of riches is in the Bible. Wuthnow concludes, "Although 92 percent of us believe that the condition of the poor is a social problem, our hearts are fundamentally with the rich."
What can be done to reduce the seductive attraction of materialism?
First, make a comprehensive and fearless analysis of what the Scriptures teach about the rich and poor, economic oppression and Jubilee justice. You will discover that the Scriptures identify the rich as the social problem, not the poor. Also that oppression, not laziness, is the primary cause of poverty. The rich and powerful oppress the poor. Leaders in society are exhorted to pass laws to protect the poor and restrict the rich. Judges are exhorted to lean over backwards to protect the rights of the powerless, the orphans, the widows, the stranger.
Second, stop subsidizing the rich. Though we have been propagandized endlessly about how the government subsidizes the poor, the truth is just the opposite. The rich and the middle class are highly subsidized. There is massive corporate welfare. Much of our excessive military spending goes to big corporations who are usually guaranteed generous profits.
Third, encourage alternatives to corporate capitalism such as cooperatives.
Arthur Jones, in his book Capitalism and Christians, asserts that "though I love business, . . . I don't like capitalism." Jones has studied and written on business, finance and economics all his life; also he has written on the poor, poverty. Catholic social teaching and Protestant insights inform his views.
Jones likes free enterprise, small and medium sized business, but he dislikes modern large corporate capitalism. Ugly corporate capitalism is "detrimental to the common good, injurious to the planet [pollution], but, worst of all, it promotes a false god, materialism, in the form of personal affluence and social success." Ugly corporate capitalism takes resources from the poor, dominates and damages all other social institutions in society including family and religion, and seeks legitimation from Judeo-/Christian values.
In Spain, there is a Catholic cooperative called Mondragon. In 1987, there were 172 worker-owned cooperatives that employed 20,000 people. They ran industrial, agricultural, housing, educational and supermarket cooperatives. During the 1981-1986 recession, not one worker was laid off; they all took less pay. No factory has been moved overseas destroying the local community in the process.
We can build a more humane economic system which produces adequate goods, but which values people over things.
Ethnocentrism
Beginning with the Puritan attitudes and actions against Native Americans, racism or ethnocentrism has been a dominant value in American society. One way it manifests itself today is in extensive racial profiling in every area of society but especially in our criminal justice system. The damage done to millions of persons and ethnic groups has been and continues to be enormous---comparable to that in Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia.
Jonah was much like the Puritans; he was prejudiced against the Ninevites (Assyrians), Israel's bitter enemies. Jonah wanted Nineveh destroyed; he welcomed judgment upon the despised and wicked Assyrians. When Nineveh repented and God forgave them, Jonah was disappointed. Jonah could not grasp that God loved the Assyrians as much as he did the Israelites.
In the NT, ethnocentrism within the Christian church against Gentiles was a continuing problem which Paul had to address again and again. Paul would not tolerate ethnic, class or gender divisions within the church. He aggressively promoted reconciliation. See Ephesian, chapter two and Galatians 3:28.
The following is a true story. I had an evangelical student who was from a fundamentalist school. This school prided itself as superior bible scholars. This student took a course in biblical hermeneutics; the passage the prof chose was Ephesians, chapter two. The class made a through analysis of this passage. The theme of Ephesians two is reconciliation.
2:1-10 is about personal reconciliation with God based on the cross; verses 11-22 are about social reconciliation, ethnic (Jew and Gentile) reconciliation between despised ethnic enemies based on the cross. These themes are as plain as the nose on your face. But her prof and her class missed the point that social reconciliation is a fundamental part of the gospel. She was stunned when she discovered this.
Apparently a previous theological bias---that the gospel is about individual salvation only---or American cultural blinders prevented her from seeing this biblical truth. Based on 90 years of living in America, I would assert that most American Christians have missed this biblical truth as well.
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