Crippling Christianity

Beyond the current economic situation, news of unemployment normally takes a back seat to fantastic news like puppies caught in storm drains and polar bear attacks at the local zoo. While, especially now, many would and have conjectured/commented on the current economic situation, I write not in reference to the situation that our world is currently facing, but rather, in generalities.

I've long advocated the fight against institutional international poverty over domestic partially because the grips of poverty in developing nations insinuate a stronger hold than in cases of domestic poverty. My leaning may be a result of hope in the American Dream and the idealistic thought that everyone is able to pull up their bootstraps if they just pull hard enough.

While I still do have a stronger affinity for restoring economic justice internationally, there is one topic that I would like to comment on that has caused me a great deal of frustration. Lest the reader would think that I tout myself as immune to affecting this problem, I would like to state that some of my concern stems from my own inaction.

My interest in poverty and the role that Christians play in the institution led me to read John Stott's Our Social & Sexual Revolution: Major Issues for a New Century. The most recent chapter I read focused on the value of work and the problem of unemployment. Stott articulates how biblically, work is intended for the self-fulfillment of the individual, service to others and service to God. Being such an integral part of life, the absence of work is "a serious assault on our humanness."[1] Regardless of whether or not the reader agrees with the idea of work as a whole or even partial fulfillment of humanity, it would be safe to say that the absence of work, or unemployment can be devastating to the individual as well as society.

To take the biblical stance that work "is an indispensable element in God's original purpose for human beings," would require an even stronger stance against the holds of unemployment.[2]

What is it that stands in the way of eliminating unemployment? “It is [unrestrained] greed which keeps taxes low and interest rates high, crippling industrial recovery which we need to restore full employment.”[3]

I have often thought how contradictory mainstream Christian thought is in the face of eternal biblical principles. The biblical principles that Christians supposedly hold dear often don’t coincide with current political practices that would in fact support those ideals.

If as Christians, we find ourselves agreeing that work serves even a portion of the purpose for which we were created, then we would be guilty if we didn’t concern ourselves with unemployment. Stott suggests that industrial recovery would come from a stronger investment in creating employment in both private and public sectors. Especially in the public sector, the creation of new jobs would obviously require some amount of sacrifice from American tax-payers.

I don’t claim to be an economist and neither do I write about economics – rather I write about the underlying principles of the problem of unemployment.

“The problem of unemployment is neither economic nor political, but moral and spiritual.”[4]

Regardless of the solution to unemployment, Christians should be at the forefront of sacrifice. How do we expect to heal the sores of unemployment without some sacrifice?



[1] Stott, John. Our Social & Sexual Revolution: Major Issues for a New Century. 3rd Ed. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1999. 25-26.
[2] Ibid. 35.
[3] Ibid. 35
[4] Ibid. 36.