Enough is enough Enough is enough ! !

Klaus NürnbergerOct 2013

Session 3

Economic motivations and the Christian faith

OUTLINE

Policy options

Motivations:entrapped in the modern worldviewThe impact of modernity on traditionalismModernity undermines traditional value systems

Can the church make a difference?

Be realistic! Our real handicap is fatalism and despondencyThe transforming power of the gospelA few practical suggestions

change your personal attitudebecome active at some pointchange your life style heed opportunity costsheed the law of declining marginal utility

1.1. Policy options Policy options

Must we wait until the most powerful decision-makers in society change their minds?

No, democracy places on us the obligation to become part of the political process.

Policy changes can only work on the basis of changed motivations.

Responsible Policy Priorities:

1. The preservation of the resource base of the planet.2. A modest but healthy livelihood for all.3. Equity in the distribution of efforts and rewards.4. Concern for the weak and vulnerable.5. Balanced (material, social, spiritual) need satisfaction.

Two basic principles

1. Sharing consumption leads to dependency. When we share production, consumption looks after itself.

2. Production and consumption must remain within sustainable levels.

The economic system that comes closest to these ideals is social democracy, as it was developed in Northern and Central Europe.

SOCIALISM LIBERALISM

OP

TIM

UM

MAXIMUM

POLICY TRADE-OFF

MINIMUM

Balance consumer income

Balance productive capacity

Remain within sustainable levels

It is not impossible to change direction if there is the political will to do so, e.g.

1. Change the cost structure (e.g. fossil vs solar energy; technology vs labour)

2. Change the social power structure (cartels, lobbies, corporations, unions)

3. Enhance the peripheral infrastructure(transport, communication, etc.)

4. Empower the peripheral population (education, training, credit, etc.)

What prevents that from happening?

The importance of motivations that determine the political will.

2. Motivations

Entrapped in the modern worldview

The Enlightenment:

disillusion with authority led to a quest for personal autonomy

- Think for yourself (rationalism)- See for yourself (empiricism - science)- Find out what works (pragmatism - technology)- Pursue your own interests (commerce - liberal economy)- Enjoy your life (hedonism - consumerism)

- Relate to your personal Saviour (pietism)- Assert your personal dignity (human rights)- Have a say in your government (democracy)- Claim gender equality (female emancipation)- Let the youth find its way (anti-authoritarian education)

The modernity human being claims mastery over, ownership of, and entitlement to the benefits of one’s life

world.

All of reality has become a quarry to be mined for personal aggrandisement, profit and pleasure.

Neo-classical economics underpins and legitimates this quest:

1. It defines the economic human being (the homo oeconomicus) as a profit- and pleasure maximiser.

2.The pursuit of self-interest is deemed ‘rational behaviour’.

By implication, concern for the interests of others and the well-being of the whole of social and natural reality is deemed irrational.

3. Only what can be bought and sold is relevant for the economic system.

“The Gross Domestic Product measures everything except that which makes life worthwhile . . . What isn’t bought or sold—housework or caring for your own children, for example—doesn’t figure . . . hurricanes and floods push up GDP because the reconstruction gets factored in as new spending. Countries with more prisons look better than those with fewer . . .”

(Christopher Dickey)

4. Prostitution is an ‘industry’. Gambling is an ‘industry,’ offering ‘products.’ Raising children is not an industry!

5. In the fields of investment, production and distribution, meticulous cost-benefit analyses are conducted. In the field of consumption we indulge in unnecessary

expenditure and underutilised possessions.

6. Consumer extravagance is widely depicted in the media as the good life.

7. Public responsibility for the most vulnerable is called a ‘nanny state’.

All this demonstrates that we are motivated by self-interest and pleasure, rather than reponsible stewardship.

The trend towards material gullibility has powerfully escalated during the last few decades.

“During the second half of the last century one was still busy with solid and fair commercial practices in the interest of both the enterprise and the customer, but since the turn of the millenium this has changed.

Now the neo-liberal profit motive has come to dominate many board rooms. Higher returns, more expansion, higher bonuses. Whether co-workers at basic levels fall out of the race, or consumers become dissatisfied, is of secondary importance. The main consideration is that the bottom line impresses, that investors are delighted and that performance on the stock exchange rises.” David Gerginov

3. The impact of modernity on traditionalism

Modernity has become the dominant culture because of its superiority in terms of

knowledge, efficiency, productivity, wealth creation, need satisfactionpolitical power military power

Traditional cultures are being marginalised.

PAST ORIENTATION

FUTURE ORIENTATION

GROUP SOLIDARITY

FREE ASSOCIATION

AUTHORITY FREE INITIATIVE

Traditionalism Modernity

STRUCTURED COMMUNITY

EGO

The misery of the periphery and the lure of modernity lead to

rapid urbanisation and the modernisation of the world-view.

MODERNITY

TRADITIONALISM

The push of rural poverty and the pull of urban prosperity

4. Modernity deliberately undermines 4. Modernity deliberately undermines traditional value systems traditional value systems

Is selfishness not inbred into the human psyche?

Indeed it is!

Selfishness is programmed into the ‘reptile brain’ of all living creatures. Without it they could not survive.

Other animals are prevented largely by instincts from harming themselves and others beyond strict necessities.

But in humans selfishness is meant to be controlled by the rational faculties of our ‘pre-frontal cortex’.

Millennia of collective experience have lead to social imperatives and sanctions,

based on spiritual assumptions and convictions, values and norms that guide us in life.

Modernity deliberately and successfully demolishes these traditional mindsets for the sake of profit and pleasure.

Don’t do it! has changed to ‘Just do it!’

In modern secular societies faith has become a private pastime that is tolerated as long as it does not interfere in areas of life that really matter.

The entertainment and advertising industries bombard us with an incessant stream of images and arguments that make us dissatisfied with what we have.

They undermine all social constraints and moral inhibitions and glamorise profit and pleasure.

They induce us to crave things that do not really satify, buy things we do not need with money we do not have.

It is hard to imagine that our flimsy spiritual input can match this flood.

“Advertisers in the corporate world are of course offered lucrative recompense, and, with that financial draw, our corporations attract humans from the highest strata of IQs. And our best artistic talent. And any sports hero or movie star they want to buy.

Combining so much brain power and social status with sophisticated electronic graphics and the most penetrating psychological techniques, these teams of highly intelligent adults descend upon all of us, even upon children not yet in school, with the simple desire to create in us a dissatisfaction for our lives and a craving for yet another consumer product.

It is hard to imagine any child having the capacities necessary to survive such a lopsided contest, especially when it’s carried out ten thousand times a year, with no cultural condom capable of blocking out the consumerism virus.”

Swimme 1996:16.

Many former traditionalists may carry their sense of community and responsibility over into the new reality.

However, when the uprooted lose their traditional values, constraints and inhibitions,

they may become more brutally self-centred than the modernisers bargained for.

The destruction of traditional values and institutions exacts a heavy price!

The impact of modernity, (exacerbated by apartheid policies such as migrant labour and influx control), has led to the large scale destruction of the African family.

It was triggered by the utilisation of cheap labour by the modern economy without catering for their families at the places of work. Children grew up without role models.

According to the SAIRR only 33% of all South African children live with both their parents (Whites 83%), 39% live only with their mothers.

In sum, our collective motivations have been severely distorted for the sake of profit and pleasure.

Our modern culture militates against responsibility, sufficiency and contentment.

The consequences in economic and ecological terms are catastrophic.

5. Can the Christian faith make a

difference?

There is always a tug of war between our insights and convictions on the one hand,

and our personal and collective interests on the other.

The interests of the most powerful social agents dominate.

Convictions

Motivations Actions Institutions

Interests

Convictions Actions Institutions

Interests

In modernity questionable interests swamp convictions

Convictions

Interests Actions Institutions

In the biblical faith convictions control and integrate valid interests.

Can this actually happen in our church? Let us be realistic!

1. What motivates us as Christians? Our standing in society and earthly

prosperity? Our own peace of mind and eternal

destiny? Or God’s vision for his world?

2. Does our concept of salvation include the well-being of God’s creation as a whole?

3. Does our Christian worldview match current scientific insight?

4. Does the Word of God reach the decision-makers and role models of our times?

5. Does our theological training equip our pastors to interact with secular experts and role players?

6. Are economic-ecological topics included in our sermons, liturgies, hymns and classes on a regular basis?

7. Does anybody in public life take us seriously, or has our faith become a private pastime that is tolerated unless it interferes in aspects of life that really matter?

However,

our true handicap may not be impotence, but fatalism and despondency!

Once we feel we cannot do much, we will swim with the crowd. Then we remain part of the problem, rather than part of the solution.

Faith in God is a trust, a conviction, a mission and a determination that can ‘move mountains’.

Fatalism is unjustified!

1. All great things begin small – a seed can crack a rock and grow into a tree.

2. Social power is located primarioy in primary groups.

3. Potentially the church is represented in all primary groups at all levels of society.

4. Over time, primary groups can form a critical mass whose weight is able to restore the balance.

THE CRITICAL MASS

(a) We must see to it that all social strata are represented in our own primary group structure so that they can be reached by the Word of God.

(b) Our members must be empowered by the Word of God to ignore peer pressure and become role models.

5. Social change happens in times of crisis. And economic-ecological crises have now

become inevitable!

When the crises begin to hit hard alternatives must have been worked out and tested.

6. The church can provide a neutral platform where contending parties can

voice their frustrations, pool their insights

and work out solutions.

3. Faith sees reality with the eyes of God

Sharing God’s fellowship, leads to an eccentric rather than egocentric worldview (I am not the centre of the world but God is):

Christians see reality ‘from above’, with the eyes of God, and their place within it.

Christians see reality from the future and the needs of future generations.

EGO

COMMUNITY

SOCIETY

HUMANITYNATURE

Modern culture is unapologetically egocentric!

EGOCOMMUNITY

SOCIETY

HUMANITY

NATURE

View ‘from above’

View ‘from the future’’

Faith in God is eccentric!

We must jettison the modern spiritualisation and individualisation of the Christian faith

and regain the comprehensive horizons of the biblical faith.

God is the Creator of the whole of reality. And so God must be deemed the Redeemer of the whole of reality.

4. The transforming power of the gospel

The gospel responds to the most basic human need:

acceptability, belonging, recognition.

= the right to be what one is, possess what one craves and do what one wants to do.

Even the underlying motivation of modernity is based on this need.

Examples

Primary group pressure (peer pressure)Social expectations – keeping up with Conspicuous consumptionOutdoing fellow humans (festivals, yachts) Reference groups Fads and fanciesBeing ‘in’, being ‘cool’, being ‘respectable’

The gospel of Christ proclaims

God’s suffering, transforming acceptance of the unacceptable into God’s fellowship.

[ = Justification by grace, accepted in faith, rather than by our moral achievements and excellent dispositions, leading to the sanctification of the believer. ]

If believed, the gospel satisfies our need for acceptance, belonging and recognition

and liberates us to be concerned about God’s world.

The cross of Christ is prototypical for God’s sacrificial action on behalf of his creation as a whole.

Das Kreuz Christi ist das Urbild für Gottes opferbereites Handeln zugunsten seiner Schöpfung als ganzer.

Die kruis van Christus is die mees prominente voorbeeld van God se offervaardige handeling vir sy skepping as geheel.

The gospel of God’s suffering, transforming acceptance in Christ must be extended to the whole of God’s creation.

God ceaselessly sacrifices parts of his creation so that other parts can live and prosper.

We are invited to share in God’s sacrificial action on behalf of God’s world.

The gospel of God’s acceptance in Christ transforms our lives:

1. It liberates us from the insatiable quest for acceptance, belonging and recognition.

2. It enables us to ignore social pressures and become spiritual leaders and role models.

3. It invites us to participate in God’s creative and redemptive project in God’s world.

4. It shares with us God’s vision of comprehensive optimal well-being of reality,

which translates into God’s concern for any deficiency in well-being in any aspect of life.

5. It empowers us to become instruments of God’s creative and redeeming love in the world.

With God, Christians will

Seek to maintain the healthy survival of all of God’s creatures as far as possible,

Seek to attain justice for all social groups, future generations and the natural world,

Show loving concern for the weak and vulnerable.

5. A few practical suggestions 5. A few practical suggestions

1. Change your personal attitude.

1. Do not allow love to become an obligation to be fulfilled or a commandment to be kept,

but enter into the joy of sharing God’s redeeming love for those who need it most.

Being part of God’s project is to our benefit because it enhances your own authenticity, the credibility of the gospel and the impact of our faith on society.

2. Don’t rely on your own strength. You are not God, but a worker among others in God’s project.

3. Compare yourself with those who have less, rather than those who have more.

DESIRE – Being envious of those that have more.

GRATITUDE – thanking God for having more than others

The most enjoyable things in life are for free:

Hiking in the mountains Trees, flowers and birds around your homeAn evening around the family tableThe smile of a babyA sunrise among the cloudsSinging together …….

Window shopping for fun:

I can enjoy all the wonderful things on display, but I do not have to buy them!

2. Become active at some point.

Expose yourself to the realities of the poor (e.g. visiting the home of your domestic servant).

Avoid any condescending, judgmental or pedantic attitude. Listen to them; look at social reality through their eyes.

Do not take over! Appreciate their effort to cope with their situation. Build on their experiences. Support their initiatives.

Remember: sharing consumption leads to dependence and loss of dignity,

building up capacity leads to sufficiency and self-respect.

Take initiatives where God opens up potentials that you feel called to tackle, however small.

Team up with likeminded people and see what works. There are countless NGOs that have a lot of experience.

Take risks. Tested alternatives must become available.

.

Work on all three impact levels:

Personal level: helping concrete persons in concrete needs (school fees; employment; tools; training).

Project level: crisis care and building redemptive communities (Brot für die Welt; LWF; Gift of the Givers). Societal level: feeding into society critically important impulses (Diakonie in Germany made the Church visible and indispensable in a secular country.)

.

Change your personal life style:

Keep your expenses to things that you really need. If you cannot afford it, do without it.

Share your underutilised clutter (gadgets, clothes, furniture) with those who need it and do not add to it.

Sufficiency is good for our health, our wealth, society and nature

Too much harms our health, our wealth, society and nature

Opportunity cost

Before you plunge into expenses, ask yourself what alternative assets you could buy with the same money?

C-class R 500 000 Polo Vivo R 130 000CL class R 1 500 000

> R 1 000 000

Does the additional satisfaction merit the additional cost?

Be mindful of the law of

diminishing marginal utility:

the greater the quantity invested the less the benefit per unit.

Quantity

Bene

fit The first ice cream on a hot day is heaven, the sixth makes you bring up.

Now compare the additional satisfaction you gain from a purchase

with the satisfaction others would gain if they could spend that money.

C-class R 500 000 CL class R 1 500 000

R 1 000 000

Is the additional satisfaction commensurate with the actual need satisfaction of others?

C-class R 500 000 CL class R 1 500 000

R 1 000 000

Is the additional satisfaction commensurate with actual need satisfaction of others?

Three bursaries leading to a Bachelor’s degree!

That’s it for now! That’s it for now!

Will it go with us into our daily lives, or end up in the documentation of the Synod?

If you found the presentations helpful you can down-load them and use them in your congregations.

You can also invite me for a workshop using the presentations.