Related articles and links |  1 of 3

The wave of recent business scandals presents Christian churches with a challenge. Commentators have spread blame widely for the scandals: Greed-infected officers, sleepy boards of directors, gutless attorneys and accountants, politicians hog-tied by corporate contributions. But what about the church? Does it share some of the blame?

What should we make of the fact that some of the now-disgraced executives were active in their churches and outspoken about their faith?

Historically, Christian thinking about business has swung between the two extremes of warm embrace and cynical rejection.

"Embrace" theology has wrapped Christian doctrine, capitalism, profits, and business practices in one big group hug: Capitalism forms part of God's kingdom, and the Lord rewards Christian ethics with an enhanced bottom line.

"Rejection" theology, on the other hand, identifies capitalism as a system built on greed and warns against the evils of accumulating wealth. The value of business, if any, is instrumental. The workplace can serve as a platform for evangelism and can generate funds for charitable work. But business itself is, if not sinful, at least dirty and distasteful. Robert A. Sirico wrote in Forbes magazine nearly a decade ago of how businesspeople leave the church because of open hostility from clergy who assume they sin more than others.

Neither approach is of particular use to a sincere Christian active in business. The church has fallen into these extremes for two reasons.

First, many Christians understand neither business nor the issues facing church members who work in it.

Second, and more troubling, many of us don't have a clear theology of business. The church urgently needs to identify and teach how God sees business and how it can intrinsically further his purposes.

While many recent business failures appear to have been the result of clear-cut criminal behavior, many were not. Apparently we have witnessed not merely defects in human character but also a fundamental failure of the dominant business model.

Most business schools teach that a corporate manager's primary responsibility is to maximize shareholder value by taking all possible actions within the bounds of the law. Under this model, many "good" executives are taught to look for gray areas in legal and accounting standards and push their companies to the colorable limit. Because there remains plenty of room for unethical behavior even within legal limits, we need something more.

To help prepare Christian managers who will not cooperate with Enron-like shenanigans, we need a model built around a theological telos for business. If maximizing shareholder value alone is an inadequate goal, what should a corporate manager who is seeking to glorify God pursue?

We can build the answer to this question from the ground up by examining the grand movements of God's story as recorded in Scripture.

The opening lines of Genesis speak of God's purposes for humankind. In Genesis 1:28 he gives Adam and Eve a charge: "God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.' "

This call serves as the bedrock on which to build an understanding of the fundamental purpose of business in God's kingdom. Specifically, from God's perspective, business exists to:

• Create and distribute goods and services to meet the needs of people.
  
  
• Provide employment that allows people to use their gifts and abilities creatively.
  
  

next page... |  1 of 3

February 2003, Vol. 47, No. 2