LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Spirit |
by Tom Bohache |
Spiritual Economics
As I write this I have experienced just two days of the summer season, and this has caused me to reflect on a number of things, particularly how economically important the summer season is for the merchants and others who live and work in Rehoboth and its environs. But do more tourists mean only more money, more traffic, and more crowded restaurants and stores? Or could this mean more Spirit too? Do spirituality and economics have anything in common, or are they diametrically opposed (God and Mammon and all that)? A book I read for a recent course on Political Theology suggests that these two subjects have always beenand need to beconnected, that it is a myth to think that the realm of religion and ethics can be divorced from political, economic, and social concerns. Kathryn Tanner of the University of Chicago Divinity School challenges our preconceptions when she says that "every idea about God and the world is directly and from the first an economic doctrine" (Economy of Grace, Fortress Press 2005, p. 1). For "economy" etymologically simply refers to the "management (Greek nomos) of the household (Greek oikos)"everything that binds a household, family, or society together, whether it be spiritual and religious rituals, philosophical principles, economic decisions, political decisions, or social mores. Thus, our economic thinking and planning MUST be in relationship to our spiritual values and religious activities. Unfortunately, this has not always been the case, as religious teachers for generations have linked economic and financial prosperity to one's favorable or unfavorable status before God. Money, nice possessions, a successful career, and all that these bring have been seen as indications that one has been "rewarded" for being a "good" person. But if we stop and consider the flipside of this proposition, it quickly becomes nonsensical, for this would mean that those who are poor, sick, unemployed, without housing or food or water, are somehow being "punished" for being "bad" people. If we look around our world, we quickly realize that there is no direct cause and effect relationship between one's prosperity and one's moral goodness or lack thereof. For example, I doubt that the incredibly wealthy management of Halliburton is more "blessed" by God than the destitute Iraqi people. I doubt that the poor inhabitants of Louisiana who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina (many of them people of color) are less important to God than the rich white American president who flew overhead in a helicopter assessing the damage. I came across a recent statistic that if an additional 40 billion dollars were spent on non-U.S. people and problems, everyone in the world would have enough to eat and drink, adequate health care, and safe and efficient family planning methods. This 40 billion dollars is only about 3% of the net worth of the 25 richest people in the world, and just a fraction of what the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost the United States! This means the difference between life and death for the majority of the world's human family, not to mention animals and the environment. Last I checked, matters of life and death were spiritual, religious, and moral issues. We can't cling to a separation of church and state in order to ignore the plight of those with whom we share this planet. I am sure neoconservatives would say that I am oversimplifying here and that I don't know or can't see the "big picture." For many years that has been the excuse of colonizers and imperialistic governments around the worldthat the powers-that-be know better than the person-in-the-street. Unfortunately, the gap between those at the top and those at the bottom has grown so wide that I am not sure anyone on either end of the spectrum can see or hear the other. Isn't it time we took back our humanity and looked beyond the narrow "US" to the joint "WE" of cooperative economics? As a good friend of mine often says, "Just my two cents!" The Rev. Tom Bohache is pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Rehoboth and a doctoral candidate at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He moderates the SpiritConnection discussion group at the Camp Rehoboth Community Center on Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 16, No. 6 June 2, 2006 |