I just finished watching the video, Spiritual Awakening, a New Economy and the End of Empire, a lecture by David C. Korten, and my first thought is, “Wow!” And my second thought is, “Why am I am almost forty years old and just now hearing someone say these kinds of things?” But then I realize that if Korten is right, and I think he is, then Jesus said these kinds of things a long time ago, and other prophets even before that, but we just haven’t been listening.
Korten goes so far as to call the economic systems in place today “evil.” If he is right, and again, I think he is, then this has serious implications for the church. Because, now we are not just talking about how best to help people, but whether or not we are complicit in this perpetration of evil by our very participation in a system which seeks to usurp God’s created order. Korten brings this into stark clarity when he invokes the metaphor of “serving two masters.” I love the way he defines “mammon” – “wealth as an object of worship; the worship of a false god; a form of demonic possession; an evil force in opposition to the God of Life.”(italics mine) That statement alone calls for a radical reaction to the current economic powers. We cannot just try to do our best to not let “the love of money” exercise an unhealthy influence in our lives, but we must actively oppose this evil force. Any system that allows an individual to exercise authority over another for the sake of selfish personal gain has no place in God’s economy. I am more sure of this than ever, but I am still not convinced that I have the courage to pay the price necessary to follow where this ultimately leads.
I still have many more questions than answers, but the journey is becoming much more exciting. If this doesn’t stir some discussion, I don’t know what will.
I purchased his “Agenda for a New Economy” and “The Post-Corporate World’ after attending the Trinity Institute last year, where some of his ideas were discussed. I haven’t read the books in depth, but it does look like a radical departure from “business as usual.” I think Western Christians have long deceived themselves into believing that we CAN serve both God and Mammon…I’m not sure what the “new” paradigm would look like, but I think this is something the church needs to address…even at the risk of “success” as we have measured it. Along the same lines, I would recommend Rabbi Michael Lerner’s “The Left Hand of God,” and Michael Moore’s latest film, “Capitalism: A Love Story.”