Jim Wallis: Rediscovering Values

Do not be deceived, however. Wallis’ intention is to both attack and argue for changes to the current capitalistic market system (although he is limited in providing specifics). The system that began with Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” is a system that Wallis believes has gone unchecked for far too long and now requires the very visible hand of the federal government to institute even tighter regulatory mechanisms. He is not opposed to capitalism or the free market system. However, the market system that resulted in the crash of the housing market, the bailout of Lehman Brothers and the government takeover of AIG and General Motors, is an institution that knows no self-regulation. The market system, like the golden calf in the Old Testament (39), is being served rather than doing the serving. Thus, he contends that additional governmental regulation is the answer.

Greed is worshiped, laments Wallis. Like Gordon Gekko, the unscrupulous financial broker in the movie Wall Street, many people today, especially the “very rich,” apparently believe that “Greed…is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit…” (45). It is greed, spawned by the manipulation of Wall Street financial gimmicks, that created the great chasm between CEOs, like Richard Fairbank at Capital One who received nearly $250 million, and the average bank or financial institution employee, who makes in the low five figures (85). Greed also produced this unbelievable statistic: 400 people hold more wealth than half of the United States combined. This is a disparity, he adds, that “we should all despair” (89). Obviously, something must be done; something must happen to lessen this gap.

Wallis sees there is more wrong with the market than the economic inequalities. Something has invaded the soul of Americans and many others around the world, who live and work in highly developed market economies. We scream for more! The greed that Gekko spoke so glowingly about does not promote the “common good” or the greater “public interest.” Instead, it pushes a narcissistic personality (56); a society, a generation that wants fast loans, fast food, and reality television (60). All for what, Wallis asks, all for myself?

What are the questions Christians, Jews, and Muslims should be asking? What should people of faith be thinking, saying, and doing? What does the Bible say about all the issues now being raised? What can economists, some of whom are also people of faith, tell us about economic philosophy, the role of the market, the role of government, the place of social regulation, the spiritual consequences of economic disparities, the moral health of an economy, and the criteria of the common good? What does this book say that is relevant to me as a pastor, teacher, minister, missionary, or interested layman? These and many more (10) are the questions that Wallis believes need to be asked regarding the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

If greed, self-deception, and an immoral and socially unjust market system are the culprit, what is the answer? It is a spiritual one that is imbued with the power of social justice and validated by the doctrine of Scripture. Wallis is clear: “the logic of a consumer society is fundamentally at odds with the teaching of Jesus” (111). We live in a marketing-infused and inflated world, where toys and trinkets and sex sell with equally rapidity, while those of us who claim Christianity as our code of faith, and who follow the words of Jesus and the Old Testament prophets, know all too well that conspicuously consuming wealth is at odds with giving it away. Wallis believes one key to resolving this is redistribute the wealth of the rich.

Tags: jim, rediscovering, values, wallis

Category: Living the Faith, Winter 2011