Sabbath Economics

I had the privilege of hearing a guy by the name of Ched Myers on two different occasions last weekend. (well, two weekends ago now) He spoke at Urban Jerusalem, the hip hop church I am a part of, as well as for Urban Homeworks and other small intentional living communities. I really appreciated what he had to say and learned a lot-and hopefully I will learn and grow in this more as I read some of his books!
The overall message is that God's dream, or original plans, for the economy is vastly different than how it looks. We are so far from what is laid out for us Biblically, as well as from the teachings of Jesus, in the way we spend our money it is hard to see how we can move away from it. I think for me, I have been so entranced by the world around me and the "norm" of the consumer oriented society I live in, I have come to accept it as the way it has to be. I am going to just go over some of the notes that I took that stood out to me, and hopefully be able to continue this conversation as I explore this more. God calls us to live in community and seek that out-the society we live in is always working against community. Society has us pull out of our home to work, people leaving their country to follow where the money is, there is a sacrifice of family for careers, always a sense of upward mobility, and the need to work up in wealth. All these things promote anxiety, addiction, and alienation. We have anxiety because we doubt, we are dissatisfied, we have deficit spending, artificial abundance, and artificial security-and we think all of this is natural. There is an addiction to money, to having more things, to working, to limitlessness. And through that all we are alienated from community, from commonwealth, from work, from the earth, from relational commerce, from spirit-we live in a placeless market. These things are not normal! We can't change because we are dependent on all of these things, and this is what is wrong. There are 4 things to look at: 1-we are all have an economic story specific to us, because we all buy, shop, loan, borrow money, etc. 2-Everyone is located in the larger economic story, from foreclosures to job loss, etc. 3-Sharing these stories break the silence around money and class! (he emphasized that this is the last thing we talk about, especially as christians; it is taboo in church and a such a "personal matter" that we don't talk about and therefore don't hold each other accountable, etc.) 4-Sharing our stories de-privatize the anxiety, as well as commune-itizes our imagination which leads to creative responses to the overall problem.
He created a 7-fold covenant for people who want to start to deal with these things together. Then he talked about money and the problems around it. We are really good at rationalizing money and we are trained to believe that money is morally neutral. But this is not true- money is definitely one of the principalities and powers that is talked about in the Bible, and it is risky to the soul, and intrinsically is spiritual corruption. He used the word "mammon" which is a term in the Bible used to describe material wealth or greed, often personified as deity. Money is an instrument of social exchange-whether positive or negative. It can maximize private interest, give us personal gratification and security, and it is also a social exchange with providers of good and services. Now, with that we can use money to exploit others or help others. How we spend is predicated on relationships and values. An example of this is with coffee-we can exploit poor farmers or build sustainable communities by purchasing fair trade.
Now, often our response is that we are either completely paralyzed (the problem is too huge so we do nothing) or we are righteous and critical of others (also not a helpful attitude). He said this "we are moderate in our actions, but forceful in our critiques." I think this is very true! He said something I think is important: no step is too big or too small, and no one ever "arrives." Obviously, you can always be doing more, but this doesn't negate the small steps that keep you moving forward. I think there is a lot of hope in that. For example, recycling didn't just happen one day. It took someone with a vision, and small movements on the local level. It was a big movement made possible by an individual conscience. In 20-25 years recycling became conventional wisdom.
Another point he spoke about was the concept of redistribution. One of the reasons we stay poor in the U.S. is because those who are poor have no equity-money just passes through them (to pay rent, bills, etc.). Therefore you can't get loans to, say, buy a home, so you are always stuck in a rental situation and never build that up. But this is so messed up because now days we can't get an education or a home without taking out a loan-so putting ourselves in debt and in a position where we are forced to use money we don't have to get something we need to become secure later. But if we don't do this, we are forced to make 10 dollars an hour, if that, and constantly stay in a position of instability as we never own a home, etc. It is quite interesting that this is the way that is normal now in our culture. This practice of usury, collecting interest, is forbidden in the Bible. Yet we are practically forced to live as such now... Some of the solutions to these problems involve coming back to community-through local credit unions and relying on communities to send their kids to college collectively. For example, if those with extra could move their investments into credit unions to be able to create money to give education loans and mortgage loans to those without equity. It takes some imagination and communities coming together.
Wow this is getting to be a lot. The last points he drove home was that addiction is the problem of the 1st world nations, and oppression is the issue of the 3rd world. The problem isn't poverty. The problem is the affluent taking too much.
He gave me a lot more to think about! I am encouraged by people like him who provide a hopeful outlook on these things. I do believe God has a bigger and better dream, and we have totally lost sight of those dreams. I believe that we have a responsibility as Christians to not only think about these things, but also figure out ways move in practice. I, for one, am hopeful in this. A big part of this is really looking at myself honestly and see what my "economic story" is. That is a scary thing....

If you are interested, here is the website:
http://www.bcm-net.org/
Also if you are interested in another look into our consumer-orientated mindset:
http://storyofstuff.com/