Of course it’s not hard to come up with such teachings from the New Testament.

This is a rural congregation in Indiana too. And he’s not being run out of church on a rail.

I don’t know what all you can read into that, but I think it’s interesting. This isn’t some kind of “radical emergent church” at all.

I just came across this article by Douglas Rushkoff (thanks, Carl) that speaks directly to the difference between corporate capitalism as we have it today and an environment that fosters innovation:

Except in a few rare cases, corporate charters and centralized currency were never intended to promote commerce. They were intended to prevent locals and non-chartered entities from creating and exchanging value. They are not extensions of the free market, but efforts at extracting value from the free market. Corporate monopoly charters were extended to a king’s favorite companies in return for shares. Then, no one else was allowed to do business in that industry. Centralized currency forced businesses to run their revenue through the king’s coffers. Likewise, in its current form, centralized currency is more akin to a ponzi scheme of interest rates, each borrower paying up to the banker above him.

Both of these innovations—corporate charters and centralized currency—tend towards resource exploitation rather than innovation. They are extractive in nature, not productive. And, more importantly, these particular innovations cause wealth to end up being generated through speculation rather than creation. They cause scarcity, not abundance. Over time, it becomes easier to make money by having money than by doing anything. And this was the pure, stated intent of centralized currency and banking in the early Renaissance: to keep the wealthy wealthy, in the face of a rising merchant class.

Life is more than that. But freedom depends on the ability to buy and sell and own as we see fit. Without balance, unrestrained consumerism or opppressive fairness takes hold. Balance, man, balance.

People look at mechanisms like markets, competition, rewards for success and see a lot of good in them. But those mechanisms are not capitalism. Those mechanisms have existed in almost every kind of society.

You have a capitalist system when most of the economy is controlled by a life-or-death game to “maximize capital.” In a capitalist system that game will often dismantle or corrupt markets, eliminate competition and pervert rewards systems so that even people who are destroying the planet can win the biggest rewards. It even gets so chaotic sometimes that people who are destroying capital (instead of maximizing it) get the biggest rewards.

Somasoul: my guess is that you’re in favor of markets, competition and rewards. But that’s not capitalism.

Capitalism is not the system that this country has. But I will join you in protesting our current system. :-)