Another way of living

Christians in the United States don't seem to be giving much thought to the effects of our economic system on the church's thinking. That's why it's good to find this article by Poserorphrophet about Christians and capitalism:

In sum, we are told that capitalism isn't perfect, but it's the best that we've got and it's here to stay -- so let's make the best of it. Indeed, as Christians, it is our duty to make the best of it.

However, I would like to suggest that the pursuit of "capitalism with a human face" is nothing more than an effort to dress a wolf in sheep's clothing. Both "necessity" and "realism" lead us to conclude that this wolf is here to stay, so it's best if we just dress it in a way that makes us feel a little more comfortable in its presence.

That this has become the extent of our economic creativity as Christians suggests to me that we have become accustomed to living with a fatally deficient Christian imagination. When "realism" leads us to conclude that all we can do as Christians is dress wolves like sheep, then there is little or no hope that Christians will actually be a community that offers new life to the world. Consequently, we must learn to let the biblical narrative dictate what is realistic -- and if we do this, then I suspect that we will discover that we are called to live as a people motivated by hope and not by necessity. Furthermore, we will discover that this hope is a hope that, rooted in a subversive memory of God's in-breaking into the world, transforms the present in ways that necessity can't even begin to, well, imagine.

Thanks to Nathan Colquhoun for the link.