Toward A Christian Perspective On Globalization

One thing that church history makes plain is the ease with which Christianity's original and relatively simple message, about God's love for all and our obligation to be loving to all in his name, can be deformed into an impenetrably thick system of rationalizations for channeling that love only to some, beginning most typically with the system's perpetuators. Old arrangements, based upon ideas of special covenants conveying special privileges, get quickly re-established, and any remnant of a sense of solidarity with every other human being on the planet becomes overwhelmed by demands to hunker down in one's own family, tribe, nation, and especially, sect --- at least, for as long as neither gets in the way of individual members' enjoying all the purely personal blessings they falsely believe to be their divinely bestowed entitlements. For churches and other religions infected with such ideology, global thinking reduces to little more than strategizing for conquest, held captive by worldly values incapable of articulating a vision beyond that of competitiveness, aggression, and letting the best interests of most of the world's peoples go unmet by default.

Christianity is saying less than it should be saying these days about so many of the crucial issues affecting human life on a global scale --- the scale that at least for the immediate future is our only meaningful point of reference. By way of illustrations: the current East-West conflict, between a long-disrespected Islamic culture and a long self-posturing Christianized and democratized one, is becoming something to be dealt with only in the form of battles to be won, not differences to be reconciled. The problem of climate change is being dumbed down to little more than intermittent anguish over declining seaside property values on the part of potential owners more than willing to profit from what has brought about some of the most telling changes in the first place. The decimation of species across the planet continues to fuel mostly fruitless debates between people not green enough to change their own life-styles all that much and people too floridly green to consider any strategies other than violence as the way toward redeeming the environment. Mass migrations from a combination of genocidal political policies, erosion of economic opportunities, and hopes for a better life in general are being greeted more as intrusions than with welcomes, with the tragic consequence that humankind --- once referred to as God's people --- remains mired in the very state of alien-ation to which the Gospel message is supposed to offer a corrective.

And then there is the global economy, the world that one of my favorite columnists, Thomas Friedman, eloquently assures us is no longer flat, and in which it is no longer profitable to act like flatlanders. "Profitable" is the key word here. The value added to human life by means of the present cobbled together system of economic globalization is value measured primarily by the profits the system generates --- to those who have and exercise power in and over it. The system exhibits decidedly less concern about the countless numbers of powerless workers and families affected by it, except perhaps by pausing occasionally to remind everyone that, as if by some mysterious and transcendent force of nature, goodies generated at the top will inevitably trickle all the way down to the bottom, and always in proportion to genuine need and worthy expectation. Yeah, sure.

One big reason why Christianity's voice in matters like these is at best halting and at worst non-existent is that too many of the churches representing it are too preoccupied with too many churchy things, and getting them done the right way, e.g.: building bigger and more impressive housing with which to tempt away more and more of other churches' members; enveloping people of all ages into entertaining and sometimes even spiritual programs, from womb to tomb; transmitting beliefs and moral precepts with such persuasiveness that no one need suffer even a momentary impulse to question anything; and ensuring that no door will ever be darkened by anyone unworthy to associate with the general membership. The amount of energy committed to ventures like these, 24/7, is truly awesome, to such an extent that it almost takes on the appearance of petty grousing to wonder whether our churches are prepared to help all that much in dealing with the really important, global matters of concern to everyone everywhere. Hopefully, in the wondering comes the message all over again: God's desire is that all shall be saved, and that salvation includes nothing less than peace, justice, and community for everyone in this life as well as the next.