Christianity Capitalism Communism Campolo

Some more quotes from Tony Campolo in Missing the Point, the chapter on Social Action:

Campolo quotes Bishop Dom Helder Camaro of Recife, Brazil:

'When i gave them food, they called me a saint ... Yet when i asked why they had no food in the first place, they called me a communist' (117).

Campolo then goes on to ask the question of marrying capitalism and Christianity:

'Yet how can capitalism be divinely ordanied when its most revered theorist, Adam Smith, writes in the Wealth of Nations that greed is what makes capitalism work? "It is mot from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard of self interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love. What religion regards as foul, capitalism pronounces as good. It is from the "luxary and the caprice of the rich man" and from "his natural selfishness and rapacity" that society advances, Smith believed" (118)

He then exhorts:

"When those who wield economic power are out of control, and serve their own interests to the detriment of the masses, the poor, and the powerless, Christians must speak prophetically and pronouce God's judgement against such destructive self-interest'. (118)

It really is the prophetic role of the Church to lift it's eyes away from personal advancement, and the type of thinking which runs along the lines of: "What can/does God do for me" and put them towards: "how does God speak to the power structures/systems of the world" and then, "how can i get involved".