| Free Market Capitalism and the Protestant Work Ethic, Part 1 |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Saturday, December 12 2009 00:00 |
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Recently a brother commented to me that we had departed from the Protestant work ethic in America by allowing more government involvement in the economy. Certainly, I do not want to take a political posture, but I do want to make some important distinctions. Psalm 52:7 reads, “Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” If any Biblical verse is a sad commentary on our current economic state of affairs, this one is. We have witnessed unrestrained and unregulated greed over the last several years. We have seen corruption and fraud, and as a result people have grown strong by destroying others. One has only to think of Bernie Madoff and the others like him and their “Ponzi” schemes. We need to remember that, as Paul said in 1 Tim. 1:8-11, the law is not for righteous but lawbreakers, and the government stands to protect those who do good and punish those who do evil (Rom. 13:1-5). Government regulation of the economy may indeed be a necessity when the economy and the markets are driven by selfish and unrestrained greed in order for society to survive and for those who are righteous to live quiet and peaceable lives. Of course, government itself is not beyond corruption, as it is composed of sinful people, but it performs a God-assigned task in restraining evil…if it so acts. Which brings us to the question of the matter of the Protestant work ethic, and it brings us to the question of why, if government just stays out of the economy, the principles of the free market that have always prevailed will not right this upside-down situation. It seems reasonable to assume that free market capitalism, if left alone, will always correct whatever is amiss; for, is that not what the Protestant work ethic really is? To that we shall turn next. |
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