By: gfesadmin on February 7, 2013
In 2005 during the height of the real estate boom here in the states, my wife and I found ourselves looking for a home. With seminary coming to an end and two ministry job offers hanging in the air a move was inevitable. Our first option was taking a Sr. Pastor role at a church…
By: gfesadmin on February 6, 2013
I am reading again The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi. What Polanyi analyzes is the idea of a free market. He states bluntly that there is no such thing as a free market. Every free market economy has had to have government legislation to protect citizens from its weakness. There are labor laws to protect…
By: gfesadmin on February 6, 2013
A couple Sundays ago I visited a large church where a young speaker spoke to thousands on the “supremacy of the gospel.” He spoke about his own living situation as an American missionary in North Africa. His family lives in an area where his children have to watch out for raw sewage in the streets…
By: gfesadmin on February 4, 2013
Karl Polanyi’s “The Great Transformation” is a clairvoyant call for India today as capitalism wields its power promising a better future. Although still nascent in comparison to western economies, the obvious social repercussions of free market capitalism for India cannot be ignored and the country must heed politically to enhance social change before it caves…
By: gfesadmin on February 2, 2013
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} Foresight is an invaluable tool for any leader. Robert Greenleaf in Servant Leadership says foresight for the servant-leader is…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
“For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” I Timothy 6:10 KJV What we once held as sacred – water, air, trees, children, animals, etc., we have now turned into commodities for profit. At…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
In our city I have been increasingly aware of the importance of the workforce. Many people I know, including good friends have been laid off from work or struggle to find jobs. There have been many businesses that have opened and closed. The workforce is struggling with “labor pains”. According to a recent news article,…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
No guts… No Glory… This was the phrase used by Jack Hoffman in the season opener of “Gold Rush”, Discovery Channels number one rated reality show over the past three years. Three years ago my family and I decided to watch the pilot episode of six down on their luck family men from the Pacific…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in Davos Switzerland to discuss the global economy and business. This year’s theme was “Dynamism and Resilience” and they sought to listen to young business entrepreneurs, the future of the world economy. But it’s last year’s theme that I find more interesting, particularly in view of this…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation presses the idea that market economy is reliant upon the social dynamics of politics, religion, and social relations. In fact, he contends that if the market economy were really free that labor and indeed humans would become commodiities and would self destruct. The book takes these basic ideas and sets them…
By: gfesadmin on January 30, 2013
Karl Polanyi, in his book The Great Transformation, theorizes that market economy is never autonomous but is influenced, if not driven, by a nation’s politics, religion, and social relations. He calls this his concept of “embeddedness.” He contends that if the economy were autonomous that humans would become commodities which would assure their destruction. So powerful…
By: gfesadmin on January 30, 2013
In 1944 economy historian Karl Polanyi published his book “Great Transformation” dealing with the social, political and economical changes that led to the increasing development of a market economy in England and Polanyi’s analysis concerning market liberation. In a journey through time, starting from the early 16th century on, Polanyi portraits the immediate circumstances that…
By: gfesadmin on January 26, 2013
Despite the obvious poverty that wreaks havoc in the lives of millions of rural Indians, conglomerates along with the India government rationalize that consumption by the poor will result in the much-needed redemption from scarcity and need. “Buy more to get the economy moving because more consumption means more jobs; via the miracle of the…
By: gfesadmin on January 26, 2013
William Cavanaugh in Being Consumed challenges the contemporary Christian’s values on how they spend their money. He argues that Christians are a part of a global community of individuals in the Christian Church and that our resources should be focused on providing for the larger community (Cavanaugh, 2008). I was impressed by the example Cavanaugh…
By: gfesadmin on January 25, 2013
A news article in one of India’s leading dailies this past week along with my reading of Cavenaugh’s Being Consumed – Economics and Christian Desire, has driven me to a lot of Introspection, pushing me to answer questions such as: ‘How much is enough?’ What extents will my consumerism reach? When and where will the…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
In this writing I will analyze two concepts within William T. Cavanaugh’s book, Economics and Christian Desire. One I agree with and the other I hold in question. The first idea is the relentless quest for goods that we as consumers have and the second involves his ideas regarding multiculturalism. Cavanaugh explains that it is…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Famous documentary filmer Hubert Sauper was working in Ruanda 1997. While being on an airfield in Mwanza, Tanzania he witnesses the loading and unloading of two huge cargo planes. One plane with UN food donations for Tanzania and the starving refugees from Ruanda is being unloaded. At the same time a huge cargo plane with…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
What do you do with the poor? They are often at the center of heartfelt concern in the church. But mostly they are disempowered either by their own efforts or something larger. In our local church we have been attempting to help a couple that have continually been short on rent, had tickets from past…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
I barely passed my course in economics at Kent State University. Perhaps it was because I sat next to the leader of students for a democratic society (SDS) who constantly poured forth his communist theory and seemed to have a special rapport with the professor. Or, perhaps it was because I did not see the…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Throw a Load of Coal on the Fire Every three hours the furnace required someone to get up, trudge outside in the snow and load precisely three heaping shovels of black coal into its gaping door, or as some would say, its insatiable mouth! Because of these heroic efforts, Mike and I slept in comfort…
