{"id":16211,"date":"2018-02-01T03:21:52","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T11:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16211"},"modified":"2018-02-01T03:21:52","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T11:21:52","slug":"true-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/true-prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"True Prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn China, doing business is hard; living a Christian life is harder; doing business while maintaining Christian faith is the hardest of all.\u201d[1]<\/a> For several thousands of years, the Chinese feudal system has taught its citizens to despise business people; seeing them as distrustful. In recent decades, there have been campaigns for greater f\"\"<\/a>inancial and intellectual leadership. In a world where money often equals power and influence, Chinese believers are encouraged to cut corners with their integrity in order to feel successful. Even with the State directed economic growth in the last twenty years, China has yet to understand the ethical, cultural, and spiritual transformation that this course has set them on.<\/p>\n

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Economist and author Polanyi, in his book The Great Transformation:The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, <\/em>attempted to explain the collapse of the nineteenth century economics and the emergence of the twentieth century. The \u201cgreat transformation\u201d that took place around the world included 2 world wars. He describes in excruciating detail the systems that collapsed and the attempts to prevent it; some even contributing to advance this process quicker. \u201cThe outcome was decisively influenced by the character of the class interests involved.\u201d[2]<\/a> Greed seems to have motivated many to seek their own glory at the expense of the community and sometimes the nation. This reminded me of some the business practices of Chinese today, and maybe even foreshadows its future.<\/p>\n

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Negative comments about businessmen are common in China, for example \u201cevery business person is deceitful; a person who is not deceitful cannot operate a business.\u201d[3]<\/a> However, there has been a shift in the mentality, partly due to directives from the State. China began a massive campaign to change the way the people thought about businesses. \u201cEvery citizen is a business person\u201d campaign along with the \u201ccreate the Chinese dream\u201d\u00a0slogans have been promoted by presidents, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping.[4]<\/a> Chinese today want to become rich. Every parent pushes their children to seek jobs that pay more, to pray to the money gods (Caishen) and find those\u00a0people or spouses that will help them achieve this goal, at any cost.<\/p>\n

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Chinese culture has been based on Confucianist ethics for the last 1000 years. Even though in the last 68 years Communism has also been an influencing factor, Confucianism has not been forgotten and still has a strong influence on the daily lives of the Chinese people today. Confucius says, \u201cBeing a good family member reverberates through society. A person who is good to their parents and siblings and children will be good to others as well.\u201d [5]<\/a> This has been interpreted in the mindset of Chinese society today to mean developing a strong financial base for your family at the expense of everything else. Confucianism, with its focus on feudal ethics, and Socialism, as its official religion, have laid the foundations for a love of the individual (as well as your immediate family).<\/p>\n

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A society cannot exist without some kind of belief system. \u201cWherever human concerns are placed above the will of a God or the needs of a tradition… Humanism lives.[6]<\/a> With a fast growing economy, China is suffering from a moral and ethical crisis where the love and pursuit of one’s own happiness is the driving force. The facades of appearing ethical and not losing what is called \u201cface\u201d, in Asia, is really a game played to not publicly give recognition for unacceptable actions and thus embarrassing someone that you might need as a contact or business relationship in the future. Unfortunately, when one chooses to follow God, there biggest struggle in the business world is that truth is fluid. Lying is not seen as a problem but rather it is seen as a way to help not call attention to someone or their mistake. \u201cDon’t make me wear the tall hat\u201d is a saying that means to not call attention to me and thus make me an obvious target for problems (by government or other business people).<\/p>\n

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\u201cChristian business people face challenges in their personal and spiritual lives more so than government restrictions on expression of their religious belief\u201d[<\/a>7]<\/a> Pursuit of wealth and greatness is seen at the ultimate end no matter what you have to endure, give up, or who you have to step on to achieve these goals. In business, it is difficult to find new opportunities and thus those that are spiritually grounded, struggle against a tsunami of pressure to separate business practices from their christian life. Christians in China need to change the overall climate of the culture and morality of the society.<\/p>\n

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When we see ourselves as the producers of our own glory, then we imagine that our hands can bring about our salvation. Polanyi said that our hopes \u201cevolved into a veritable faith in man’s secular salvation through a self-regulating market\u201d.[8]<\/a>Self regulating or state regulating markets are not the problem. Concerning the British economy, Polanyi says, \u201cYou cannot change human nature.\u201d[9]<\/a> I would take it a step farther and add not without an encounter with the God of great transformations.<\/p>\n

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Fluctuating markets and the economy are often symptoms to greater ethical and spiritual issues within a country. In the last 2 decades,\u00a0China has not only seen a great amount of prosperity come to its people but also a great revival in the Christian church. In this country of 1.7 billion people who are all striving to obtain that \u201cChina dream\u201d, poverty has soared and work place accidents and abuse ignored. Student suicides due to failing grades or not getting the job that family desired, have also increased. There is a prevailing thought that with so many people in this country, life is cheap and no one matters outside my family. China continues to grow and become an economic powerhouse in this world, but if the culture and spiritual climate doesn’t change, the cyclical downfall that inevitably takes place will occur as greed and selfishness take over.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBetween Riches and Poverty: Chinese Christian Business People\u201d.Shui, Huo. Chinasource.org. Accessed January 31, 2018<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation:The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time.<\/em> Kindle Edition. Boston, Beacon Press, 2001.161<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBetween Riches and Poverty: Chinese Christian Business People\u201d.Shui, Huo. Chinasource.org. Accessed January 31, 2018<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-asia-china-24923993<\/a>. Accessed January 31, 2018<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 https:\/\/reasonandmeaning.com\/2014\/09\/29\/confucius-and-human-nature\/<\/a> Accessed February 1, 2018.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/pluralism.org\/religions\/humanism\/humanist-tradition\/humanism-as-a-belief-system\/<\/a>. Accessed on February 1, 2018<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBetween Riches and Poverty: Chinese Christian Business People\u201d.Shui, Huo. Chinasource.org. Accessed January 31, 2018<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation:The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time.<\/em> Kindle Edition. Boston, Beacon Press, 2001.135<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ibid,65<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn China, doing business is hard; living a Christian life is harder; doing business while maintaining Christian faith is the hardest of all.\u201d[1] For several thousands of years, the Chinese feudal system has taught its citizens to despise business people; seeing them as distrustful. In recent decades, there have been campaigns for greater financial and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-16211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-polanyi","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/93"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16211"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16220,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16211\/revisions\/16220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}