{"id":308,"date":"2014-02-21T00:26:00","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=308"},"modified":"2014-08-12T22:11:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T22:11:00","slug":"capitalism-and-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/capitalism-and-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitalism and Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

I appreciate that Weber\u2019s book, The Protestant ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism,<\/em> approaches capitalism from a Christian perspective. The focus of the creation of capitalism was a basic cornerstone for human rights. Weber points out that capitalism is not from the age of Enlightenment, which took place in the 1800s, but from the \u201cPuritan Anglo-American tradition<\/em>.\u201d[1]<\/a> \u00a0Many tend to look at capitalism through the impact that it has on government and society. \u00a0History has shown that capitalism advanced society and brought about both positive and negative change. Society pushes government and businesses to expand and grow capitalism in order to fulfill the needs and wants of the individual. \u00a0Then, it is the individual who pushes the market to provide goods and services that make life convenient and pleasurable. \u00a0Looking at capitalism from a secular aspect, capitalism doesn\u2019t consider the ethical boundaries or social responsibility with regards to wages or quality of life for the people who produce products or services that societies demand.<\/p>\n

Weber approaches capitalism from \u201cthe character of religion\u201d and he looks at the way religion and capitalism intertwine within society.[2]<\/a> \u00a0When one understands that capitalism was developed to help society, it drives them to act in a more ethically responsible manner within their business endeavors.\u00a0\u00a0 I believe that the church needs to better address that it is intricately responsible for how it operates within the model of capitalism. \u00a0\u00a0Too many churches place little value on running the business side of the church efficiently.\u00a0 Further, many churches tend to follow society\u2019s practice of: \u201cwhen we don\u2019t gain immediate benefit or results, then there is no value and we cancel programs.\u201d\u00a0 The church needs to be ethical in all of its business transactions, but needs to also balance this by remembering the faith component and responsibility it has to better society.\u00a0 We are starting to see more and more private sector organizations give back to the communities in which they operate, without an expectation for anything in return.\u00a0 Where the church used to be leading the way in this area, private sector businesses are now stepping up.\u00a0 While we should all be practicing in this manner, many churches are failing in this regard.\u00a0 As an executive pastor, one of my primary responsibilities is to ensure best practices and standards are followed with regards to the church\u2019s finances. \u00a0There are too many times when I have to push back to the pastoral team, board or individuals because they are not focusing on \u201cthe right thing to do\u201d in a specific scenario.<\/p>\n

There is a situation right in another local church where a pastor has not been operating in an ethical manner within his particular church. \u00a0This has caused many of the church members to leave, he has been removed from the church, and there are now civil and criminal charges pending against him. This type of activity demonstrates to the secular world around us that the church is corrupt and this hampers the witness that the church has to bring people to Christ.\u00a0 Christ talked about money more than he talked about heaven or hell in the New Testament. \u00a0Jesus mentioned wealth, gold, or silver twenty-give times in the Gospels. One in every seven parables dealt with accumulating wealth or riches.<\/p>\n

Richard<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Excerpt From: Weber, Max. \u201cThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.\u201d iBooks. https:\/\/itun.es\/us\/unPvv.l<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a> Excerpt From: Weber, Max. \u201cThe Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.\u201d iBooks. https:\/\/itun.es\/us\/unPvv.l<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I appreciate that Weber\u2019s book, The Protestant ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, approaches capitalism from a Christian perspective. The focus of the creation of capitalism was a basic cornerstone for human rights. Weber points out that capitalism is not from the age of Enlightenment, which took place in the 1800s, but from the \u201cPuritan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"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":[2,11],"class_list":["post-308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp","tag-weber","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308","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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1632,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}