As my colleague in the Lutheran faith Daniel Suhr already completed a celebratory Reformation Day post earlier today, I have to decided to be somewhat more reflective with mine and consider the current direction of the church (in both a Lutheran and general sense).
What has happened to the Parable of the Talents in modern church doctrine? I am an ELCA Lutheran that has attended a number of Methodist, WELS, Catholic and Jewish services and I can only remember a fleeting reference to what Rev.Sirico of the Acton Institute calls “the implicit spiritual dimension of enterprise”. The most recent memory I have of this is a sermon I heard shortly after moving to Seattle on money as the root of all evil. No mention was made of the necessity to care for ones self or ones posterity at all, the sermon, like many I have heard before, attacked “greedy” business people and they very concept of wealth (not to mention SUVs) with no caveats on the need to multiply what God has given us with our God-given talents.
Rev.Sirico, in one of my favorite articles, The Entrepreneurial Vocation, describes the Church’s and society’s attacks on the entrepreneur as such:
“Despite the laudable attitude of popular culture against prejudice of any form, there remains one group upon which an unofficial open season has been declared: the entrepreneur! One sees vivid evidence of this prejudice at nearly every turn, particularly in terms of popular forms of communication. Consider, for example, classic literary works (say, of Dickens or Sinclair Lewis), television programs (such as Dallas or Dynasty), films ( China Syndrome, Wall Street, and some versions of A Christmas Carol), cartoon strips (such as Doonesbury and Dilbert), and even sermons in which entrepreneurs are depicted as greedy, immoral, and cutthroat.”
Why do we need to take this single-minded approach to creating value for others and for ourselves through innovation? Are business people not doing their part to make society a better place with new products and services? Why do many church leaders focus only on creating moral value through donations and volunteering rather than concentrating on creating value period?
Many would say that religious leaders need to concentrate on volunteer value creation and the negative aspects of money because they say that people would not give or volunteer otherwise. If these same leaders espoused the innovative creation of value, whether profit motivated or not, by every member of society, many of society’s problems could be solved at a lower cost eliminating much of the need to volunteer.
This example from Rev.Sirico helps to illustrate what I am saying.
” On one occasion a gentleman called to let me know that he had just finished reading an article of mine in Forbes. It was, as he explained, both a shocking and emotional experience. Shocking, because in all of his Catholic school education and regular church attendance, he had never before heard a priest speak insightfully of the responsibilities, tensions, and risks inherent in running a business. Was there, he wondered, no spiritual component at all in what occupied so much of his life? In reading the article he felt affirmed–for the first time–by a religious leader at the point in his life where he spent most of his time and effort: in the world of work.
This man represents many others, whose stories are too numerous to recount here. Very often they are relatively successful individuals with deep moral and religious convictions. However, each experiences a moral tension, not because what they do is somehow wrong, but because religious leadership has usually failed to grasp the dynamics of their vocations and thus provide relevant moral guidance and affirmation. “
Is it surprising to anyone that church attendance is declining when there is such a wide gap between the clergy and so many of the churchgoers that come from a value-creating mindset?
It’s time for a continuation of our reformation, a fundamental shift in the clergy’s attitude toward entrepreneurs and the innovations that they bring about to better humanity. If I could, I would nail a copy of The Entrepreneurial Vocation on every church door. I have emailed a copy to my pastor, feel free to do the same.
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I think the consistent message across all faiths is “do the right thing”. Is it right for someone to make millions by taking advantage of people? I think that is universally accepted as bad. However, it’s the exploitation that makes it wrong. It’s not the money. Actually, if you take a literal translation of the Bible then the money itself is the bad thing. The Bible, of course, says a rich man has as much chance of getting into heaven as a camel has of getting through a needle’s eye.
The message of the Bible is to be selfless. The traditional lesson is, it is OK to innovate and make money, as long as you use the money to do God’s work.
I would like to modify that message, or perhaps re-interpret the one I’ve heard, and propose that there is an acceptable level of prosperity. The level is not determined by a dollar amount, but is instead determined by how you earn it. As long as you earn without exploiting people and live a lifestyle that reflects God’s will, then you should be good to go. However, that camel thing leaves me a little unsettled.
as to attendance, there’s been a sincere local shift in my local parish(es) — there’s two places i would typically go based on whomever my company is at the time, catholic by the way and suburban — which has leaned towards the equivalent of standing next to an angry street person and having him ask you for change for 90 minutes straight and you having none. it’s almost like the leaders in the church community look out into the couple hundred who come to masses and know that no one beyond the 1st couple rows of old people actually care or would do anything with a message of love and service to the community.
and then i go back to law school, and my devoutly jewish dean is giving a speech on the first day of classes that i hadn’t heard since my old pastor from grade school was sent on to another community: an actual message of love and service that didn’t exactly sound like going through the motions.
this last point is more to the 1st comment above
so when it comes down to it, i’d pinpoint one factor in attendance drops… besides the music being utterly boring and uninspired… to my generation of people feeling no need whatsoever to sit in a church where the priest and other leaders aren’t saying anything and are garnishing doctrine and general rules we’ve heard millions of times. in its stead, add the messages of service and love. there’s thousands of young adults looking to crap organizations to do some peace and love hippy crap, when they should be getting it in their church community but aren’t.
there’s no need for me to explore the insanity of having a non-denominational church nearby, with priests who aren’t really ordained by any faith i’m aware of, and do not call anyone to service, or to actually do anything but hang around in this wealthy, upscale suburb, eating donuts and other snacks one or two days a week and watching TV through an obscenely large satellite provided tv… where PPV is no problem if you ask nicely. the money is costs to build such a thing could certainly go to someone who needs it
Perhaps the parable of the talents isn’t talked about much these days because it can be viewed as an example of Jesus advocating murder. i.e. “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.” (Luke 19:27) Obviously it was the wealthy merchant dude saying that line, and it was a parable, but I think we’re supposed to read the merchant dude as representing Jesus or God in the kingdom of heaven. Like, I think it’s saying that God gives us gifts and shit (some say the talents represent “the word of God”), and we have the free will to use our shit (or the word of God) however we want. But eventually we’re going to have to account for how we used these gifts (or spread the word) before God/Jesus. And if we do it in a way that Jesus doesn’t like, we should be brough before him and murdered. At least that’s how I read it.