The first dogma of the market religion - the religion of Mammon and golden calf. Why your god needs reverence and protection from the society? Can't he defend and sustain himself?
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
Psalm 115, 4-8
You may remember the book of the prophet Amos, who going on 2800 years ago spoke out against, with words that sear and humble, the hollow prosperity and rampant materialism and seeking of profit at all costs that was going on in the northern kingdom. We do well to heed his words today, which I take from the KJV, the 8th chapter of the book of Amos, verses 4 through 14:
4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5 Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
7 The LORD hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their works.
8 Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord GOD, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day:
10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.
11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.
14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy god, O Dan, liveth; and, The manner of Beersheba liveth; even they shall fall, and never rise up again.
Verse 6 is particularly interesting:
6 That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
I have seen some versions that translate "the poor" in the first clause as "the upright", kind of like selling out the livelihoods of your fellow citizens for saving a few pennies on your bottom line. Likewise, selling out the needy for a pair of shoes, Guccis, perhaps? And finally, the "refuse" of the wheat, meaning the dregs, the poor-quality leftovers. Kind of like selling out the hollowed-out shells of factories closed down, to places like China, just like they did the old Rockwell plant in my town that used to make parts for the B-1 bomber. Precision, high-tech, military-capable hardware sold out for pennies on the dollar to a country that would just as soon see us ruined. But, that's okay, because it's the "free market", and is "how economics works". Right, just like how it is so great to sell your enemy the rope he needs to hang you.
1. Respect for private property is not what that Psalm is about. It is about idolatry.
2. Obviously, many capitalists are motivated by greed, which is idolatry.
3. I'm a Christian. Market economics is not Christianity. The values which drive capitalism are often antithetical to Christianity.
4. That said, the laws of economics are simply the empirical observations of how an economy functions to most efficiently allocate resources. What end that allocation is directed toward is a value judgement, outside economics and outside politics, in the religious life of that society. Our society is secular and materialistic.
5. Governments do not create or control values. They express values.
6. Any attempt by government to implant a value in the economic system which is not a value of the people prior to law will be circumvented by the population at large.
7. The American people are at a unique schizophrenic point in their history, when they, as owners (read: anyone with retirement funds) want corporate profits maximized yet as displaced workers they rail against maximizing corporate profits.
8. In any society not explicitly formed around religious values, profit will win. Always. It is an inexorable force because it is the gateway to all the vices.
9. America is not now organized around any religious value.
10. America will outsource jobs. Period.