The following is Blog number forty-six and is part of our ongoing Racial Reconciliation in America Series. It is entitled: The Root Cause of our Divisions – The Church of America – Part Three Capitalism and the Church.

RACIAL RECONCILIATION

The Root Cause of Our Divisions

The Church of America – Part Three

Capitalism and the Church

“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.” (Book of Acts Chapter 4 verse 32 : KJV)

[The following is taken from the book BECOME PERFECT 2007©]

[Capitalism is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as: “an economic system characterized by private or corporation ownership of capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision rather than by state control, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods that are determined mainly in a free market.” A capitalist is “a person who has capital esp. invested or to be invested in business <spare money is called capital its owner is a capitalist G.B.Shaw> Webster’s Dictionary.]

[Democracy is defined in Webster’s Dictionary in this fashion: “democracy noun \di-ˈmä-krə-sē\ : a form of government in which people choose leaders by voting : a country ruled by democracy : an organization or situation in which everyone is treated equally and has equal rights”]

[Socialism is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as “any of various theories or social and political movements advocating or aiming at collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and control of the distribution of goods. 2a: a system or condition of society or group living in which there is no private property <trace the remains of pure socialism that marked the first phase of the Christian community W.E.H. Lecky>.]

[Communism is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as: “a theory advocating elimination of private ownership of property, or capital b: a system or condition real or imagined in which goods are owned commonly rather than privately and are available as needed to each one in a unified group sometimes limited, sometimes inclusive, and often composed of members living and working together : a similar system preventing amassing of privately owned goods and assuring equalitarian returns to those working <Plato’s aristocratic communism><the communism of the early church groups>”] The definition goes on to suggest: “a classless society, a ruling government that essentially controls individuality.”

Now, the problem associated with all of these four organizational systems, of which one is an economic system, is that they involve humanity; as such are lead by human beings. Because they are human systems of organization they are all therefore and forever subject to corruption!

It is interesting to us that the only, form of governance with the free exercise of one’s Faith, particularly Christianity, is the Democracy. Democracies typically embrace the concept of individual freewill whether or not all of the people in them are actually free, at the beginning of the government, or as it matures.

As truly Democratic governments typically embrace capitalistic economies, as in the case of the United States; it is notable that they are also free, as regards the Christian Faith. Yet, the Christian Faith is the antithesis of Capitalism. The First Church economic system is revealed in the Book of Acts. The Christian Faith is to be modeled by the picture presented in the form of the First Church. That picture is communal conceptually; for in its original organizational construct regarding property, it is not individual ownership of property that is the preferred  paradigm and controlling principle. Unity is the practice.

The principle is one of wholeness as a group of people as opposed to being as an individual in a state of singular separateness. The picture is of a humanity that is to be of one mind: it however, does not mean without one’s own thoughts or interests; for it means to be in sync with the other units of the Faith as an individual. The First Church is in point of fact was a Collective!

This is the principle established by the Book of Acts as we see the unfolding of the First Church. This truth is of course heresy to any American Capitalist; yet, biblically it remains a true statement. The First Church described in the Book of Act is a spiritual reality. It is also the picture of a methodology and organizational construct for the ages that is meant to be followed by the Church. This picture is of an economic system based on the principles of individual work and achievement; with a protection, sharing and caring construct that is communal organizationally.

The picture of Acts is one of work accountability, asset creation and asset sharing. Really this is quite an amazing picture of how believers are meant to live as a unit and Body of Christ; it becomes very clear if one studies the Book in this context. The Christian Faith is a quite remarkable and powerful form of human governance if remaining pure and void of corruption. Therein lays the challenge.