If the younger generation has soured on capitalism it's because they've come of age at a time when the entry level situation is fairly dire and in some cases hopeless. You can skip college and remain on the lower end of the working class – an exception being those who find a skill in demand and escape neo-vassalage by means of becoming self-employed.
Or, you can take on massive debt which more or less enslaves
you to a job (an employer) as you are compelled to keep making your payments.
And by the time you're done you've undoubtedly taken on many more. It's a trap
and some young people have realised it. For many of that generation, adult life
properly speaking, an age of autonomy and social establishment is nigh on
impossible before one is in their thirties. The system is immoral and exploitative
and those who are living in the bottom tiers realise it and thus they're willing
to entertain other options, all the more when they begin to understand the
American system and its priorities, as opposed to the model of the social
democracies in Europe – which have elements that many Right-wing Americans
erroneously associate with Marxism.
That said, I don't believe many understand what socialism or
Marxism really are and like many on the American Left – these young people are
not remotely serious about fundamentally taking down and re-working the
American capitalist system. Politicians such as Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez who
label themselves 'socialist' certainly aren't. And all the fuss over Critical
Race Theory being Marxist is not only false but largely hype.
If, (according to Barna) the capitalist option is picked in
surveys where the labeling is removed then I can almost guarantee the questions
are rigged – as they often are in Right-wing surveys. The stuff produced by Christian
media outlets and organisations like the Heritage Foundation are travesties,
complete jokes. An honest person can't even answer the questions or take the
survey because they're so slanted and disingenuous. I'm not sure what species
of ethics are held by the Christians who work for such organisations because
they don't seem to have any, at least not ones found in the Scripture.
The other problem that I'm sure Barna is unaware of or
ignores is that capitalism looks like one thing on paper and something quite
different in real life. The same is absolutely true of Marxism. These ivory
tower systems don't work in the real world and as Christians we shouldn't
expect that they will. Neither of them are Christian and in fact there is no
'Christian' socio-political- economic system to be found this side of glory. Capitalism
on paper is the fantasy world of the libertarian, a chimeric pipe dream concocted
by theorists and economists. Capitalism in the real world produces very
different results and despite its claims, it fails to take into account that
man is fallen and thus it provides ideological and moral cover for a great many
sins. The market can't correct this fallen world reality, all the more when men
seek to manipulate it. That's what Madison Avenue is all about – making sure
the consumer cannot make informed decisions
nor think rationally about their purchase. Profit as an end creates its own
ethics and those engaged in its pursuit will lie, cheat, and manipulate the
market in order to get the result they want.
Capitalism's only promising context is that of a highly
localised economy where the buyers, producers, and marketers all must look one
another in the eye and are locally held accountable for what they produce. But
even such a scenario won't last long.
Marxist materialism is of course something that must be
rejected by Christians. But if the public at large is embracing materialist
secularism then education is not something that's going to fix it – at least
not if you're a Christian that believes in the gospel. Politicking and social
activism cannot replace the proclamation of the gospel and the work of the Holy
Spirit.
It's interesting how Right-wing folk will accept every
variation and permutation of Marxism as being true communism but they won't acknowledge that though atheism is
the position advocated by Marx, in practice communist regimes have largely
tolerated religion – party members excepted.
Party members must subordinate personal beliefs and interests
to the grand scheme and agenda of the polity but even in the capitalist
American system those that would 'join the party', i.e., step into the echelons
of the middle and upper classes are also (and always) forced to subordinate
religious concerns to the interests of ruling paradigm. Conscience is not
allowed in the realm of government and business, not if you want access to the
circles of security, status, and power. This is why those who are serious only
go so far and then almost invariably walk away. That's true in either system. Those
who remain may talk the talk but their lives and conduct demonstrate and reveal
something else – that they're sell-outs. Serious faithful Christians will almost
always end up as second class subjects regardless of the system – a point
emphasized over and over again in the New Testament, also a point rejected and
hated by today's Evangelicals.
For the most part Barna is falling into the old Evangelical
trap, the pronoun trap as I sometimes call it – confusing the Church's identity
with that of America, its state and society.
He's concerned about the people in American society who don't believe that God exists. What does
he propose to do about it? Laws? Would he return to the sacral orders of the
Magisterial Reformation and medieval Roman Catholicism? Education? Aside from
being little more than the implementation or arm of said legislation, can one
teach spiritual vitality through the academy? Can one forge a renewed mind by
means of a curriculum? Is the Holy Spirit's presence the result of a diploma?
They're lost. Preach the gospel. That's all you can do.
Otherwise let the dead bury their dead. Creating a religious veneer by means of
legislation and compulsion does nothing to help the Kingdom advance. It's a
gimmick akin to the Seeker Sensitive model. History demonstrates that such efforts
hinder the Church's growth and do far more harm in the end. All they create is
a false church that ultimately persecutes the true.
Marxism we're told does not believe human life is valuable.
Indeed it doesn't – at least in terms of practice. And yet Marxism arose in the
context of a capitalist order that treated human life as less than worthless.
Workers were expendables, throw-away commodities. They were worked to death (or
injury) and cast aside. The so-called Christian economic order treated people
as if they had no innate value – and usury-driven capitalism continues to
produce a functional materialist atheism even if its adherents profess
otherwise. Its ethic has been borne out once again in the Right-wing response
to Covid-19.
The social consequences of capitalism's Nineteenth Century 'Golden
Age' were enormous and played a huge role in the turn taken by the West in the
twentieth century. There have been critics of the Gilded Age and Capitalism
from every corner of the ideological and political spectrum – not just Marxism.
At one time it was social conservatives that were alarmed by and resistant to
capitalism.
Is he unaware of these realities?
If so, then he needs to quit speaking publically about these
issues.
Yes, God created us, but apart from Christ we're children of
wrath doomed to die eternally. His plans for us as individuals are (temporally
speaking) largely inscrutable and yet in the gospel we find comfort not in this
life but the next. The Bible may contain principles but it's primarily a revelation
of Jesus Christ – it's God revealing to us our sin and lostness in light of His
holiness. It proclaims the curse and doom fallen upon men but it also brings a
message of life and hope – and yet in that hope is a call to take up the cross
and to suffer for the glory of God and as a faith-proclamation to the world that
it has nothing to offer us, and is doomed. And for Christians, our task is not
to seek worldly power or success, all the more as our homes, treasure, and citizenship
are found not in this age but in the age to come.
Barna is wrong. The Bible does not provide us 'principles'
wherein we are to 'succeed' and 'thrive' in this world. Quite the contrary
we're told the world will hate us and we will be persecuted. We're called to
take up the cross and turn our backs on the world.
Barna is defining terms like 'succeed' and 'thrive' in
worldly, cultural terms. This is why the seeker movement which caters to and
affirms these cultural attitudes and expectations is so popular. It tickles the
ears of unregenerate people. It's a fake gospel with a fake cross.
It is at this point that the fullness of Barna's error is on
full display. His kingdom is the culture of America and his gospel is a capitalist-style
message catered to it. His critiques of Marxism are erroneous but more
important, the Madison Avenue Christianity he would proffer is largely a
counterfeit. It's mammonism and a call to lay up treasures on Earth. Marx would
build a Red Babel. Barna seeks a Babel topped with a cheap star-spangled cross
made in a sweatshop. Both are still manifestations of the same spirit and the
same failed world-oriented system.
Woe to those who would sit at his feet.