Chris Bourne’s essay on the subject of Mammon is really helpful. I think sometimes we find it difficult to see the difference between God’s offer and that of Mammon. It often appears, many times with the approval of the church, that the two are really not so different. Or perhaps we need only reject the ‘unrighteous’ aspects of Mammon. I guess we get to define those unrighteous bits and they shift a little from culture to culture and over time.
I try to remember two things when I begin to get afraid that God will fail me this time in my need. I remember that the system that defines Mammon is based on the assumption of scarcity that requires inequality and greed. And it will ultimately theologise some sort of justification for itself (Darwinian economics of culling the weak). And that God’s Kingdom ways are based on the assumption of abundance (as provided by God who can surely break the ‘laws’ of physics that He created i.e. loaves and fish) and that leads to generosity, fearlessness, and sharing. Kingdom economics are based on sharing with all who we know as neighbour, which actually includes our enemies.
Martin believes we must not miss this moment and I agree, for the lives of millions if not billions are at risk under the rule of Mammon. There is an article in the Nation online magazine that speaks of how corporations have corrupted the environmental movement. They do this by funnelling large amounts of funds to environmental organizations in exchange for those organizations pursuing agendas favourable to the corporations. While I don’t rely on environmental organizations to save us (at this point really, I mean really, only God can do that) it is disheartening to see greed govern once again, to the point of destroying so much. Here is a quote from the article by Johann Hari:
So it has come to this. After decades of slowly creeping corporate corruption, some of the biggest environmental groups have remade themselves in the image of their corporate backers: they are putting profit before planet. They are supporting a system they know will lead to ecocide, because more revenue will run through their accounts, for a while, as the collapse occurs. At Copenhagen, their behavior was so shocking that Lumumba Di-Aping, the lead negotiator for the G-77 bloc of the world’s rainforest-rich but cash-poor countries, compared them to the CIA at the height of the cold war, sabotaging whole nations.
The current economic system of Mammon is set up with an explicit legal definition that makes corporations into gods. Legally, corporations are more than humans, they are super-humans. Thus their disdain for human life and all that is good and important, including care of the earth for future generations. This super-human god exists only to own and exploit resources, make profit even if it destroys the resource, and to get rid of all those who would oppose it. It is a totalitarian system. It has many ways of going about its tasks and Naomi Klein’s book The Shock Doctrine is instructive in this.
The answer will be more and more of us forsaking this worship, willing to risk our lives and livelihoods on God’s way. The current crash and economic shake up confronts us with this option. The Kingdom is about wanton sharing, a risk-taking that defies all rational belief because it sees the God who made everything as loving. It isn’t about living more simply or differently within the system. In Christ we are removed from the system and every relational transaction takes place under His authority and in obedience to Him. Economics, from giving to someone who asks to directing our funds to Kingdom projects, is always a relational transaction. This is an exciting moment as more and more people are disenchanted with Mammon. This god has failed precisely because ultimately it can only destroy in its hatred for life. I believe God has amazing things coming up as He continues to shake this earth and its destructive systems. They are good things that will challenge us to the core. Thank God, He loves us so much He will take the time to challenge us and call us further into His ways.
Here is a link to the article in the Nation:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100322/hari/single


We need believers who…
I recently watched the film Shawshank Redemption for the second time. Such a profound message, and I understand why it is such a favourite film of Neil Cole’s (read Organic Leadership). Hope of life beyond the four walls of prison being what keeps people alive and what is viewed as very dangerous by others. People who have a status inside the institutionalised world, but cannot survive outside it.
I said to Gayle – we so need believers who are making these kind of films, releasing a God perspective to the world. Film-making is a task for believers. They don’t need to make a film with John 3:16 appearing somewhere in it, just these type of messages.
Then I paused and began to think. Do we need that? Would that be the best? Maybe there are other ways we need to think.
Christian filmmakers, Christian writers, Christian politicians, Christian… yes please, and into every area of life and influence. But also given that the kingdom is not top-down, that we are to be salt in the earth, maybe there is another approach:
maybe it is not so much we need believers who are making the films as we are to be those who shape what films are being made. Is it our responsibility to change what is being produced through our prayers, lives of obedience, pouring out our lives? Maybe not taking the top of the mountain, but influencing the shape of that mountain?
I love the verse:
Subtle messages in a film, leaving people to wrestle with what they are seeing is maybe more God’s way than films made by believers.
We need both. But we really need people who take responsibility. We might not have the ability to get a place of influence; the doors might be shut to us (after all there is a beast loosed that without its mark we can find ourselves restricted as we follow Christ); but we are called to steward God’s gifts to humanity.
Success means we are the ones who did it; effectiveness means that God was able to do something through our co-operation.
So to a season of good films.