Thursday, July 08, 2010

God Is Not Interested in Economics

Jordan J. Ballor, in a post at the Acton Institute Power Blog titled Reflections on Christianity and Economic Research, points to an essay penned by Judith M. Dean.  Dean is currently employed as an international economist, working for the Office of Economics, Research Division, U.S. International Trade Commission, and the essay Ballor points to is titled Being a Good Physician - Reflections on Christianity and Economic Research.  The essay is posted at the Intervarsity.org Following Christ website.

Upon reading Dean’s essay, Ballor offers these closing words.

Note here the vigorous sense of Christian advocacy in the public square, and how it is to be informed by solid economic, social, and historical research. Note too that the advocacy described is generally not that which ought to be pursued by the institutional church, but by Christians organizing themselves organically in civil society.

As a theologian often writing on economic and public policy matters, I heartily endorse Dean’s call for more sustained, careful, and intentional engagement of Christian economists on these matters.

I’ve read through Dean’s essay a number of times, today, and while I found her thoughts on the subject of Christians and economics interesting, if considered from a dogmatic Christianity viewpoint, it fails to inspire me, as an individual of faith, to consider her admonitions for Christian economists to seriously be considered.

In a sidebar quote from within the essay, which appears at the top of the page, left, readers will view this question.

What differences should we see in work done by Christian economists vs. those who do not profess the Christian faith?

The answer is a definitive, and emphatic, NONE.  There should be no difference.  Economics is neutral, and belongs to each and every individual, though this fact is basically unknown today because economics has been forcefully wrested from its praxeological reality by the State and cloaked in polylogical hyperbole, resulting in the current economic mess with which the world is contending.  Appeals to Heaven do not make this statement any less true, but they do make this post ring true.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/08 at 05:41 PM
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I’ve Got A Freedom Attitude

Just the other day, I posted a link to a Lee Harris essay titled The Spirit of Independence: The Social Psychology of Freedom.  I titled that post “So Who Owns You?” - An Attitude.

This morning, stopping by Claire Wolfe’s, I read Claire’s most recent post titled Thinking free, in which Claire references the movie The Shawshank Redemption, and expands on the subject of a freedom attitude.  Both Harris’ piece, and Claire’s essay, are attitude provoking reads.  You are free to consider reading them.

From Claire’s post.

I’ve always talked about how freedom begins with an attitude — with thinking free. Some people just aren’t interested in hearing that because it means they have to shift the blame from other people (their parents, the cops, bureaucrats, Congress) and take charge of their own lives. Others dismiss it as nonsense on pragmatic grounds — because it’s ridiculous to say anyone can be free while stuck in a gulag or living in a police state. Others just think that action is everything and that thinking free is merely a form of idleness.

Even people who understand that you can’t live free unless you think free have a lot of trouble maintaining that belief, day to day…

Yet you know and I know that virtually the only thing that stands between us and the complete triumph of tyranny is our attitude — followed by our actions. We must think free — then act free — according to our own lights, no matter what the rest of the world does. That is literally the only hope for overcoming tyranny.

I’ve got a freedom attitude.

Posted by John Venlet on 07/08 at 06:47 AM
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