None of God’s Business?

All Articles | more by Mark Greene | Work

Mark Greene reflects on the role of business

Every age has a dominant institution – the one that drives all the others. In the Middle Ages it was the Church. In the nineteenth century it was government and in the 21st century it’s business. As Anita Roddick, founder of the Bodyshop put it:

 “I don’t think that anyone would argue that business now dominates the world’s centre stage. It is faster, more creative, adaptable, efficient and wealthier than many governments … So in terms of power and influence you can forget the Church and forget politics, too. There is no more powerful institution in society than business. It is more important than ever before for business to assume a moral leadership in society.”

Roddick may overstate her case but in the West business interests have a huge impact on every aspect of society and determine to a large extent the direction of much scientific research, the shape of our education, our immigration policy, our transport policy and much of the content of our media, since increasingly most media exist primarily to deliver audiences to advertisers.

Still, business, particularly big business, has a bad image in the church and indeed in mainstream society. Often, profit is seen as an inherent evil and capitalism as a malicious force that exploits the poor, ravages the environment, destroys the relational dynamics of our society, corrodes our characters and hollows our souls. Not a bad place to be salt and light and leaven then?

In reality, business matters hugely to people’s well being. It certainly matters if you want to see people fed, people housed, people educated because it is business that generates the wealth and expertise to meet such basic goals. It certainly matters if you want to see a better world and it matters hugely if we take God’s injunction through Jeremiah to pray for the prosperity of the city, to want the best for people:

“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:7)

Business is a branch of work and therefore shares its overall goals. Work is given to provide for people’s needs and growth in mind, body, soul and spirit, to care for the resources of the earth and release and develop its potential for the benefit of people (Genesis 2:15) – to God’s glory. Business, like work, then, is one of the instruments God uses to create a context for human flourishing – look at the context God creates for Adam and Eve in Genesis 1 – a world in which life can be celebrated in contentment, peace, relational generosity and material sufficiency. As such, business exists to provide goods and services that should enhance human life in a way that is consistent with God’s plans for all. In many instances business has done a wonderful job.

There is, after all, no poverty alleviation without wealth generation. The poor do not primarily need handouts, they need better jobs. Certainly, globally, NGOs and churches and state aid have made some contribution to the alleviation of poverty, but the most effective poverty alleviation has been effected by business. Globally, more people have been lifted out of dollar a day poverty in China in the last twenty years by the growth of business than by all the aid sent into Africa over the last 50.

Indeed, whilst big business is certainly not immune from critique exploitation in sub-Saharan Africa, the primary causes of poverty in Africa have not been exploitation by multi-nationals but the failure to create conditions in which business can flourish. After all, war, government corruption and an AIDs epidemic are arid soil for the kind of large scale investment that creates jobs. Indeed, the private sector is increasingly seen by world leaders as the key to solving issues of underdevelopment.

Obviously, not all business is good business. Increasingly, however, research demonstrates the relevance of Christian values to profitability and employee satisfaction – honesty to build trust, higher purpose to maintain motivation, forgiveness to build morale and reduce stress, love to create generous relationships and the fair distribution of wealth. Business can help make God’s world better. And the Gospel can make business better for God’s world.

Mark Greene

This article was published in the EA’s Idea magazine and is reproduced by kind permission.