Right On Business

In the second part of our discussion on religion's role in America, we look at Christianity vis a vis capitalism and the free market. Differentiating capitalism from the free market, we explore the inherent alignment between Christian freedom and free market principles while wrestling with the inherent tensions between Christian doctrine and capitalism as we know it today. We argue that while Christianity seems to support free market principles, it is not immutably linked to conservatism, Republicanism, or capitalism. We conclude that Christians should embrace the concept of free markets, but should feel at liberty to voice their concern over the direction of modern American capitalism, conservative politics, and the Republican party. Two decades ago, all of these ideological threads were tightly interwoven, but the state of our society and economy today has demonstrated that they can and should be decoupled.