For the last year, Religious Right groups have been actively promoting the book “Money, Greed, and God: Why Capitalism Is the Solution and Not the Problem” by Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Jay Richards.
In it, Richards lays out the Biblical case for unfettered free market deregulation and claims that minimum wage laws, fare trade practices, and foreign aid are all unbiblical. Richards asserts that it was God who created the free market system and therefore every result of that free market system is “a stunning example of God’s providence over a fallen world,” meaning that there is nothing wrong with inequality because it is all part of God’s master plan.
Today, Richards was the guest on James Robison’s television program where Robison positively gushed over his book, calling it “as important of a read as anything anybody is going to read right now apart from the Bible.” During the interview, Robison claimed that our country will never work its way out of its economic problems until Christians who understand that “godliness is the solution” are put in charge:
This is my firm conviction. If the church of Jesus Christ does not stand up today and become the light that not only pierces the darkness but illuminates the way, out of the despair and out of the quote ‘recession/depression,’ whatever you want to call it, if we don’t take the lead and put principle leaders in place who understand basic laws of poverty and wealth, who understand the damage that greed can impart to the whole community and all of society, but understand that government is not the solution – godliness is the solution. I don’t think we’re going to solve the economic crisis without having a kingdom mentality in the lives of Christians where God rules in our heart. You quote [Abraham] Kuyper, a Dutch theologian philosopher who said there is not one square inch on planet Earth that Christ hadn’t said “mine” over. That means we’re the overseers of it right? That means we’re the stewards of what God has entrusted to our watch care.
