Reading: Transcript - Critical Equality Theory

Henry - We're back. So, Topic number four, critical equality theory.  

Steve- Number one, everything relates to equality. Number two, those with the  power are use their power to keep those who do not have the power from the  goodies of life of life. Current social manifestations of this whole critical equality  theory are gender equality, pay and job related equality issues. And probably the biggest topic, at least in the United States these days is socialism versus free  enterprise.  

Henry - So, the critical equality theory, in many ways, is a economic theory, a lot  of philosophy involved in that. But it's something that becomes a trope, the trope meaning a kind of a pattern of analysis. So whenever you can make something  

like an economic thing, it even becomes higher, important thing to talk about, if  you can establish that somebody is gaining more financially in this situation or  less in that situation, right.  

Steve - So it's not just economics, it's the fairness of the economic situation, the  equality issue is about fairness and unfairness. And we see this right away in the Bible, in Genesis 4:5. This is the first family the Lord looked with favor on Abel  and his offering. But on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. So what does that mean? It means  fairness or unfairness is been an issue since since the beginning, since this is  right after the fall, this is the very next chapter after the fall, and it's about  fairness and unfairness. And some of the evidence of that issue being  manifested is anger. Right now, do we have a culture right now that has anger?  Anger is being shown and displayed at every quarter and there's this sense that  things aren't fair. They're not equal. Right? So in the big scheme, is sort of this  socialism and free enterprise, and socialism is, is trying to be fair, equality. But  then who pays? Free Enterprise, there's competition, there's potential reward  tied to what you do. But it sometimes seems to lead to inequality. So for  example, the church. 

Henry – The church! How does the church have anything to do with this?  

Steve - In some ways church is, is sort of on the socialistic side, because we  everyone comes to church, everyone gets an equal seat, right? Everyone gets  the same heat. And it doesn't matter if you pay a lot into the collections plate or  you don't pay a lot, they all get the same sermon, they all get the same services. When you join the Bible study, everyone gets, it feels like that, which is a good  thing. Yes. Heaven seems like it might be more of a socialist place. I mean, what are we going to be competing for bigger clouds are? Now there is that passage  that talks about you'll be rewarded for what you've done. Right? And so but we 

don't have we have any no idea how that works? Are we going to be playing  sports with you better than I am, I don't know. And then if we move on the  example of brothers, and they're allowance, so this is, this is sort of on the on  the more free enterprise side, or on how complicated it can be. So if fairness is  sort of the goal, so I have two children, okay, two sons. And let's say I'm going to give them an allowance but they have to do work to get their allo wance, so they have to do so much work around the place to get their allowance. Now, I have  one son, who works really hard all week. I got another son who doesn't do a  thing, right. Okay. So if I am to treat them equally, what does that mean? Do I  pay them? Right? And if I paid both of them, Am I treating them equally? No,  because one worked and one didn't.  

Henry: We're back. So, topic number four, critical equality theory.

Steve: Number one, everything relates to equality. Number two, those with power use their power to keep those without power from the goodies of life. Current social manifestations of this whole critical equality theory include gender equality, pay and job-related equality issues. And probably the biggest topic, at least in the United States these days, is socialism versus free enterprise.

Henry: So, critical equality theory, in many ways, is an economic theory, with a lot of philosophy involved. But it's something that becomes a trope, meaning a kind of pattern of analysis. So whenever you can make something like an economic thing, it even becomes a higher, more important thing to talk about, especially if you can establish that someone is gaining more financially in this situation or less in that situation, right?

Steve: So it's not just economics; it's about the fairness of the economic situation. The equality issue is about fairness and unfairness. And we see this right away in the Bible, in Genesis 4:5. This is the first family—the Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering, he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. What does that mean? It means fairness or unfairness has been an issue since the beginning, since this is right after the fall, the very next chapter after the fall, and it's about fairness and unfairness. And some of the evidence of that issue being manifested is anger. Right now, do we have a culture that has anger? Anger is being shown and displayed at every quarter, and there's this sense that things aren't fair, they're not equal. Right? So, in the big scheme, it's sort of this socialism and free enterprise. Socialism is trying to be fair, to create equality. But then, who pays? In free enterprise, there's competition, there's potential reward tied to what you do. But it sometimes seems to lead to inequality. For example, the church...

Henry: The church! How does the church have anything to do with this?

Steve: In some ways, the church is sort of on the socialistic side because everyone comes to church, everyone gets an equal seat, right? Everyone gets the same heat. It doesn't matter if you pay a lot into the collection plate or you don’t, they all get the same sermon, they all get the same services. When you join the Bible study, it feels like that, which is a good thing. Yes. Heaven seems like it might be more of a socialist place. I mean, what are we going to be competing for, bigger clouds? Now there is that passage that talks about you'll be rewarded for what you've done. Right? But we have no idea how that works. Are we going to be playing sports with you better than I am? I don't know. And then if we move on to the example of brothers, and their allowance, so this is, this is sort of on the more free enterprise side, or on how complicated it can be. So if fairness is the goal, so I have two children, okay, two sons. And let's say I'm going to give them an allowance but they have to do work to get their allowance, so they have to do so much work around the place to get their allowance. Now, I have one son who works really hard all week. I got another son who doesn't do a thing, right. Okay. So if I am to treat them equally, what does that mean? Do I pay them both? And if I paid both of them, am I treating them equally? No, because one worked and one didn't.

Henry: You're almost treating the one that didn't work unfairly. Yeah, the one that did work is being treated unfairly, right?

Steve: So what's fair and what isn't fair, right? Good question. It's sometimes hard to figure out what's good and what's bad with all this.

Henry: Even with the church, we talked about there being a socialistic side to it, but really, it's just the equal opportunity for grace. Anyone's invited, but I can't give someone salvation. I don't have the power to do that; that comes through their seizing the day and receiving Christ into their heart, right? So it's a dance between opportunity and capability. But I still can't do it for someone.

Steve: No. But you know, salvation can seem kind of socialist because everyone is accepted, right? For the opportunity, though. If I did a whole host of really horrible things, and you only did half of those things, we both get the same grace, we're treated the same, even though we don’t deserve it.

Henry: If we received Jesus, received the gospel. What we're talking about here is, it's complicated, in some ways, to try to figure this all out.

Steve: It's a dance between the two. And right now, we have a world that goes in one way or the other, right? And we don't know how to dance.

Henry: Well, I think too, that capitalism, free enterprise, socialism — both of us are philosophers that studied this long and hard about competing worldviews. Capitalism came out of the industrial age in England. There were very wealthy barons who made a lot of money and then there were sweatshops. And then the capitalism really was such an opportunity; free enterprise, capitalistically interpreted, spread all over the globe of the English empire; they said, the sun never set on the British Empire, and capitalism spread everywhere in the world. But then Marxism — Marx, who was himself German, saw all that in England or London and whatnot. He saw the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and there's a conflict between them. And part of this, and then he had a very Marxist materialistic understanding of this whole question. And he basically thought one group was dominating the other. And yet, that even comes today, where you have a new bourgeoisie today, who were the source now shifting to, in the mix a little, put a little salt and pepper in the race issue in there. And you can say, white men, like you and me, are basically the new bourgeoisie who are persecuting other — I mean, you can see the whole theory. And I know that but we referenced earlier, these are just kind of fringe theories in the 1990s. And today, many people really are into some of these theories more.

Steve: And there's a dilemma between the two systems in free enterprise capitalism. There's a lot of competition, and there are winners and losers. So then you end up with losers in society. On the socialism side, they're trying to give everyone something equal, even though they didn't work for it, right, and you got people. And it's like entitlements, you know, so the reward system, which is the capitalist system, you work hard, you get rewarded for what you do. Socialism tries to honor everyone, regardless of what they did, or they didn't do. And there's something good about all of those things.

Henry: Like the strength of entitlements — many of you are on full disability in America. Now, many of you are in Africa, and you're just getting by because you don't have that entitlement that comes in America or in Europe, right? So even while we're here, we can kind of poke the bear on either of them. But we see a lot of conflict over where someone stems from some of these rights.

Steve: And in our country now, there's a big fight over these two systems and in the world, we've had conflicts over all these ranges, right? It's created wars over these issues. So let's talk about what can grace theory do to help us out of this? How does Grace work? The fairness of a reward is based on what you do. So that's like the law and free enterprise. So a law would be if you do this, then this is the good thing that happens.

Henry: Right. So that's just to fairness or reward based upon what you do. So what you're saying there is, obviously, if you earn it, you can keep it and usually get more of it. And the person that didn't do it shouldn't get any of it. I mean, on one level, strict capitalism.

Steve: That's how games are played, right? If you are playing soccer, or what the world calls football, if you kick the ball well, and you pass it to your friend, and he scores, you get a goal, right? They won't give it to you for free. You gotta kick it in there, or you don't get the reward. And if suddenly, someone in the crowd could award a team a goal for doing nothing, the game would fall apart; no one would come to watch. Okay, let's move on. The unfairness of being forgiven, regardless of who you are, and what you've done, see that the grace for all that feels more like church, or like forgiveness, right, because you're forgiven, doesn't matter who you were or what you've done. It has nothing to do with your reward, because you don’t deserve any reward, but you got a reward anyway. Right?

Henry: Because none of us deserve salvation. Right? Okay, so I see where that can feel. Right.

Steve: So number three, when you receive grace, you know, you don’t deserve it. You don't have it coming to you. No one owes it to you. So you tend to respond to grace in a humble, thankful, service to God, you take responsibility for your life.

Henry: Let me get my mind around it; you're saying that it's either one or two. It's not called capitalism, or opportunism. Nor is it entitlement, where you're saying, really, it's a great gift. But once you receive that gift, you become a minister of service out of gratitude, right? And you actually take responsibility to know that you could not pay for your own sin, and you can't save yourself.

Steve: I think the reason why we have this struggle in the world over these two topics, like why doesn't one just go away? Right and good question.

Henry: But we keep battling over these things. Because there's a measure of truth to both of them. Right? And but, but when we emphasize only one, then like, it hits the rocks, you're in a boat, you're gonna hit the rocks, because if you emphasize just capitalism or free enterprise, and your reward is in what you do. Then what happens is the downtrodden or the people who don't have opportunity, or the people who don't have the advantage, they get taken advantage of by the people that have an advantage. And usually, the people that have an advantage don't see that they have an advantage. They think they've earned it, but you've earned it because you had great parents who taught you great things, and then you ended up earning, right.

Henry: Which is a good thing. We can say that the gift from the Lord is a good thing and a gift to your family. However, you're making a good point, if you didn't have that, you'd feel cheated, right?

Steve: What do you have that you haven't been given by God? So if you have that attitude, so that's the attitude when you put them both together, that in some ways, I need the free gift of salvation, my sin forgiven as much as anybody, right? I am, I am in need, just like anybody on the planet, right? And once I accept that, and see that, now I'm more in the capitalist, free enterprise mode. Okay, and I want to serve God, I want to take responsibility for my actions. It doesn't want to give back to others. So it's interesting that once you receive in some ways a socialist gift. I’d become more free enterprise. To some more activist in sharing the opportunity.

Henry: But first, I received something that I did not deserve. Thank God out of his riches and glory, sent his son to die for my sins, and to give those riches to me. I received them by pure grace, critical grace theory.

Steve: And it's really the heart of the gospel. Right. The gospel has Law and Grace together. Right. There’s no point in having Grace if there wasn't a law that I didn't break in the first place. So they go together. And I think in ministry, you're gonna have people that are on one side of the fence or the other. And your hard and fast, capitalist, free enterprise people will not always see the gray side of things. In fact, one of our mentors, Rich DeVos wrote a book, I think Compassionate Capitalism that capitalism by itself was not enough. That this compassionate, I think what he's getting out there is that at the very heart of who we are, is compassion. And because we received something, we receive the compassion of God, we can now take responsibility for our lives, more free enterprise?

Henry: Well, we are promoting the ministrybiz curriculum that says, really, we're all ministers, and the biz side of ministry is to share in the name of Jesus Christ, our ministry, but be okay with free enterprise, right? And not make them so mutually exclusive. What about ministry? Let's talk about that a second. So your ministry in this current day and age has such chaos and division over this subject? Maybe you minister to those who have less. So, you know, the narrative everywhere, that the rich out there are controlling you, and there's only a limited amount of resources. That's another fascinating thing, that this creation has a limited amount of resources. But so how would you minister in those

Steve: You know I was in the Philippines for a year long ago. We were involved in the whole music program. And the people didn't have Christian songs in their own language. And they wanted to write songs in English. And we said, No, you have to write in your language. And when they took pride in what they had done. So in other words, the first thing, I think, what is giving people the grace, okay, you don't have but but I believe in you, I believe you have something to offer. And that's more of that free enterprise. So, yes, I accept you as you are where you're at, right. But I believe where you're at that God can do something.

So now, once they and we discovered to that, that when people had a night of great walk with God, even though they were poor, even though they didn't have opportunities, once they had a sense of I'm a child of God, and I have gifts that I can do, then they did. So they were nothing. And then you gave them a sense that, you know, it doesn't matter who you are, or what background you come from, you are accepted, you are loved, you are forgiven, you are a child of God, you have gifts and abilities, then they responded with this sort of free enterprise mentality,

Henry: they took pride in the gift that God gave them what they could come out. Now, I also know it like for Christian Leaders Institute, many very generous, wealthy Christians, like Philemon in the New Testament, the thing that, that when I ministered to them, and I know the ones that give, they have great passion for the kingdom of God, they know to one who's been given much, much is expected. And as a minister, we can relate to the rich or the poor. In Steve and I, in our various travels have been to some of the poorest slums of the world, and ministered in so different, or the most wealthy places, and situations we've been prior to, but the human condition or a human condition, right? All need grace, all need Grace equally. And to the one group that we ministered to, we, we expect, if you've been given much much is expected to a group that have little we're expect that to what is given much is expected.

Steve: And because you are now discovering you're a child of God, you don't even know what you have. Right? You're thinking of yourself here but really, God has blessed you in so many ways that you don't even know yet. Where and

Henry: where we reject the Marxist understanding is that everything about material and money does not make you a valuable child of God and the envy of comparing monetary gain or loss dehumanizes you as an image bearer of God. Well, very interesting topic.