“The bright new financial system—for all its talented participants,
for all its riches—has failed the marketplace.”
Paul Volcker
Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve

The 1929 breakdown was at its roots, a moral breakdown. We were not living right. We had become extravagant. We had become intoxicated by the alluring notion that the royal road to riches did not lie through sweat but speculation. We discarded and scorned old-fashioned virtues.”
B.C. Forbes
Founder, Forbes Magazine
1932

“Moses took the bull calf which they had made, melted it,
ground it into fine powder, and mixed it with water.
Then he made the people of Israel drink it.”
Exodus 32:20

“God permits us in some ways to be co-creators in the continuing act of creation. There is, however, a stumbling block: egotism. The closed-minded attitude of those who think they know it all inhibits future progress…To some extent, we are all too self-centered. We overestimate the small amount of knowledge we possess. To be humble means to admit the infinity of creation and to search for one’s place in God’s infinite plan for creation. In a humble manner we can use our talents to explore the universe to discover future trends.”
Sir John M. Templeton
The Humble Approach

Curriculum Developed by The Rev. Dr. John Santosuosso
Dean of The Financial Seminary
Previously Chair of the History and Political Science Department,
Florida Southern College
Author of Shoestring Investing and Canada

“All those who believe themselves certain of their own salvation by means of letters of indulgences [or simply giving to the institutional church, often for buildings], will be eternally damned, together with their teachers.” —Thesis Number 32 of Martin Luther’s 95

1) Third millennium Christian stewards are to be taught that God chose Abraham as Abraham preferred the spiritual love of neighbor before the love of material wealth (Genesis 13:8–15). Therefore, the saying, “Nothing personal, it’s just business,” has no place in the lexicon of the Christian steward. That is, the pursuit of Holiness is not advanced by dual moralities for earning and giving; a period of life for pursuing success and another for pursuing significance; and other compartmentalized stewardship theologies.

2) The same are to be taught the impoverishing spiritual disorders of fear, greed, impatience and guilt are too often baptized by Christian authors and speakers, including ministers, often for the enrichment of institutions and/or the enrichment of the baptizers. 

3) Christian stewards are to be taught that in faithfulness to the Holy Scriptures rightly understood, Martin Luther preached that, “one who gives to the poor, or lends to the needy, does a better action” than those who legalistically give for the institutional purposes of the church, as “by works of love, love grows and a man becomes a better man” but by simply making donations for the operations of the institutional church, “he does not become a better man” (Theses Numbered 43 & 44).

4) Stewards are to be taught that when Moses, the Prophets and Christ spoke from the Mounts, they were speaking to the community of God, which was to serve communities beyond itself. Therefore, while the Holy Scriptures provide guidance and comfort to the individual, the individual should not return that most gracious favor by using the Scriptures in a selective fashion for solely his or her financial or political purposes.

5) In that light, stewards are to be taught that teachings of the Bible and Church concerning credit are for the general welfare of the community, broadly defined, and not to be used expediently for sole purpose of one’s own enrichment, such as the reduction of personal credit levels, as the poor of the Third World who are with us always often need loans to be productive. In general, as Christ taught on the Mount, the Bible demands that affordable, defined by the ability of the borrower to pay, credit be made for anyone in true need (Exodus 22:25 & Deuteronomy 15:1), defined with preference given to the needs of the borrower and not the wants of the lender. In addition, Scripture and Tradition clearly demand that loans that become truly burdensome, particularly through no negligence of the borrower, such as medical expenses, are to be as graciously forgiven as we ourselves hope our debts will be forgiven by God (Deuteronomy 15:7 & Luke 6:34).

6) Christian stewards are to be taught the Spirit of Moses in commanding the responsible management of wealth towards one’s neighbor, to the extent of capital punishment if regularly denied (Exodus 21:28); but also that Christ spiritualized that Law by essentially preaching to a world full of sinners totally dependent upon Grace the saying, “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.”

7) The same are to be taught a long-term commitment to short-term speculation is not the same as a long-term commitment to the virtue of patience in the prudent and sustainable development of wealth for neighbors as self. Therefore all uses of leverage, should be weighed by the motivation behind such, be it worthy and prudent productivity which enhances society in general, or imprudent greed, which only seeks to enrich the individual at the expense of a neighbor, economy and society.

8) All stewards, believers and non-believers, are to be taught to exercise wise discernment between those who would teach the holistic stewardship of the wealth of the Creator and those who would use biblical quotations to market products and services that largely enrich those quoting Scripture, at the expense of the faith of, and love between, all Christians and people of good will.

9) In the interests of unity of mind in the Church, stewards are to be taught that the use of qualified terms—such as “liberal Christian,” which indicates the influence of Greek classical thought, and “conservative Christian,” which indicates the influence of classical Roman thought—is most likely to cause confusion and division in the Church as to the Godly management of wealth. 

9.5) In summary, the Book of Acts confirms the establishment of a Christian community, yet to be perfected, of a socialism motivated by love, not to be confused with Karl Marx’s socialism motivated by the coercion of the State, and integrated with a moral market motivated by an ethical self-interest, rightly understood, not to be confused with Ayn Rand’s capitalism motivated by the greed of the individual. This is so that, as taught by Thesis Number 95: “And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations rather than through a false assurance of peace.” Amen. 

“Humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries—but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequality. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care or broad economic opportunity—reducing inequality is the highest human achievement.” —Bill Gates, 2007 Commencement Address at Harvard

“Ethics, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, is the affirmation that all men and women are alike creatures. There is only one ethic, one set of rules of morality and one code, that of individual behavior in which the same rules apply to everyone alike. Business ethics assumes that for some reason the ordinary rules of ethics do not apply to business.” —Peter Drucker

“The name ‘Moral Majority’ struck many Americans as arrogant and self-righteous. As Christian activist Ralph Reed once wrote, ‘If you say you’re moral, you’re saying others aren’t.’” —The Wall Street Journal, upon the death of Jerry Falwell

“It is possible to envision a time when evangelicals have the ‘consistent Christian perspective tools’ they require in this area of life. But it is probably best to expect Christian theology for life under modern high-tech capitalism to come mainly from where it now does—from Jewish, Catholic, Reformed and Lutheran sources, in which traditions exist for relating doctrines of creation to matters of redemption in a modern economic context.” —Professor John R. Schneider, Calvin College

“Socialism failed to deliver the bacon or the paradise. Capitalism delivered the bacon but not the paradise. Hence so much disenchantment with capitalism at the moment of its economic triumph. The problem proponents of the free market face today is this: How to bring capitalism back into harmony with deeply embedded religious ideals.”

Professor Robert Nelson, Forbes Magazine

The implosions of socialism in the Soviet Union and casino capitalism at Enron have resulted in a crisis in confidence in the world’s dominant forms of political economy. The losses have been so great that Prospect magazine has suggested: “The search for the third way must begin by rejecting all forms of political ideology.”

Perhaps we do need to reinvent the wheel. But that revolution would require additional expenses that might dwarf the losses to date. A more evolutionary “back to the future” approach might prove more enriching. For assuming we can believe three of the world’s most respected thinkers, America may not be as far from the Promised Land as many of us now believe. That is largely due to our Judeo-Christian heritage in general, and in particular that well-spring of economic morality once known as “stewardship.”