God Is Not A Capitalist - Adam,ofm

Adam Esponilla Dalac Our Lady of the Angels Seminary Philosophy of Religion Title: God is not a Capitalist Just upon reading the title of an article entitled “God is not a Capitalist,” I found already the said article interesting to read. However, as I was reading the introductory part focusing on the speech of Pope John Paul II before the College of Cardinals, I am quite dismayed and doubtfully ask, “Did the pope really say that?” Well of course he actually made such statement. However my point is maybe the author of The Onion and of the article I have just read had wrongly interpreted the Pope’s statement. Whatever it is, it is beyond my judgment and understanding since I do not have the primary source with regards to the Pope’s statement. It just shows my bias as a Catholic. As I went on reading the article on the part wherein the author clearly presented how the church as an institution became a corporation, Jesus as the Executive Chairman and the Divine Entrepreneur, and God as a Capitalist, it made me realized how gravely the capitalist society has influenced the church in matters of faith and practice. The most grievous act perhaps in the article is the way the capitalist society utilized and abused the Christian doctrines and partly and fundamentally sliced-up Jesus’ life and teachings in order to appear as a model for accumulating wealth and promoting material worldly profit. What a reproach! The religion of capitalism is indeed a great power in the contemporary world. It has the ability to neutralize or even utilize certain ideals, including the religious ideals, which are supposedly against to it. Capitalism is an ideal equal to a dangerous and fatal virus. The human weakness of being prone to pleasure and earthly cares make it accessible for this virus to enter the human person – both mind and body. Thus, we need an antidote to this demonic and accumulating plague. It is true in a sense that this virus has already entered into the lives of the church people; however, it does not state the fact that all church members have already been infected if not severely infected. The most powerful antidote surpassing the human standards of living is Christ himself.

Relying on the true Gospel message, we will notice that God is not a Capitalist! To answer the question whether I am infected by this virus, my answer would be YES, basically because I am living and being raised up in a capitalist infected society and culture. However, I believe and affirm the fact that my education in the seminary gave me the access to truth and to the antidote which is Christ. After certain realizations and putting challenge to myself, the next challenge for me then is on how to spread this antidote to all the people equally infected like me, as the quotation would say, “you cannot give what you do not have.” “Can you, Adam, make a utopian change in your own greedy minded society?” I can but I cannot promise to succeed in my lifetime. I shall use the utopia of Christ’s teaching and challenge of carrying the cross daily, for according to Karl Manheim utopian hope is the will for change, without which human history would be nothing. And so therefore, I shall focus the antidote distribution and propagation to the “Other” who according to Emmanuel Levinas is always the poor, the needy, the oppressed, unwanted victim of capitalism, the ‘excluded’ in the society. They are not the cause but rather the effect of this capitalist infection. When someone goes up, many goes down and often left to suffer. This is the suffering caused by evil as Boff cited in his Passion of Christ, Passion of the World. The deeds of the severely infected elite are meant to be condemned and they shall be held accountable as seen in the eschatological judgment of Matthew 25. Therefore, BUKLOD’s song entitled “tatsulok” is right in a sense, for as long as there is this triangular scheme of the society, there would still be the “Other.” To end up this philosophical, sociological and theological reflection, I do hope and pray that may the Divine Grace and Judge grant me courage and compassion to fulfill my advocacy for change. Sources: Boff, Leonardo. The Passion of Christ, the Passion of the World. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1987. Manheim, Karl. Utopia and Ideology. London and New York: Routledge, 1991.

Peperzak, Adriaan Theodoor. Beyond the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas. Illinois: Northwestern University Press. 1997.