Sunday School with Jon Stewart

(This is the second in a series of posts analyzing each chapter in Jim Wallis’s new book, Rediscovering Values. Click here the introduction to this series, or read my analysis of the Introduction.)

When the new White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel said that the Obama Administration won’t let “a good crisis go to waste,” it is very unlikely he was praying that Americans would refocus on their moral values. But when Jim Wallis opens his first chapter with, “Crisis is a good time to clarify the meaning of many things—including our economics, our values, and our religion,” he is reflecting a sentiment of regret that society has forgotten what it means to live and grow together properly.

Like Wallis, I’m a fan of Jon Stewart because he communicates his insightfulness in ways that are creative, humorous, and oftentimes biting. So when Wallis titles his chapter based on a segment from the Daily Show, I’m excited to read what Wallis says about Stewart’s insight.

Wallis begins his chapter with an endorsement of Jon Stewart’s angered chastisement of Jim Cramer, particularly focusing on what Stewart says near the end:

“…isn’t that part of the problem? Selling this idea that you don’t have to do anything. Anytime you sell people the idea that, sit back and you’ll get 10 to 20 percent on your money, don’t you always know that that’s going to be a lie? When are we going to realize in this country that our wealth is work. That we’re workers and by selling this idea that of, “Hey man, I’ll teach you how to be rich.” How is that any different than an infomercial?”

Wallis then compares Stewart’s succinct criticism of what happened to Jesus’ overthrowing the money changers in the temple. By pointing out that it wasn’t commerce per se that Jesus was upset about, but that it was a marketplace that frequently cheated others and profited in unethical ways. “The challenge for our country today,” Wallis says, “is not only to overturn the tables of the money changers, buta lso to rebuild on the values we have lost. If all we do is flip over a few tables and fail to replace them with what should be there, we can be sure that tables will be uprighted and business as usual will begin again in no time” (pg. 20).

Jesus is a character in history that is easy to view as empathetic, charismatic, wise, and welcoming to children. It is far more difficult to picture an enraged Jesus demanding justice and confronting exploitative behaviors. But this is the role Jesus took with the money changers, and it is the role Jon Stewart took with Wall Street. According to Wallis, there are three primary things that deserve our anger:

1. We were sold a lie – The American dream became an illusion because we were told that we did not need to work to become wealthy, merely place our money in the hands of so-called experts that would help our money grow for us.

2. The rules of the game failed – It is unclear what “rules” Wallis believes have failed, since there was no mention of them here, though of course there are plenty of “rules” that Wallis could point to (and probably will in future chapters).

3. Our good was supposed to trickle down – Wallis loves to use phrases that ridicule free market ideas. “Trickle down” is an oft-used phrase used by conservatives to describe the idea that when the wealthy create jobs, everyone benefits to some degree.

The easy part for Wallis is to cry out regarding lies we were sold, complain about the rules of the economy, and mock certain economic theories as if they have failed. What comes difficult to him, however, is to describe in more detail the mechanism that permitted these lies to prevail, the rules to go on unchecked, and how “trickle down economics” is supposed to work not how it didn’t. Playing the role of chief complainer of demoralized economic values is an easy position to take. Offering solutions is what we need, and Wallis does not fail to provide some:

1. Relationships matter – The relationships that tie us together, such as employer-employee relations, where contracts are mutually beneficial, have eroded to “whatever you can get away with.”

2. “Social sins” also matter – By comparing the 1920s to what led to the Great Recession, Wallis briefly describes how wealth created without adding value to the economy is a “social sin,” that the increasing gap between rich and poor is an injustice, and that a culture that spends money even if we don’t need it is inviting disaster.

3. Our own good is indeed tied up in the common good – When we care for the poor (“the least of these”—Jesus’ words), we are caring for the common good, and we are all made better for it

Wallis concludes: “The goal is not to destroy the market but to understand its proper place. It is not to get rid of commerce but to build it upon a foundation of values” (pg. 24). I agree, and I hope Wallis will continue to lead us in the right direction of values. It is indeed important that our financial system is built upon principle values and foundational ethics that ensure that each person is respected equally, social sins are thwarted, and relationships are genuinely beneficial to all parties in the relationship.

This chapter is somewhat of an introduction to the things to come. While it is yet unclear some of the things Wallis is criticizing, it will become clearer in future chapters, given their titles. With the title of the next chapter being “When the Market Became God,” it is pretty obvious the content that will be brought up. Critiquing Wallis’s brief statements in the present chapter would amount to nothing less than speculative ridicule on my part. I’m sure there’s much to analyze in the next chapter. Suffice it to say that Wallis is continuing to ask the right questions. I simply hope he knows how to answer them.