Economy (oikonomia) is related to the management of the household (oikos). However, today's global economy has made the household the servant of the economy. Access to the abundance of God's creation has been limited by the demands of the market that everything have a price. Caring for the household has been driven out by greed and competition for individual survival.

We are confronted by many contradictions: an increase in poverty as wealth grows, scarcity amidst abundance, growing unemployment, lack of basic needs, poor communication, and ecological destruction. Because we hear the cry of people in many parts of the world, we must speak out about their suffering.

The issues of economic life - and the Christian response to them - have been discussed in the ecumenical movement for many years. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches initiated its own study of "Reformed faith and economic justice" in June 1992. There followed a series of regional consultations in Manila (Philippines) in March 1995, in Kitwe (Zambia) in October 1995, and in San José (Costa Rica) in May 1996. A workshop at a meeting of the European area council in Edinburgh (Scotland) in August 1995 also contributed to the study. Finally, an international consultation was held in Geneva (Switzerland) in May 1996, attended by 33 participants from 22 countries. This paper reflects the findings of that consultation.

Analysis and reflection on the economy

The globalization of the world economy is the integration of national and international markets. It was recently described by the president of the World Trade Organization (WTO) as a growing "multiplicity of interlocking economic relationships among national economies". It is evident in the rapid growth of international trade, the vast expansion of speculative movements of financial capital internationally, and the astounding spread of mass communication around the world.

Is globalization a fact, or is it an ideology? "We are engaged in a worldwide merciless technological, industrial, and economic warfare. Its aim is to survive and its key is competition. There are no solutions without competition: no growth, no economic or social welfare, no autonomy, no political independence" (Jan Timmer, former general director of Phillips). In fact, since by their nature some markets (labour, utilities, services, cultural products, etc.) are excluded from this global integration, we can say that globalization is even more an ideology than a reality.

The rapid expansion of international trade has been made possible in part by the relative freedom with which financial capital can be transferred across international borders. Yet only ten per cent of global currency flows are required to finance trade in real goods and services. This means there is an increasing amount of money available for speculative purposes or for political and economic leverage. It can lead to a high degree of instability for those economies temporarily hosting this capital. In December 1994 and January 1995, for example, Mexico was plunged into depression partly because of this sort of speculation.

The movement of capital around the world is increasing faster than the growth of trade. The result is the accumulation of capital in the hands of a small number of financial organizations. To compete for capital, poorer nations must adjust their national policies. They are compelled to limit their protection of labour and the environment and their social security to keep their production costs low enough to compete in international markets and to prove attractive to the financiers. Even the governments of wealthy nations must accept the demands of such financial powers. Domestic policies are made subservient to international policy as laid out in the global trade agreement that created the WTO. The president of the German Federal Bank, Helmut Tietmeyer, said, "politicians have now been brought under the control of the financial markets" (Le Monde diplomatique, March 1996).

The globalization of markets has been accompanied by the growth of transnational corporations (TNCs). TNCs conduct operations simultaneously in different parts of the world, but are not accountable to political structures at the international level. They have no "home" other than the network of global markets, in which they play a controlling role: for example, the commodity trade in the countries of the south is now concentrated in the hands of a small number of TNCs. While competition is proclaimed as good and "competitiveness" enforced, TNCs seek every opportunity to avoid or eliminate competition among themselves. Costs are cut and control maintained by strategic alliances, joint partnerships, market-sharing, environmental exploitation and outright price-fixing.

The household
The household is where life is born and sustained through mutual and self giving love. How the community cares for its members at times of crisis, life and death, reflects the way in which life may be transformed and the household of God become a reality. The household may be families, local communities, or the global village.

The culture of competition creates a downward spiral of impoverishment and injustice as cities, regions, and nation-states compete for corporate favours in the form of investments and jobs. Eventually poorer regions no longer have anything to compete with, not even cheaper labour, and are excluded from the global economy altogether.

The globalization of advertising and the commercialization of the media work together to expand a monoculture of consumerism. Mass communication saturates cultures with advertising aimed at encouraging people to buy more goods. It is effectively a colonization of the consciousness, an exercise in global hypnosis that creates and manipulates insatiable desires. It exploits people without financial strength. Women, children, young people, and the elderly are often the most negatively affected. The media have developed a symbiotic relationship with corporate benefactors and have begun to see themselves as an autonomous agent shaping political choices. Most disturbing, from a faith perspective, is the impact of advertising on what we believe and how we relate to one another.

One of the world's largest markets revolves around the weapons trade. Militarism is still a reality with which we must contend. Armed conflicts and oppression very often result in torture and death. The money spent on military stock-piling and weapons of mass destruction wastes resources desperately needed for health, education, and welfare.

Defending community life
In a fishing village in Goa an international development agency proposed to develop the fishing industry with a gift of trawlers. To receive the gift, assets were needed that only the rich landowners had. When they tried to hire the fishermen, the people rebelled by forming a People's Association of Fish Workers and publicizing the movement both nationally and internationally. Today they maintain a network of resistance and an international headquarters.

The rapidly expanding world economy excludes those groups, people, and even continents that cannot keep up with the demands of rising productivity and increasing competitiveness. The share of the "least developed" countries in the world's direct foreign investments - never very significant - has fallen to almost zero. This is particularly true in Africa between the Sahara and the Zambezi, where production and investment fell roughly four per cent annually between 1978 and 1989. It is in this period that Africa lost its food sufficiency, as hunger crept into the region at an unprecedented rate. This has been called "a sad fact of life" by a WTO official, but it is more than that. It is a scandal, revealing the absurdity of the present world economy and its deep structural defects.

During the 1980s the countries of the south were engulfed by a "debt crisis". Many of their debts were incurred during the 1970s when growth was encouraged and borrowing was easy. Some of these debts were the result of loans for projects that were poorly evaluated and/or benefited corrupt government officials. Internal factors aiding in the misuse of loans included overspending, obsession with huge infrastructure projects, inefficient public administration and corruption. But the immediate crisis in 1980 was due to a marked increase in the price of imported fuels and decisions by wealthier countries to fight the resulting inflation with monetary restraint. As a result, growth in the world economy slowed, interest rates skyrocketed, and commodity prices - the life blood of most poor countries - plummeted.

In response to this crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank introduced various kinds of debt relief, but only when the indebted countries agreed to adopt structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). These policies generally required sharp reductions in government services, currency devaluations, lifting price controls, encouraging exports, freezing or reducing wages, and cutting public subsidies - often with the added purpose of transforming indebted nations into "market-friendly" economies. Reductions in government services had a severe impact on health, education, social welfare, and social infrastructure. As a result, poverty levels increased, health care deteriorated, and social structures disintegrated.

Landless people
In many parts of the world there are movements of people who claim land that, though fertile and sheltering, is not in use. In rural areas land is occupied by landless people in order to farm it. In urban areas it is to carve out a living space or make room for playgrounds where the old can rest and children play.

Multilateral institutions, the G7 group of governments, and commercial banks now claim the debt crisis is over. But the reality is different. Structural adjustment creates poverty, unemployment, and numerous social problems. Some middle-income countries have been plunged into depression, while the debts of low-income countries, especially in Africa, remain a crushing burden.

We should resist the notion that poor countries must adjust while rich countries are allowed to conduct business as usual. The proposals for debt-relief now in discussion are limited in scope and offer only temporary relief. The conditions for debt-relief remain so rigid that few countries can qualify, least of all those needing it most. In many cases the amount of the original loan has been repaid several times over.

Defending the environment in community
In Botswana, De Beers built a dam to secure water for their mine. During the drought there was not enough water so De Beers proposed dredging the Boro river in order to use that water as well. The government agreed and signed contracts for the work. In response, the people held a community meeting (kgotla) through which they registered their disapproval with the government, causing the contracts to be cancelled.
Similarly, in India, through the Movement to Damn the Dams, people have refused to allow dams to be built because they would displace people, cutting them off from their relationship to the land.

All too often the environment becomes a victim of the global economy. The south is frequently used as a dumping ground for the waste products of the north. Economic growth is proposed as a means for generating money to protect the environment but, ironically, leads to further degradation. Faced with poverty and SAPs, people have limited alternatives for survival. In a deceitful attempt to eliminate competition, northern interests often insist that poorer regions do more to protect their environment.

Tribal or ethnic communities may function as households; in a hostile world, they may be a source of resistance and strength. From the viewpoint of the global economy, however, they are seen as something to be overcome or transcended through the promise of the market. Ethnic or tribal conflict is often encouraged by economic interests in an attempt to minimize state power that might interfere with corporate powers.

The work of sustaining the household, including the care and welfare of the young and elderly in nearly all communities, is largely done by women. UN statistics show that women do seven-tenths of the world's work, earn one-tenth of the world's income, and own one-hundredth of the world's capital and land. Women are treated as cheap labour, abused in the sex industry, and in all societies carry the burden of poverty.

We must find new ways of sharing information about the global economy and making economic forecasts. We must make information about the economy more understandable so that it can be shared with more people. Only then will it be possible to bring the powers that are responsible for the present economic disorder and injustice under control. If a real effort to attain this objective is not made, all other measures envisaged in this text will be nothing more than a balm for open wounds.

Reformed faith and economic injustice

In today's world there are many landless, homeless, and workless people; child labourers; people without space or time to enjoy and celebrate life. This is not the will of God. God's will is found in the visions of a just and peaceful society where people do not labour in vain, but live in the houses they build (Is 65.21); where each can sit under their vine and fig tree (Mic 5.4); where city streets are full of girls and boys playing freely while the elderly sit resting and watching with joy (Zech 8.4).

Through self-critical reflection, we must cleanse our understanding of God from all idolatrous features. God's covenant with creation has very little connection with the prevailing economic structures and policies that create economic exclusion and marginalization and ecological destruction on a mass scale. The invisible force that arbitrarily gives power and wealth to some and assigns others to destruction is not God but mammon. The force that drives us to accumulate more and more, circling the earth in search of gain, is not the God who gives blessing but mammon, which encourages trust in the heaping up of treasures that do not last, in a life that has lost all meaning (Mt 6.19-24). By trusting uncritically in these forces of accumulation and competition, we sacralize the market. The market is not God. The economy is not an end in itself, but one means towards the wellbeing of all creation. The economy should not rule people; people should regulate the economy.

God's grace is a free gift; it is not for sale in the market place (Is 55.1-3). God has given that which, if shared, will provide abundant life for all (Jn 10.10). God's blessing is at work in the blossoming and sustaining of life in all its diversity, in the web that connects all living beings in ever-widening circles of ecosystems and human communities. God affirms an economy (oikonomia) that uplifts and enables, an economy that creates dignity and wellbeing for all creation. We see our role as human beings, male and female together as equal partners, to serve as gardeners of life, locally as well as globally. Time and space to live are gracious gifts of God.

The Christian community is Christ existing in communitarian form (1 Cor 12.12-31; Rom 12.3-8; Gal 4.19). The feeding of the five thousand is a model of an economy that shares in community (Mt 14.15-21). Christ, as the power of the powerless, is the source of inspiration for resisting principalities and powers. Human life becomes meaningful when it is lived in the community of faith.

Our Reformed understanding of economics has informed and helped to reinforce economic values that separate the physical from the spiritual and place production values above human dignity. In our Reformed tradition, we believed that the fruits we bear attest to the reality of our election and salvation. We thought it was our vocation to work hard, to save, and to see God's blessing in what we accumulated. We have been suspicious of the celebration of life. We have not always understood that the Sabbath was given to link our lives and desires to God's powerful dream of a just society. We have not allowed the message of jubilee (Lev 25 and Is 58) to free us from captivity to accumulation. The emphasis on success implied that human beings must be highly efficient. Anyone not meeting the productivity targets was considered valueless: this is a reversal of "by faith alone", because of the emphasis it places on work. To serve God and live for the glory of God's name alone (soli Deo gloria) became distorted, as we no longer understood that God's glory shines forth where our desires do not pit us against each other in competitive warfare; where we share bread and shelter with the homeless; where we share life with one another in redeemed communities, restored cities, and watered gardens (Is 58.11).

Hard work is not a virtue in itself. Traditional cultures and other living faiths show us the value of contemplation. At the same time, because physical exertion is "cleaner" than most forms of mechanization, ecologically responsible forms of production and consumption require a return to the use of human energy. In this context, the Reformed tradition, with its emphasis on work and sobriety, may have new relevance.

Landless people in Brazil
The landless peoples' movement in Brazil is supported by some sectors of the churches as well as trade unions and political parties. In April 1996, however, during a land occupation in Para State, 19 leaders were massacred by police who had been bribed by the landowners. This injustice provoked a general indignation among the Brazilian people and renewed efforts to move Brazil toward more progressive land reform.

A certain understanding of the doctrines of election and predestination sometimes led to a spirit of intolerance. Convinced that they were saved by grace and belonged to God's people, Reformed believers separated the elect from the excluded. Is there not some connection between this understanding and the practice of social and economic exclusion in today's world? A christological rereading of the doctrine of election understands God's plan to be for all humanity and all creation. A reaffirmation of the priesthood of all believers helps us to remember those who are excluded.

Our presbyterian and synodical structure contributed to the establishment of modern democracy. It challenges us to continue to strengthen democracy, and to manage the resources of our churches more democratically and with more transparency. The goal of democracy is not merely that all may vote, but that all people are properly included, play an increasing role in decision making, and are able to make contributions that widen institutional accountability.

Humanity in community
In some communities the response to whatever happens be it the loss of crops, of a home, or a death in the family comes forward automatically without request in unsolicited gifts of presence, food, time, or shelter. This kind of community life operates on the basis of self sustaining, sharing, and caring values. It can be found in the ubuntu (humanity in community) of southern Africa, the jopoy (economy of reciprocity) of Paraguay and southwest Brazil, the minjung communal lifestyle of Korea, the social movements of India, and the farming communities of North America and many other places.

We find in the people's economy of the household principles of inclusion, cooperation, and sharing that correspond with God's purpose.

The people's economy of the household needs to be freed from oppressive structures such as racism, patriarchy, and caste. It should be supported against the onslaught of economic processes based on competition.

We can discern God's grace and blessing at work wherever people sustain and care for each other in structures of mutual support. We recognise the many communities that, in adverse circumstances, resist, celebrate, and share, thereby preserving their cultural identity, their faith, and ensuring their physical survival. Through life together these communities create a counter-culture resisting the values imposed by the market. They are the seeds of substantive alternatives and serve as signs of hope.

Assessments and recommendations

We, Christians of Reformed communities, confess our complicity in an economic order that is unfair and oppressive and has led to misery and death for many people. The time has come for us to rethink our economic principles and activities in the light of our faith and the reality that growing numbers of people, and even countries, are being excluded from the kind of wealth that guarantees the life of a nation. Our economic decisions must be held accountable to principles that measure the effect of those decisions on the most vulnerable members of our communities. We acknowledge that what is needed is a conversion in our personal attitudes and lifestyles as well as a conversion of society and the church itself.

Facing a global economy that denies life to many, we want to affirm life. We commit ourselves actively to resist and change the world economic order, and to participate in the search for a just economy that affirms life for all. We consider this affirmation of life, commitment to resistance, and struggle for transformation to be an integral part of Reformed faith and confession today.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon all governments to share with their citizens a thorough analysis of present social, economic, and ecological developments.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon governments, the WTO, the IMF, the World Bank, regional development banks, TNCs, non-governmental organizations, and other central organizations of the global economy to review their actions in the light of their effect on the most vulnerable countries and people.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon the World Bank and the IMF to be more accountable to the people affected by their policies and projects, through increased transparency and greater participation in programmes and policies aimed at social development and building up people's self-reliance.

To break the chains of injustice

We call for a comprehensive and lasting solution to the debt crisis. We call upon WARC member churches to join a global campaign for the cancellation of the debt, including commercial debt (loans from private banks), bilateral debt (loans from governments) and multilateral debt (loans from the World Bank and other international institutions). Debt cancellation should include full cancellation for low-income countries, particularly those in Africa, and a debt release of 50 per cent or greater for a select group of middle- and odd-income countries.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon the IMF to condition future interim lending to debtor countries, requiring

a reduction of inappropriate levels of military spending;
the preservation of spending on basic needs, including education and health care;
the assurance of a safety net for those most severely affected by adjustments deemed necessary in the economy;
the prevention of adverse environmental effects, such as deforestation and soil erosion; and
a system of monitoring and correcting (as may be necessary) the effects of adjustment policies.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon all governments to renew efforts in the United Nations to establish international codes of conduct for TNCs with regard to labour standards, product safety, and environmental protection.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon the WTO to develop guidelines whereby a nation's government may use tariffs or subsidies to protect its environmental and labour standards from the unfair competitive advantage of countries that fail to adopt and enforce appropriate environmental and labour standards.

To break the chains of injustice

We call attention to the essential place of women as participants in development - with primary roles in family health care and nutrition, subsistence agriculture, and the ecological management of local resources. Effective development strategies must take specific account of women's roles and needs.

Women are key players in the community
In the fight against the closure of the British coal mines in the 1980s the women of the pit communities found strength and a sense of empowerment they had never imagined they could have. They formed Women against Pit Closures, marched, and picketed the pits. They learned to speak in public, raised money, ran community kitchens, and looked after their children. They were changed by their experiences and the patriarchy of the pit communities was challenged and transformation made possible.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon WARC member churches to commit themselves to the search for a just economy that affirms life for all and to bear witness that alternatives do exist. We call upon them to learn from people and resistance movements effectively engaged in struggles for economic and ecological justice, both locally and globally, whether within the church, among other faiths, or in secular movements.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon WARC churches to hold their governments to high standards of conduct and accountability, and to initiate discussions with powerful economic agents to encourage a common awareness of the disastrous effects of the prevailing economic order. We recognise there are economic agents already searching for a better articulation of our economic reality, one aimed at addressing the concerns of the poor. Churches must encourage these efforts and work cooperatively with them.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon WARC member churches to examine their own economic activities in the light of Christian faith. We ask them to make their own financial operations more transparent: how they earn their money; where they invest it; how they spend it; to whom and with what restrictions they lend it. How do they make use of their land, buildings, and property? Wealthy church communities should set an example of social responsibility, moderation and sobriety in the midst of a culture of aggressive greed.

To break the chains of injustice

We call upon Reformed Christians throughout the world to reflect on the relationship between their faith and economic activity in the context of daily living. This requires careful attention to where, how, and why we spend our money or make use of natural and human resources. It raises questions about how we do business, be it in the local market or in the global market. Should our personal economic activity not bear witness to a commitment to economic justice on local, national, regional and global levels? Have we, as individuals, families, and communities sufficiently modelled the values of the oikos to which the global market economy must be more sensitive?

The quest for economic justice touches upon the integrity of our faith as churches and as individuals. We call upon Reformed churches and Reformed Christians to confess with their lives that Jesus alone is Lord and that we must strive first for the kingdom of God and its justice (Mt 6.33).