From “Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart” by Brian D. McLaren
I used to think that theological struggle was the deepest level of our struggle, because I believed that our spiritual identity was the deepest level of our identity. But that began to change when I attended a conference back in 2004, along the shore of Chesapeake Bay. The Sandy Cove Conference was organized by a small group of Evangelical leaders to educate their peers about climate change. Few considered me an Evangelical anymore, but I was invited anyway because the organizers knew I cared about the environment. At the conference, Sir John Houghton spoke. A brilliant climate scientist, head of the main scientific organization studying climate change, and an Evangelical Christian, his presentation was majestic, his evidence irrefutable. But the leading Southern Baptist at the conference said he could not accept the evidence. Someone asked why. He replied something to this effect: “A problem of this magnitude requires big government solutions, and our denomination is committed to the conservative principles of small government and free enterprise. For that reason I can assure you that the Southern Baptist Convention will oppose your efforts.”
I was stunned. It wasn’t simply theology that would keep the Southern Baptists from signing. It was theology coupled with political and economic ideology (small government conservatism and free market capitalism). It was a perfect example of what Kevin Kruse was soon to detail in his book One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America. I was livid. I could barely contain myself until the next coffee beak. I found Sir John Houghton, vented my frustration, and asked why he could remain so calm and patient. I’ll never forget his reply.
As long as the Republican Party was in power, he said (this was during the George W. Bush administration), the US wouldn’t address climate change. And Republicans wouldn’t address climate change until Evangelical Christians were on board. But Evangelicals would not be on board until Southern Baptists were on board. “So you’re saying that the climate of the entire planet, and the future of the entire planet, is being held hostage by the Republican Party, and in particular by American Evangelicals, and in particular Southern Baptists?” I asked, incredulous. Sir John nodded. I can still hear his charming accent: “I’m afraid so. So I have no choice but to keep working with both urgency and patience.”
Watching how religious institutions have behaved in the years since, I’ve come to see the degree to which the religious industrial complex is a wholly owned subsidiary of the global capitalist economy. I now suspect that our spiritual or religious identities take shape within an even deeper frame, our economic identity. It doesn’t have to be this way, and I wish it weren’t this way, but my seven decades of life have led me to believe that these days, economics more often shapes theology than theology shapes economics.