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I. Where Are We Now?
A.
We as SCMers
The Joint Statement on Youth and Student Ministry made by
the World Student Christian Federation together with other youth and student
organizations reflects on the process of erosion which has affected these organizations
in the 1970s-80s. It notes that political involvement led to loosening of
organic and spiritual links with parishes, to isolation within the church and
to a lack of effort in passing on the tradition to the next generation. [1]
I can confirm this from my own experience with the Dutch
SCM. In the late fifties, we were still asking what Christian faith means in a
secular society. Bible studies played a central role in our programs and in the
youth camps organized by the SCM. Ten years later, in the late sixties, a
radical politicization led to a neglect of the nurturing of personal faith.
After another ten years, the SCM was dead.
Let me compare that with the spiritual biography of Dr. M. M. Thomas who represents an earlier
generation. Born in the
Then M. M. Thomas became WSCF secretary in the crucial
period of 1947 and following years, exploring the political witness and
contribution of young Christians in
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expanded, their positions changed in the course of time. But they were sustained throughout by
a deep faith commitment.
Today, M. M. Thomas is, as a lay theologian, writing his
twentieth biblical commentary in his mother tongue, Malayalam, while still
being politically active — supporting human rights organizations and otherwise.
In recent years (1990-1992), he even served as governor of Nagaland,
a small troubled state in the northeast of
In that generation of M. M. Thomas, who is now 76 years old,
I have observed, with some jealousy, a spiritual stamina and steadiness along
with an openness to various religious and secular influences.
It is rooted in a long, disciplined personal formation and lifestyle which
sustains a sense of vocation related to a Christ-centered vision of redemption
for the whole of humankind.
We cannot simply return to that pattern of formation. Most
of today's youngsters will not grow up in the sort of traditional environment
which provides the soil for such a formation. They have to find their spiritual
bearings while being exposed to the speed and fragmentation of modem life. But
the time of youth, of being students, is still the time of search, of
formation, of finding one's identity or identities: Who am I, what am I about,
to whom do I belong, what makes sense, what am I meant to do with my life? It
is, I suppose, one of the main tasks of SCM to help in that search.
What probably explains the success of many evangelical
crusaders for Christ on university campuses is that they somehow relate to this
search. The problem is that they do it in a way which is more conformable to
the spirit of the modem times than to the spirit of
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Christ,
whatever their intentions and claims to the contrary. Most of them, not all,
focus only on one side of the search: the "I" question — Who am I? What is going to happen with me? This is
conformable to the spirit of modem capitalist society, the spirit of
individualism and consumerism, the I-am-okay spirituality. It is doubtless that
the "I" question is vital and legitimate and should therefore not be
ignored. But it can be answered only in a biblical Christ-conforming spirit if
it gets linked up with the we-question, "To whom
do I belong?" That goes beyond the "we" feelings produced in
huge gatherings, be it evangelistic conventions, rock music concerts or sports
events. It implies the question, "What is my social responsibility?"
In his search for a viable political philosophy, M. M.
Thomas has very much emphasized this need for developing a sense of
personhood-in-community. Christian spirituality does not relate to isolated soul-atoms.
At this point, SCMs may be, as I hope, on the threshold of a new synthesis
after the experience of the past two decades. The truth to be remembered is
that the social dimension is not secondary and not a matter of ethical appeal
only. We are bom social beings, we cannot exist
without the others, we cannot become "I"
without "Thou." Jewish philosophers like Martin Buber
and Emmanuel Levin have most impressively reminded us of that. It is on that
basis that Buber sought new "Paths into
Utopia."[3] Along with that, we need to affirm that we belong to a larger
fellowship of life in God's creation in which we bear a huge responsibility.
[4]
B.
We as People Stranded in the Deserts of Today
The image of the desert comes to my mind in several ways when
trying to analyze the political, ideological and even physical situation in
which we find ourselves. After the end of the Cold War we were told that we
would enter into a peaceful New^ World Order. Instead we got the brutal
high-tech onslaught of "Desert Storm" with its massacres, its
destruction of the infrastructure of civil life in
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sides of our present reality as well. We have seen the pictures of so many
migrant workers from all over Asia, thrown out of work in Iraq and Kuwait,
trying to cross the desert to get away - but to where? Now they may be drifting
back. What economic processes are at work, eroding the livelihood of millions
of people who then seek employment in the Gulf? What sort of economic policies
have forced plane-loads of women in
Since the Gulf War we have been confronted with pictures of
civil wars in
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People in what was called the "Second World" (of
socialist countries) are going through the experience which "Third
World" countries are making since long, namely that Western living
standards are only for some, and never can become a sustainable pattern for all
On the contrary, as ecological movements help us to understand, the economic
development which Western capitalism propagates and on which its consumerism is
based consumes the resources which the poor of today and future generations
would need in order to live a life in human dignity. That consumerism is not
developing the earth but turning our planet into a desert. It is not a model but
an invitation to disaster.
I cannot go into a detailed analysis but I must underline
that any political or economic analysis that ignores the fundamental threat to
the survival of humankind because of ecological destruction is futile.
I don't know how serious the ecological question has been
taken in the SCMs so far. If not, then it has urgently to be placed on the
agenda. Any student in the 1990s has to be aware of the problems of the
depletion of non-renewable resources, of the destruction of vital eco-systems
through ruthless exploitation and pollution, and of the inter-connection
between the various factors causing these problems. Let me list some of the
major issues:
·
deforestation, soil erosion, floods, droughts;
·
wasteful use of fossil fuels, acid rain, global warming, rising sea
levels threatening islands and coastal areas;
·
wasteful use of harmful chemicals, holes in the ozone layer (due to
CFCs), poisoning of the food-chain (e.g. Bhopal and Minamata);
·
harmful use of other sources of energy: nuclear energy (e.g. Chernobyl), big dams for
hydro-electric power;
·
rapid reduction of variety of species and dangerous
experiments with artificial creation of new species (e.g. biotechnology),
leading to erosion of diversity of genetic base.
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This destructive development is the result of the
growth-oriented political economy of modem capitalism and state-socialism. It
not only destroys the physical basis for the life of future generations. It has
been and is destroying the livelihood and lives of millions of people in a
cruel, ongoing process. Indigenous peoples, hill-tribes, subsistence peasants,
traditional artisans, fish-workers and especially the women among all of them
have been bull-dozed by modem development. With the destruction of their
environment, they were deprived and uprooted, if not killed. Modem ideologies
and theories justified this directly or indirectly as an inevitable historical
process, saying that there was no future for such traditional petty procedures.
That is the reason why even the modem working class movement, to a large extent, ignored their
plight.
But now they are raising their voices: from the Pacific
islands used for nuclear experiments and dumping of toxic waste, to the hill
peoples in the Himalayas; from the traditional fisherfolk
in
Much of the human misery caused by modem development remains
invisible and silent. Ecological refugees displaced by big development
projects, small peasants displaced by multinationals, rural artisans and so on,
end up in the ever-growing slums of our big cities. There they eke out a
living, picking up the crumbs from modem society and catering to it with
underpaid labor in the informal sector. In
The economic and ecological crisis is reinforced by a
tremendous ideological crisis. The erosion of fertile soils all around the
globe
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is matched by a worldwide erosion of vision, of inspiring ideals and
political projects which have guided previous generations.
M. M. Thomas and his contemporaries in the 1930s and 1940s
had to choose between the vibrant visions of Gandhi, Nehru, the democratic
socialists and the revolutionary communists. All had their dreams about the new
society and the ways leading to it. In the 1960s, there was once more a world-widc wave carried forward by the youth. In
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The readiness to struggle is still there, as the youth in
Asia have shown in recent years in a wave of democratic protests — as in
My impression is that we have reached an important
political-ideological watershed: the decline of the social-political blueprints
and schemes which guided previous generations. In
In
(1)
The Crisis of State Socialism and Marxist Theory
In Asia, state socialism seems to have survived better the
crisis of state socialism which Perestroika in the former
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brought to light. However, it would be unwise to postpone
reflecting on the basic questions involved just on the ground that the Chinese
leadership has succeeded in repressing the pro-democracy movement in 1989 and
the Vietnamese in trying to limit change to economic adjustments.
What has failed and what remains valid in the
state-socialist experiment which has gone stale and collapsed?
What has failed in the post-revolutionary stage is the
Leninist concept of the vanguard party which subordinates all efforts to the
conquest and control of state power. It has undermined or drained
genuine democratic participation and led to alienation of the masses from
state, party and the socialist ideals monopolized by it. What has also failed
is the expectation of marxists
that the socialization of the means of production would be sufficient to
re-orient human aspiration and needs away from the drive to possess on which
capitalism thrives.
The state socialist approach started a gigantic social
revolution according to central plans from the drawboards
of economic planners and social engineers. Traditional social structures were
deliberately destroyed. People were thrown by the millions into newly
industrialized areas, newly constructed cities. (This was less so in
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What remains valid is the marxist critique of capitalist exploitation. Based on
the drive towards profit and accumulation, it may be able to provide prosperity
for some countries and for some people in other countries. But it is bound to
produce mass poverty and misery for a majority of people in many countries.
Moreover, it cannot be sustained for long anymore because of the ecological
havoc it creates. That means the question of socialism — the need for an
alternative society — is still on the agenda but the ways to it have to be
discovered anew,
(2)
The Crisis of State-Centered Nationalism
The other powerful ideological force of the 20th century has
been that of national liberation. Ours has been the century of great
anti-imperialist struggles and of the establishment of so many postcolonial
independent nation-states.
But meanwhile, many new nation-states have developed
dictatorial features themselves while pursuing and imposing
"development" and "progress" at the cost of large sections
of their own peoples. This is unavoidable because this type of development
implies centralization. And centralization produces necessarily marginalization.
Modem development cannot do without creating and exploiting colonies, be it outer or inner colonies. Resource-rich regions inhabited by
subsistence-production are turned into such colonies.[8]
The struggles of suppressed minorities and other victims of development
policies represent a new type of people's struggles in the post-colonial
era.
Simultaneously the sovereignty of independent nation-states
is being undermined by new global developments. The breakdown of the bloc of
socialist states has weakened the bargaining power of the countries of the Non
Aligned Movement. The former colonial powers are trying to establish a
neo-colonial world regime by various means. The role of the Security Council of
the UN, where they have veto powers, is being upgraded, whereas the role of the
General Assembly
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and various UN organizations like UNCTAD, where all countries have equal
voting power, are downgraded. International economic policy decision-making is
shifted to IMF, World Bank, GATT and the G-7 where the rich countries dominate.
This helps to increase still more the global economic power of the MNCs. In the
unfolding process more and more states become the agents of IMF-policies,
international capital and local elites who want to be part of the international
jet-set (they used to be called "compradore").
Muto Ichiyo and other organizers
of the People's Plan for the 21st century, gathering in
This means that different types of people's struggles are
overlapping in our epoch. "Against colonialism, the people struggle to
establish their national states. Against the development-dictatorship state,
the people struggle to establish democratic accountability. Against
state-supported global capital, the people begin to marginalize the state, and
carry the fight directly to the centers of capital wherever they are."
The situation often gets further complicated by the fact
that the aspirations of ethnic and religious minorities sometimes are exploited
by chauvinistic and fundamentalist forces whose use of brutal violence matches
that of state-terrorism and is bound to lead to further repression of new
minorities (c.f. Tamil Tigers).
Global ecological developments give a totally new dimension
to the question of national sovereignty and international relationships.
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Acid rains, radio-active clouds and poison in the food-chain
cannot be prevented by hoisting flags or by fences at the borders. Global
warming and holes in the ozone layer will have global effects. International
cooperation is therefore a must. The Earth Summit in
However, the North, particularly the
In any case, the question of diminishing resources can in
the long run only be tackled on the basis of international cooperation.
Otherwise the next wars may be fought not over oil, but over water. This will
be not only a problem between North and South, but eventually also within the
South. Already violence has broken out between various states within the
borders of
(3) The
Crisis of Capitalism
Compared to state-socialism and non-aligned movement,
capitalism seems to be on top. We are planning for a future that seems to be
triumphant, powerful and even less challenged than, let us say, 100 years ago.
But remember also how quickly things can change in, let us
say, 10 years. Compare the year 1900 —
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justified with racist theories of a "yellow peril." Five
years later,
We live at the end of this incredibly turbulent and bloody
century. Europe seems to be back to square one; nationality questions are once
more breaking up states (e.g. the former Soviet Union and
Yet the capitalist triumph is hollow. Its record over this
most bloody century of human history is horrifying as compared to that of the
19th century: two world wars and many other wars, much of it in Asia; yes, unprecedented
prosperity and luxury on the one side, but also unprecedented mass poverty on
the other side; and then, irreversibly in the process of wars and
mass-consumerism, precious resources of humankind have been wasted away,
including tropical forests, fertile soil, water resources, non-renewable
materials. Much of what was life-sustaining environment in 1900 has gone
forever and has been turned into desert or urban asphalt jungle.
That means the victory of capitalism cannot last for long.
The gospel of free market — access to resources — and of unlimited consumerism
as well as the policy of warfare cannot be practised
into the next century for long without causing terminal disaster.
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We don't know the scenarios. All sorts of maneuvers are under
way. The
C.
We as Fellow Travelers of Capitalism
"Fellow travelers" was the .name used to refer to
the leftist intellectuals who were accused of naively supporting communism.
Today the assumption is widespread that there is no reasonable, workable
alternative to capitalism. How did capitalism manage to survive so many
disastrous crises and to present itself, more than 100 years after Marx
analyzed its destructive nature, as the only viable socio-economic system?
Let us be clear. It is not because of its rationality and
efficiency. Its irrationality and wasteful inefficiency are in fact becoming
more conspicuous day by day. Take the global food business. Food production for
local use is undermined for the sake of mono-cultural production for export.
Many agricultural countries, especially in
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the way between producer and consumer. But the giant food companies follow
another logic — that of accumulation. According to that logic, the longer the
way, the more intervention, the more value added, the more profit. [10] And
they are still conquering new areas. NAFTA will expose millions of Mexican peasants
to the onslaught of
Or take transport — the private car, that ultimate symbol of
modem capitalism which promises personal mobility, freedom, access to nature.
When Henry Ford introduced his automobile for daily use in 1909, he argued that
with it common people could "enjoy the blessing of recreation in God's
free, pure air." Stalin, of all people, invited Ford in 1929 to set up a
factory to produce 200,000 cars per year. These cars along with the tractors
would prove that the
The triumph of capitalism has to be explained in two levels:
in terms of economic and military power and in terms of its seductive attractivity. The dominant capitalist powers, especially
the
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The alternative is not asceticism as Gandhi and Mao offered.
People want to enjoy life, and rightly so. But what is really enjoyable? What
makes life really worthwhile? The triumph of capitalism has been that it has
sold its answer to that question all around the world. It has conquered the
souls of many. And like all other conquerors, it has destroyed much of what was
there before. We can ask our grandparents or even our parents — they grew up
guided by other answers to those questions, unless they were already born in
bourgeois families. Capitalism is out to destroy other cultural values which
give meaning to life without chasing around in cars, without accumulating
commodities and replacing them in ever increasing speed; these are the values
which give more importance to social relations than to things. Capitalism is
the enemy of all cultural and religious values which resist the total
commodification of life.
While imperialism has employed the most brilliant minds of
the natural sciences to build its arsenal of high-tech destructive weapons, it
employs the human sciences, from psychology to sociology and the new science of
communications, to subordinate human relations and the human soul to the
market. It spends billions on advertisements, appealing to all sorts of hidden
desires in the remotest comers of our inner being to hook us up. It seems to
succeed in redefining human
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needs in reorienting them so as to expect satisfaction mainly or only from
changing commodities. Its appeal to individual choice, advantage and pleasure —
however illusionary — undermines the social and cultural practices catering to
the satisfaction of social needs. Its very abundance causes a deepening
uneasiness and confusion, affecting the quality of life it promises to improve.
The result can been seen in the
most prosperous societies: increasing atomization, aggressive competition,
violence, psychic diseases, alarm-systems. This is indeed dehumanizing because
we are not created as isolated individuals. We are bound to get sick if our
social being is denied — it is like an amputation.
State socialism had no inner power to resist that. It needed
walls, censorship, closed borders to keep the attraction out of sight. Once the
walls fell, people surrendered. Their souls were empty. Dull official ideology,
rituals and grey uniformity had ignored their deeper needs. But now their
access to the glimmering market is limited. They have hardly any buying power
like so many in the "third world." So they feel disappointed. That is
where other appeals have their chance: ethnic, communal, religious appeal,
offering some social identity.
One of the most successful weapons employed by capitalism is
that of exploitation of women. It operates in various, sometimes contradictory,
ways. The local exploitation of cheap female labor affects the bargaining power
of male labor. The hidden exploitation of unpaid subsistence labor, especially
of rural women, keeps labor costs low but also prevents the total destruction
of subsistence production which may assume a different significance in a future
ecological reorientation of society. The use of migrant female labor (e.g. from
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in the acceptance of discriminatory division of labor. That is where even
many radicals are caught when it comes to daily life choices.
D.
We as Followers of Jesus Christ
Where are we in all this as followers of Jesus Christ?
Starting from the last reflections on the powerful attractivity of capitalism, we are likely to find rich resources
for reflection in all religious traditions of
The critique and the rejection of mammon is
at the heart of the good news announced by Jesus. God has a covenant with the
poor. That goes far beyond the usual moral warnings not to be attached to
possessions, not to be greedy. It counterposes the
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this in the time of early capitalism when he spoke of mammon in the
explanation of the first commandment. That is why as Christians we cannot join
in today's choruses of praise for the "market" as the solution to all
problems. Certain functions of the market are obviously needed. Total central
planning does not work but the subordination of all aspects of life and work to
the market is something different. The total market is mammon as Moloch, as an
idol devouring human sacrifices.
Jesus, in his teaching and praxis, points beyond the market.
There is no end to the worries of the poor under the reign of mammon — what to
eat, what to wear. Mammon reduces them to an empty stomach and to a naked body,
and no worrying can change that. Look at the lilies, he suggests to them, and
the birds; look at life beyond the market, beyond the reign of mammon; search
first the
The market has its limited function, but it cannot
acknowledge the needs of the most needy, those who
have no buying power. And it cannot value what has no price, as the ecological
crisis shows. Thus, Jesus' teaching the masses in the wilderness about the
The problem eventually lies even deeper. The enemy is not
just on the other side, the power of money, the power of the media. Jesus knows
the human heart: where your heart is, there will be your treasure. "Do not
covet" is one of the central biblical commandments which should actually
push us into permanent conflict with present-day economics. The point is not
that our needs and desires should be
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repressed. The Bible is fall of promises of fulfillment, of bread for
the hungry, of a land of milk and honey, of abundant life. The commandment
"do not covet" aims at our drive to possess at the cost of others and
to find satisfaction in that. It confronts us with that awful possibility that
we are not just trapped in exploitative structures, but that our inner
being gets involved in exploitation.
Jesus takes the examples of the exploitation of women. It
begins with the way in which a male may look at her. Jesus is not an ascetic or
patriarch who demands veils and separation. He communicates freely and warmly
with women. He exposes the desire to possess, to dominate, to exploit. In that respect the heart is the place where the battle against
exploitation and commodification has to be fought as much as in the streets, in
the homes and in various institutions.
The same dialectic can be found in the book of Revelation.
There the
In our analysis of where we are, of the problems which we
are facing, we need both a sharp, critical analysis of the economic and
political and cultural structures [12] and processes, and a deep, self-critical
reflection on our own inner conditioning. And from there, we need to move to
the question, "What are the ways and the resources to move towards an
alternative?"