A flourishing society and prosperous economy require values unlikely to germinate in a schizophrenically partitioned society, where faith is somehow excluded from the public square. We don’t need a secular marketplace devoid of faith. Our nation needs more authentic faith expression throughout the marketplace, with followers of Jesus effectively demonstrating the policies and priorities of his administration through every aspect of business. 

In December 2005, I sat with my wife in a small Chicago theater watching a charming production of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

I found myself unexpectedly moved. In the closing act, Ebenezer Scrooge has been wildly transformed from his greed-fueled life and is gushing in benevolence and generosity such that his old business advisers protest, “Ebenezer, you can’t keep giving like this—think about what it will mean for the business!”

To which Ebenezer passionately replies, slamming his fist on a desk, “From now on, mankind IS our business!”

Right then, something about his declaration moved me to a place of clarity and resolve. Emotion swelled within me; he was right. What does faith in the marketplace have to do with a flourishing economy and prospering society? Everything.

In 1800 B.C., a rancher near Baghdad was commissioned to be the patriarch of a tribe intended to “bless all people of the earth.” We know this man as Abraham, and his descendants are the Jewish people from whom we receive the Bible, Jesus, Albert Einstein, Solomon, Steven Spielberg and even Bob Dylan.

Abraham was an agricultural titan with a fantastic portfolio of assets and hundreds of employees, but it was his faith that both prospered his enterprise and contributed to the flourishing of every community he engaged in.

Chinese economist Dr. Zhao Xiao researched capitalistic market societies for implications for China. In 2002, his “Market Economies With Churches and Market Economies Without Churches” proved a scandalous treatise, as it boldly concluded that the success of American capitalism greatly hinged upon the presence of faith and Judeo-Christian values to counterbalance the cannibalistic tendencies greed fueled in such markets.

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