The ends–justifying-the-means rationale is a tricky
business, justifying historically a myriad of offensive practices including
torture. On the other hand, “good use” has been deemed a legitimate rationale
for acquiring wealth under Christian auspices—the obstacle of the proverbial
camel squeezing through the eye of the needle being assuaged by good
intentions. Generally speaking, the “right use” rationale gained currency
through the centuries of Christianity, leading to the Prosperity Gospel , which
maintains that right belief rather than right use is all a believer needs to
justify acquiring and amassing wealth without being thereby excluded from the Kingdom
of God. That Gospel, by the way, comes out of the Hebrew Bible, or “Old
Testament.” In this essay, I analyze the
“good use” rationale in the context of incorporating businesses inside a church—a
trend well-underway in the evangelical
Christian mega-churches as of 2014. Can the rationale survive the
baleful implications of the proverbial camel Biblical passage? Further, what of
Jesus’s over-turning of the sellers’s tables in the Temple?
Particularly vulnerable to the business v. Jesus dichotomy,
many mega-churches own and manage (or franchise) coffee shops, pouring the
profits into the general operating budget. Although increasing fellowship is
often cited as the end served by the means here, the “right use” is so broad
(including the use of the profits) that the ends-justifying-the-means rationale
may be tenuous. That is to say, the actual
motive in setting up and maintaining the business could very easily become gain itself, which has consistently counted
as greed in the history of Christian thought.
Would it be ethical in either business or religious terms for a church coffee shop to expand its hours and use its cost advantage to undercut Starbucks? Would it make a difference how the profits are being used? (Image Source: frtim.wordpress.com)
Less vulnerable is the strategy of opening a business that
is dedicated to a particular religious purpose, such as missions. Less
vulnerable still, some churches have tied a non-religious social responsible
use to a particular religious use. An “input/output” distinction is useful
here. Organizations such as Zoe Internatioal, FashionABLE, Sak Saum, and Fight
For Them Jewelry provide businesses with products made by people vulnerable to
or rehabilitating from the human sex trade. At least one, Sak Saum, fuses its
social responsibility mission with ministry by following a model of “self-sustaining
ministry.” As for the mega-churches that create businesses that sell the wares
from these networks, the corporate social responsibility aim goes back to the
suppliers, who get a cut of the revenue. The distinctly religious use lies with
the use of the profits. For example, a church might use its profits from the
business to fund missions work. In this way, corporate social responsibility and
Christianity can both be in the mix without necessarily sacrificing the
integrity of either vantage point.
In conclusion, I have laid out a spectrum of religio-business
models to suggest that the “right use” justification is not monolithic, and can
thus have more or less sway in assuaging any theological discomfort from having
businesses literally within a church—even just steps away from a sanctuary. To
be sure, the justification can easily become a slippery slope, particularly as
the “right use” gets increasingly generalized or vague. Also, if the end being
served is itself a sort of gain, even if in terms of souls or membership, greed
may run through the means-end continuum itself, thereby compromising the entire
“good use” rationale. It is perhaps human, all too human, to get caught up in
our enterprises and miss the whisper passing by the mountain. Even the fellowship
in a coffee shop carries with it the opportunity cost in terms of missed
worship in the sanctuary across the hall. In short, the “good use”
justification is treacherous, given the human proclivity to love gain and that
which it brings, whether spiritual or material.
