Malcolm Foley

Summary: Argues that greed is the root of racism and calls the church to economic solidarity, anti-violence, and truth-telling.

We often think that hate and ignorance are at the root of racism. And certainly we can come up with examples of hate and ignorance. But Malcolm Foley argues in The Anti-Greed Gospel that the love of money is the root of the evil of racism. He shows how racism both arose and persisted after the abolition of slavery for economic reasons. The effort to subject one show more people by another was first and foremost about economic advantage.

Foley introduces his argument through showing that economic reasons (coveting) led to breaking other commands of God including bearing false witness, theft, and murder. He shows how unfettered capitalism and racism are intertwined in the economic growth of our nation through slavery. Then in post-reconstruction America, he traces the rise of lynching as a tool of economic subjugation. He argues that the tendrils of greed that eventuate in lynching undermined the witness of Christians like Francis Grimke and Atticus Haygood. The former eventually embraced violent resistance; the latter a kind of cynical paternalism. By contrast, he offers the example of Ida B. Wells, whose truth-telling exposed the roots of racialized greed and whose resistance sought justice through legal means.

The example of Wells provides the transition to the second part of Foley’s argument. He explores what the church can do. First, he argues for economic solidarity between Christians across racial lines such that we strive toward the Acts ideal of “no needy among us.” Then he contends for love rather than violence as we seek remedies for greed. For example, love resists practices like property appraisals that keep people in poverty. Love also opposes wars, which often rely upon minorities disproportionately to fight the battles while draining resources from domestic programs. Thirdly, he argues for prophetic truth-telling amid the culture of racial lies. Finally, he stresses the importance of creativity as we cast vision for a kingdom that is not of this world.

First for one criticism. Indisputably, in the American context, greed found expression through a form of racist capitalism. But I would argue that greed is an evil that finds expression in every economic system. In every economic system we can see classes or racial groups who are exploited for the economic gain of others. What this demonstrates is that Foley’s thesis that racism is rooted in greed has cross-cultural validity. I wonder if the association of “racialized capitalism” throughout the book weakens the focus on the root cause of greed.

That said, Foley’s thesis helps explain the persistence of racism. It also clarifies both the danger to the church of the “tendrils” of greed upon its life and the way it addresses racism. It is more than just relationships across racial lines. Whether society follows or not, finding ways to express economic solidarity, practice loving resistance, and engage in prophetic truth telling are more substantive alternatives than saying “let’s be friends.” It also seems to me that the challenge of creativity is to transcend our polarities and political binaries while not losing contact with earthly realities. We need to cast alternative visions people understand and find compelling.

Malcolm Foley is a young leader who is a scholar-pastor, and well-positioned to implement the recommendations he makes in this book. I look forward to hearing more from him!

____________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review. show less

We have seen many recent conversations attempting to come to grips with the heritage of white supremacy in America and “Western civilization” writ large and the racism, colonialism, etc. which flowed from it.

Yet, as Malcolm Foley well attests in The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward, racism and white supremacy were not inherent values throughout the period of “Western civilization.” It all started with an show more attempt to justify the slavery and the domination of people deemed non-white. And those attempts proved necessary because of…greed. The desire to gain great wealth, even if it came at the expense of others.

The author well developed his case regarding this history and the racial capitalism which remains in place in many ways to this very day. He speaks of the “talons” and “tendrils” of racial capitalism, and bears witness to how pervasive this greedy racism proved in terms of lynching in the American South in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and how lynching lost its favor less because of the moral atrocity and horror (even though it was morally atrocious and horrifying), but because Black people were leaving the South for the North and West, and thus the economic incentives powerfully shifted.

What could be done about such things? The author considered different reactions in history, comparing Francis Grimke’s eventual desire to respond with like violence with Ida B. Wells’ relentless exposure and and resistance to the practice of lynching, commending the latter. He then considers how the church can do well to pursue an anti-greed posture, appealing to the example of Jesus, the full equality of all human beings, and by again affirming the powerful voices within the Christian tradition which resisted greed and the justification thereof and encouraged liberality and charity.

This is a very important book to consider with a lot for all of us to consider. In far too many ways, churches have simply parroted the values and principles of the business world. Marketing, sales, leadership, etc. concepts and materials don’t look much different between corporations and churches. Maybe very few would go as far as to say “greed is good,” but they certainly don’t seem to mind profiting from greed and providing full-throated acceptance and endorsement of modern American capitalism. Should this really be so?

We can only truly be anti-racist when we are anti-greed, and we can only glorify God in Christ if we are anti-greed as Christ was anti-greed. It won’t be a comfortable position in modern American society, and it may not lead to accelerated church growth, but it does have the benefit of bearing effective witness for Christ, which should be more important than anything else anyway. show less