In First Things, evangelical political scientist Hunter Baker reflects on the failure of conservative Protestants to incorporate the excesses of business into their broader cultural critique:
When I was a freshman in college, a woman who looked like a whole-earth hippie asked me if I had a personal relationship with Jesus. The question struck me as a strange one. Yet I found myself compelled to hear her out, and began to hang out with the young people in the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship chapter she led, even though their conspicuous use of the word “Jesus” and group prayer made me uncomfortable. Eventually, their faith became my own.
At roughly the same time, my coursework in economics exposed me to free-market thought. I was completely sold. Adam Smith. Friedman. Hayek. The virtues of the invisible hand excited me as much as my growing Christian commitment.
Laissez faire was nearly a second conversion.
But, over time, something changed for him:
Somehow, I had never applied my Christian conception of a sinful world to corporate behavior. In hindsight I realize my faith should have cautioned me against too easily deferring to the idea of the sufficiency of the invisible hand to produce justice.
Continue reading at First Things.