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The Gospel of the Free Enterprise System

Apparently Jesus is the patron saint of the free enterprise system. Randy Balmer writes in a God's Politics essay today about the firing of a popular Colorado Christian University Global Studies professor for teaching things contrary to the school's doctrine of free enterprise. Now I've been fired by a Christian College, but at least it was because of my view of baptism.
But, according to CCU President, the former Colorado Senator Bill Armstrong, last year's faculty of the year award winner, Andrew Paquin, has been teaching radical ideas that don't comport well with the school's commitment to free enterprise capitalism. The basis for this decision was his assigning students to read books by animal rights ethicist Peter Singer and Sojourners very own Jim Wallis. Yes CCU students must not read Jim Wallis!

“I don’t think there is another system that is more consistent with the teachings of Jesus Christ,” Armstrong told the Rocky Mountain News. “What the university stands for, among other things, is free markets.”

And CCU's new statement of faith apparently calls for commitments to these very biblical ideals:

Colorado Christian University, based in Lakewood, Colorado, adopted a set of “strategic objectives” last year, one of which was the desire to “impact our culture in support of traditional family values, sanctity of life, compassion for the poor, biblical view of human nature, limited government, personal freedom, free markets, natural law, original intent of the Constitution and
Western civilization.”

Now this is surprising because I'd always heard that CCU was a fairly moderate institution -- more like Fuller or Westmont than Bob Jones or Liberty U. I guess I was wrong. I mean -- Jim Wallis on the banned books list? I was teaching my students about liberation theology! And that's not what got me into trouble.
The news report can be found in this Rocky Mountain News article.
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Larz said…
Thanks for you comments on this issue. As a CCU student and Global Studies major, I appreciate the support.
2:37 AM
wwatson said…
As a friend and colleague of Andrew Paquin's (my office was next to his) we have had a friendly exchange on economics since he joined the faculty two years ago. Both Andrew and President Armstrong are right in their assessments of capitalism. One may ask how can you reconcile these disparate views? Augustine, Luther and many other respected Christian theologians (even Christ) have spoken of two kingdoms, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man. God has called us to put his kingdom first, and Andrew does that, but capitalism works in the kingdom of man. It conforms to our fallen state. Christian idealists tend to ignore the pragmatic, the real world, our fallen state. The Holy Spirit allows Christians to transcend these shortcomings, but to expect the vast majority of humanity to trancend it is naive. Most are motivated by Adam Smith's 'self-interest'. To desire a world where everyone lives like Mother Teresa or Andrew Paquin is laudable but unrealistic.
William Watson, Professor of Modern History, CCU
10:14 AM
Robert Cornwall said…
To agent rusco -- I'm glad to give support to your feelings as a student. When I was dismissed I had a number of students with whom I was quite close. It was devastating to them, even as it was to me.

And to Bill, thank you for your comments which provides another perspective. You, the students, and the school as a whole are in my thoughts and prayers as you begin this fall semester.
1:05 PM
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