Killers of the Flower Moon Is about Government Failure

 

Most reviewers of the motion picture Killers of the Flower Moon distill just one lesson from the story: greed is deadly. The love of money leads to evil. But the real lesson should be of government failure.

The movie follows the book, Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann. It tells the story of the Osage tribe during the 1920s oil boom in Oklahoma. Tribal members became very wealthy because of the discovery of oil on tribal land, and many white people committed fraud and murder to steal that wealth.

Government-Enforced Paid Family Leave Is Not Pro-Family

Paid family leave—meaning the government paying or forcing businesses to pay for one or more parents taking time off to spend with a newborn—seems like a slam dunk idea to the Christian Left. According to a recent article in Christianity Today, “Christians Shouldn’t Need a Mandate to Provide Paid Family Leave,” “We should provide the best family leave possible. Christians who own or manage businesses ought to lead the way on family leave.” The article lists three benefits of parents taking time off to be with newborns:

1. Parental leave could save lives. “There is clearly a link—even if indirect—between maternity leave and babies surviving.”
2. Old Testament purification rules, “which in practice gave new mothers a rest after birth,” are similar.
3. Men need to spend time with their children in the initial weeks after birth or adoption. “Research has shown ‘fathers who take paternity leave are more likely, a year or so down the road, to change diapers, bathe their children, read them bedtime stories, and get up at night to tend to them.’”

Point one is debatable, point two is irrelevant, but point three is a post hoc fallacy. Paid parental leave doesn’t cause men to become better fathers; good fathers take parental leave.

Common sense tells us that it’s good for mothers and fathers to spend as much time as possible with new babies. However, the conclusion that businesses or the government must pay for this time is another fallacy—a non sequitur, or a logical leap across the Grand Canyon. Fathers and mothers should save and pay for the leave themselves.

Christians don’t suffer from consumerism.

For decades, any article by Christians about the evils that afflict modern society have included consumerism. For example, A Gospel Coalition author wrote this:

“None of us is a conscious convert to this religion of consumerism. We are discipled in it from childhood. It offers a story that attempts to rival the biblical story. In the consumer story, creation exists for our amusement and satisfaction. The perennial problem isn’t sin but lack. We don’t have enough—enough money, enough devices, enough experiences, enough entertainment. This cultural god has invited all to come and make sacrifices, promising in exchange material prosperity, comfort, and security. And this ‘salvation story’ has deeply shaped business in our world today…You cannot serve God and money (Matt. 6:24).”

How many people would recognize themselves in that description of consumerism? Not many. Would they see family or friends in it? Not likely. I don’t know of many non-Christians who fit that description, let alone Christians. Who do you know lives for nothing more than to acquire more? That depiction of consumerism is an example of the straw man fallacy.



The Bible doesn’t mention consumerism, but it refers to a more realistic equivalent, greed. What is greed? A common definition is the desire for more. Many Christians admire the Amish for their simple lifestyles and anti-consumerist mentality. But the Amish are grossly rich compared to most people in the world today, especially the hundreds of millions living on $3 per day. If we should be satisfied with the bare necessities for life, then anyone with more stuff than the tribes in the Amazon are greedy. After all, a lean-to for shelter, a cloth to wrap around our hips and an occasional meal of monkey meat is all we need.

The Bible makes clear through examples what greed means. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus the beggar (Luke 16), and that of the bigger barns (Luke 12), Jesus showed that greedy people refuse to help the poor. James condemned employers who refused to pay workers their wages (James 5). Jesus indicted Pharisees for refusing to care for their elderly parents by dedicating what wealth they might give them to the Temple (Luke 11). John the Baptist told soldiers not to extort money from people or falsely accuse them of crimes and warned tax collectors not to take more than required (Luke 3).

Can we distill a principle about greed from these? How about this: greed is the love of money so strong that one is willing to do something immoral to get or keep it? That’s why Jesus condemned those who served money rather than God (Matthew 6:24). Can Christians be guilty of such greed?

While we can’t live sin free, greed will not characterize the lives of Christians. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus contrasted the lives his disciples would lead with those of unbelievers. The parallel passage in Luke 16 shows Pharisees scoffing at this principle. The verse preceding his statement about serving money warns about envy. Paul defined greed as idolatry (Ephesians 5:5) and wrote that people characterized by a greedy lifestyle will not go to heaven (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). Greed like that of the Pharisees is a sure sign you’re not a follower of Jesus.

The issue of greed should cause Christians to ask why are Americans, and the West, so wealthy? But to answer that question, Christians must learn economics. In the 19th century, theologians like Francis Wayland considered economics to be part of natural theology or general revelation and necessary for informed Christians. Wayland was a Baptist pastor and president of Brown University. He wrote one of the best selling economic textbooks of his century, The Elements of Political Economy.

Economic history teaches that Americans are so wealthy because we have implemented Biblical principles of government. The theologians at the University of Salamanca distilled those principles from natural law with Biblical support during the Reformation. Adam Smith called them the principles of natural liberty. Marists referred to them as capitalism.

Those principles made the Dutch Republic first, then England, the U.S. and the rest of the West miraculously wealthy. See this graph for an illustration. In the past generation, slightly freer markets have lifted over 500 million people from starvation in India and China, according to the World Bank.

Still, some will say we should give all our wealth to the poor. That was the model for Europe for 1,500 years. Many of the nobility would give all their wealth, usually land, to the Church when they died or entered a monastery. As a result, the Church before the Reformation owned one-third of the land of Europe, which it used to help the poor. But such enormous charity never lifted anyone out of poverty; charity merely maintains life in poverty. Millions continued to starve to death in frequent famines. Only with the advent of capitalism, which gave the poor the tools to produce more, did poverty begin to decline in the Industrial Revolution.

Those who refuse to learn economics, which include most theologians and philosophers, often believe that the West is rich because the West stole the wealth of poor countries. Some will point out that the West consumes 80% of the world’s production, which is true. But the West produces 80% of the world's output, too.

Economics teaches us that consumption and production are two sides of the same coin. Consumption without production is impossible. Production without consumption results in waste. So, demands that we consume less are also demands that we produce less. And producing less means that we will be poorer.

So where does that leave American Christians, the poorest of whom are among the wealthiest on the planet? Should we give all we have to the poor until we are as poor as Haitians? Should we keep our wealth and live in perpetual joyless guilt? How can we have the joy of Jesus if we are burdened with guilt from so much wealth? Guilt seems to be the only emotion Christians should have according to the many theologians who write about consumerism.

We need a better theology of wealth and The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth by John R. Schneider provides one. He wrote that God created the world in part for us to enjoy. Any wealth acquired honestly is a blessing from God. We shouldn’t despise such a gift. We should give a portion of our wealth to the poor, but we should never assume we can eliminate poverty through charity; that would be the sin of pride. Nor should we attempt to eliminate poverty by impoverishing ourselves.

Solomon offered practical advice for wealthy Christians in Ecclesiastes:

“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God . . .” (2:24–26).

“There is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live; also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is God’s gift to man . . .” (3:12–15)

“Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him . . .” (5:18–20)

“I commend joy, for man has no good thing under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.” (8:15)

“Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do . . .” (9:7–10)



“If a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. . . . Rejoice, O young man . . .” (11:8–12:7)

Jesus is an anarcho-capitalist

 

Most arguments for capitalism hinge on the consequences: capitalism enriches people while socialism impoverishes. But few Christians will take a class in economics so they will not care about consequentialist arguments. They consider morality more important than consequences and capitalism to be inherently immoral. Yet, almost half of the country is evangelical or Catholic. We lovers of liberty can’t afford to ignore them. How do we address their moral concerns without succumbing to theonomy? One way is to connect Jesus with capitalist principles.

Modernist theologians from Germany who denied the deity of Christ, fabricated the idea that Jesus was a socialist over a century ago. Both Protestants and Catholics promote that nonsense today. What were Jesus’ real views on politics and economics?

Bank failures another sign of the evil of monetary manipulation

Recently, banks have failed, and the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates another 25 basis points, or 0.25%. Some analysts say banks are safe while others cry that the sky is falling. Who is right? Christians need to discern the financial signs of the times. 

Jesus warned his disciples to get out of Jerusalem when they saw a sign: “When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city,” (Luke 21:20,21). The early church followed Jesus’ advice and fled to Pella in modern Jordan, thus saving the small group from a similar fate. 

Solomon wrote, “A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences,” (Proverbs 27:12).

How Child Tax Credit expansion will hurt children

 

Last year, Congress increased the Child Tax Credit from $2,000 per child to $3,600 and eliminated the requirement that a parent be working to receive the credit, turning it into a welfare payment. According to the government, "The American Rescue Plan’s expansion of the Child Tax Credit will reduce child poverty by (1) supplementing the earnings of families receiving the tax credit, and (2) making the credit available to a significant number of new families."

As part of President Biden's $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, who could oppose giving more to poor children? That would be like opposing the rescue of drowning puppies. Some conservatives promoted the program to reduce abortions by paying poor women to have their children. It didn't occur to them that they are paying a form of extortion to keep their children alive, and that doing so will make the problem worse. 

How the Christ child rescued the world from poverty

 

In 1849, Dr. Edmond Sears wrote a Christmas message for his congregation in Wayland, Massachusetts. Set to music, it became the beloved Christmas carol “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.” The third stanza expresses his sadness over the poverty in his community:

“And ye, beneath life's crushing load, 
whose forms are bending low, 
who toil along the climbing way 
with painful steps and slow, 
look now!”

As sad as that poverty was to Sears, the poor in the middle of the 19th century were far richer than those in the previous century. Humanity had suffered under the crushing load of poverty since God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden. According to the best economic historians, such as Angus Maddison, the standards of living in 1800 for most of Europe were no different from those of the average person in the days of Abraham and Sarah. Standards of living began to grow, and poverty recede, for the first time in human history in the early 17th century in the Dutch Republic. Why then and there?

How Christianity and capitalism lifted South Korea out of centuries of poverty

 

The movie Devotion tells the story of Jesse Brown, the first Black aviator in U.S. Navy history, and his friendship with Tom Hudner, who became the Navy's most celebrated wingmen. The film makes points about race, friendship, heroism and the Korean War, sometimes referred to as the forgotten war. Those are important, but the movie offers forgotten economic lessons for today as well. 

The two Koreas that emerged from the disaster of war offer a case study in what causes economic development, that is, poverty reduction. The Koreas are an important experiment because, as in all good scientific experiments, only one variable changed - the economic institutions. Before World War I, Korea had been unified for twelve centuries. The culture and language were uniform, and the “Hermit” kingdom was one of the poorest on the planet. 

Railroad strike shows unions violate Biblical principles

 

With their threat to strike, railroad unions are holding a gun to the heads of American consumers to force railroads to pay employees more. Unions asked for fifteen paid sick days, but the railroads have offered one personal day. More than 400 groups recently called on Congress to intervene, fearing a strike would idle shipments of food and fuel while inflicting billions of dollars of economic damage.

According to Reuters, “A rail traffic stoppage could freeze almost 30% of U.S. cargo shipments by weight, stoke inflation and cost the American economy as much as $2 billion per day by unleashing a cascade of transport woes affecting U.S. energy, agriculture, manufacturing, healthcare and retail sectors.” Unions and railroads have until Dec. 9 to resolve differences.

While not all support the strike, most Americans support unions because they hold to the myth that unions caused the increases in standards of living in this country over the past century and a half by forcing businesses to pay workers more than the market wage. However, the actual history of how U.S. workers attained one the highest standards of living in the world credits capitalism. In the Gilded age, before unions became powerful, the wages and standard of living of American workers soared at rates rarely seen since, even as the nation absorbed a tsunami of poor immigrants looking for jobs. How?

FTX’s greed, corruption isn't capitalism's fault

Recently, FTX, a digital coin trading firm founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, declared bankruptcy and shocked some people in the world of investing. The company collapsed from a valuation of $32 billion to nearly zero. George Selgin, professor emeritus of economics at the University of Georgia, has written a good analysis of the fiasco.

To boil down the complexities, FTX used the funds of depositors to make loans to its subsidiary, a venture capital firm called Alameda. Alameda made poor investments and lost so much money that it couldn’t repay FTX, and both tanked. Few depositors will get their money back. Clearly, Bankman-Fried became greedy and cost those who trusted him billions of dollars.

Christian theologian wrongly blames free market for ecological crisis

 The 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference was winding down in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, as I write this article. Speaking at the conference, President Joe Biden advertised that the bill he disguised as inflation reduction was really a way to push the Left’s climate agenda, which is unpopular among many Americans, through Congress:

“We are racing forward to do our part to avert the ‘climate hell’ that the U.N. Secretary-General so passionately warned about earlier this week. …  And this summer, the United States Congress passed and I signed into law my proposal for the biggest, most important climate bill in the history of our country — the Inflation Reduction Act.” 

Mike Frost blames capitalism for creating the looming “climate hell” because, he wrote, “In order to exist, capitalism must expand without end.” That unrestrained growth destroys the environment and impoverishes the nations that climate change damages the most. The charge of unlimited growth and environmental destruction is Frost’s fourth indictment. I responded to Frost’s first three misconceptions about capitalism here, here and here.