'The Economic Community' Teaches Money Belongs to God

The Social Principles Part 3

by

UPDATE March 13, 2025: Global Church Leaders Will Convene to Call for Just Economy for All

A United Methodist Insight Exclusive

Money, money, money, money. Everybody needs it, and some get a lot more than others. So, what do we do with our money?

The Holy Bible contains more references to equitable uses of money than any other topic, say scholars. The United Methodist Social Principles, contained in the 2020/2024 Book of Discipline, the collection of church laws and policies, summarize the UMC's economic theology succinctly: everything in the world, including its financial wealth, belongs to God.

As with much else about human life, Methodism's founder John Wesley expressed his views on wealth in a sermon, "The Use of Money:"

When the Possessor of heaven and earth brought you into being, and placed you in this world, [God] placed you here not as a proprietor, but a steward: As such [God] entrusted you, for a season, with goods of various kinds; but the sole property of these still rests in [God], nor can be alienated from [God]. As you yourself are not your own, but God’s, such is, likewise, all that you enjoy.

It's doubtful that the world's wealthiest people would ascribe to Wesley's definition, nor do some of the wealthiest Christians.

As with the "Community of All Creation" section, "The Economic Community" begins by describing the challenges to an equitable economy: globalization, poverty and income inequality, human trafficking and slavery, and graft, bribery and corruption.

Globalization, for example, lists the equivalent of "blessings and woes."

While globalization undoubtedly has provided certain financial and other benefits, it has also undermined established wage and labor standards, weakened environmental protections, and accelerated the concentration of the world’s wealth in the hands of a relative few. Additionally, globalization has increased over-consumption due to the ready access of cheaper goods and has undermined indigenous land rights in a rush to acquire raw mate-rials necessary for expanded production.

As a church, we recognize the importance of creating just, equitable, and sustainable economies that benefit all members of society, especially marginalized and vulnerable peoples.

No support for 'prosperity gospel'

Proponents of the "prosperity gospel," including United Methodists, probably find another injunction uncomfortable.

We reject religious teachings that view the accumulation of wealth as a sign of God’s favor and poverty as a sign of God’s disfavor. We confess that we have not always heeded the words of Jesus, who preached good news to people living in poverty, taught that they were not far from God’s coming reign, and challenged the rich young man to give up all that he had to follow him (Luke 6:20; Matthew 19:23-25).

The section commits United Methodists to being in ministry "with" rather than "to" impoverished communities, an effort to reduce or eliminate class distinctions. The definition also aims to diminish past colonialism through which Western churches dispensed charity without attending to the systems that caused poverty and made charity necessary.

Instead, the Social Principles pledge to help impoverished communities "secure equal opportunities and meet human needs, including food, water, health care and education." Once again, the UMC's aspirations put it at odds with a U.S. federal administration determined to dismantle the social safety net that has helped people get out of poverty since the 1930s.

For United Methodists, economic justice entails:

  • responsible consumerism,
  • equitable farming and agricultural production supported by sustainable policies and practices,
  • the dignity of work, not merely as a means of subsistence but as a contribution to human flourishing,
  • Sabbath and renewal time, noting that even God rested on the seventh day after creating the universe,
  • corporate responsibility that places people's welfare above profits and protects the global environment.

Exploitive practices opposed

Specifically, the UMC opposes exploitive labor practices such as child labor, union-busting and especially human trafficking and slavery.

Human trafficking entails the buying and selling of human beings for purposes of forced or indentured labor, including private and commercial sexual exploitation. We consider such trafficking to be abhorrent because it violates basic human rights and exploits the vulnerabilities of the weakest members of society. Those who are especially vulnerable include minor children and women, migrants, displaced people, and others living in poverty.

Hence, United Methodists are expected to find out where their clothes are made, whether there's human trafficking in their towns, and if foreign manufacturers use child labor or mistreat their workers. Socially responsible consumption in the United Methodist view involves purchasing goods that benefit humans, reduce waste of all kinds, promote sustainability and reduce reliance on fossil fuels and products made from them.

In addition, United Methodists are called upon to "exercise their economic power" to persuade companies to follow fair labor practices through nonviolent efforts such as boycotts, letter-writing campaigns, appeals to stockholders, and divestiture.

The Social Principles' economic community clashes with reality including within the UMC itself.

The "Fossil Free UMC" campaign for a decade has advocated for the denomination to divest itself of all its fossil-fuel investments, but the General Conference and Wespath Benefits and Investments, the denomination's pension agency, have resisted. As of the 2024 General Conference, some progress has been made, with Wespath offering a socially responsible investment option, but the UMC still owns fossil-fuel stock. Wespath maintains that it seeks to work change from within the fossil-fuel companies in which it invests.

Next: The Social Community

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news and views by and for marginalized and under-served United Methodists. Please email Insight for permission to reproduce this content elsewhere.