wfn.org | Lutheran Ethicists Discuss Complexities of World Economics

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

Focus on LWF Working Paper on Globalization

CHICAGO, United States of America 14 February 2002 ( ELCANEWS/LWI) 
-  Lutheran ethicists explored economic globalization from several
perspectives during a recent meeting in Surrey, British Columbia,
Canada.

Discussions by the 32 participants in January opened around a
25-page publication of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF),
"Engaging Economic Globalization as a Communion: An LWF Working
Paper." The document was produced last year by the church and
social issues desk of the LWF Department for Theology and Studies.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for
Church in Society sponsors gatherings of Lutheran ethicists prior
to annual meetings of the Society of Christian Ethics. "There was
an emphasis on recognizing the complexity of globalization," said
Rev. John R. Stumme, director for studies, ELCA Division for
Church in Society. "There is a mixture of good and evil involved,
and ethicists want to recognize both in what is happening and in
the decisions that are being made and have to be made." Stumme
said its the responsibility of the church and others to "recognize
and to name and to struggle against those evils that are present
in the inequalities."

"Ethicists would have to say economic globalization is a complex
phenomenon with aspects that commend it and aspects that are not
commendable," said the Rev. Roger A. Willer, associate for
studies, ELCA Division for Church in Society. "I had only a
general awareness of the economic globalization issues," said
Willer. A series of presentations and discussions took him quickly
to a second and a third level of understanding about the diversity
of the issues, he said.

A panel of speakers including Anglican priests, the Rev. Melvin
Cook and the Rev. Larry Durdy, represented the Tataskweyak Cree
Nation, Split Lake, Manitoba. They presented a case study of
economic globalization and some of the complex, concrete issues
involved. In October 2000, the Tataskweyak Cree Nation entered
into an agreement with Manitoba Hydro, an energy utility company
based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The agreement creates a partnership
in the generation of hydroelectric power along the Churchill and
Nelson Rivers in the Split Lake Resource Management Area.

The partnership is "very complex because it involves environmental
issues, economic issues and cultural issues," said Willer.
Conflicts over the agreement still exist among the aboriginal
people of Canada, within the energy company and within the
government, he said.

Dr. Gary Teeple, associate professor of sociology, Simon Fraser
University, Burnaby, British Columbia, suggested that economic
globalization is driven by many of the same principles that
developed the nation-state back at the dawn of the modern age. If
Teeple is right, Willer added, economic globalization is more than
a new form of corporate enterprise; it's a revolutionary stage of
human development.

Fred McMahon, director, Center for Globalization Studies, Fraser
Institute, a Canadian free-market think tank based in Vancouver
gave the Lutheran ethicists a presentation on the benefits of
economic globalization.

The Rev. David Pfrimmer, a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Canada and director of the Lutheran Office for Public
Policy, Waterloo, Ontario, "raised some of the questions the
church can raise probably better than others about who is
benefiting from this, what are the realities and so forth," said
Willer.

According to Stumme, the meeting "fit into part of the Lutheran
communion-wide discussion" on globalization. The LWF working paper
provided a focal point for the discussion, he added.

The next gathering of Lutheran ethicists will be held 8-10 January
2003, in Pittsburgh. Discussions will focus on war in the
Christian and Islamic traditions.

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5
million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

*       *       *
LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION
PO Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
Editor's e-mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org
Tel: (41.22) 791.63.54
Fax: (41.22) 791.66.30
http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Articles/EN/LWI