wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] ACSWP seeks moral voice in economic reconstruction

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www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09051<http://www.pcusa.org/pcnews/2009/09051

ACSWP seeks moral voice in economic reconstruction

Fledgling "Global Oikonomics Project" aims at 'well-being
of all'

>by Jerry L. Van Marter
>Presbyterian News Service

BERKELEY, CA ― In 1944, global economic leaders gathered at
Bretton Woods to plan the massive economic recovery that
would be necessary after the destruction of World War II.
Out of that meeting came such financial institutions as the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

Today, with the world economy in the grips of the worst
financial meltdown since the Great Depression, world
leaders are again beginning to talk about plans for the
next recovery. Many have come to embrace the necessity for
another major gathering, coined by some as "Bretton Woods
II."

"There needs to be a moral, justice-seeking dimension to
this work and above all an acute sense of its likely impact
on the poor," retired San Francisco Theological Seminary
dean Lewis Mudge told his fellow members of the
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)'s Advisory Committee on Social
Witness Policy (ACSWP) at their Jan. 222-24 meeting here.

The committee agreed, authorizing further exploratory steps
in what Mudge called "Toward a Global Oikonomics Project."

Oikonomics is a combination of the Greek word "oikos"
(household), which is traditionally used by Christian
theologians to denote God's community, and economics. "It's
really a 'hinge discipline,'" Mudge said, "that can help us
all sort out the post-economic meltdown world economic
order from a moral and ethical standpoint as well as from
economic and political ones."

ACSWP member Bill Saint from Washington, DC, agreed. "This
proposal is timely because Bretton Woods focused entirely
on economic institutions and policies," he said. "Since
1990 those institutions have recognized the need to add on
political considerations. Now might be the right time to
add the moral and ethical considerations."

Mudge, who freely admitted he's not an economist, said the
first step in the process "is to map out the playing field
to see how we might get a hearing on our ideas." The key,
the committee agreed, is to identify Presbyterians and
ecumenical partners who can form a network of Christian
thinkers who have access to the tables where the
conversations are happening and ultimately, where the
decisions will be made on the global economic recovery.

Mudge said he's already aware of interest in an
"oikonomics" project in the World Council of Churches and
the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, both of which have
addressed globalization and global economic justice in
their recent assemblies.

Saint pointed out that "poverty alleviation is not the same
as social justice. Oikonomics addresses the restructuring
of power rather than the redistribution of wealth." Thus,
Mudge said, such a project must include ― in the words of
The Brief Statement of Faith ― "the voices of those long
silenced."

The idea, Mudge told the committee, "would be to encourage
the emergence of dialogues ― in communication with one
another ― tracking and paralleling or shadowing the
discussions of governments and economists across the globe
... This is something that Christian ecumenical and
ecumenical-minded organizations would be uniquely qualified
to do.

In constructing new global economic institutions, Mudge
concluded, "it would be dereliction of our covenantal human
duty to seek the well-being of all earth's families not to
think seriously now about what could be involved in doing
so."

The "oikonomics project" will be on ACSWP's agenda when it
meets again May 14-17 in Washington, DC.

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