Whom Do We Serve? Dismantling the Church Industrial Complex in North American Mainline Protestant Churches

Abstract

Social justice is often identified as a central commitment in mainline Protestant churches in North America. However, it is often approached as a public-facing issue that engages broader society, rather than as a comprehensive value that also informs internal practices in those same North American Protestant congregations/denominations, particularly in the area of finance. This reality means that a profit orientation often informs and shapes practices, undermining the mission; this reality can be understood as part of an industrial complex. To counter this tendency, I present two themes that are rooted in a liberation-based critical understanding of inequality found in the World Council of Churches’ AGAPE (Alternative Globalization Affecting People and the Earth) statement. These two themes are as follows: that one’s personal financial resources (or lack thereof) are deeply connected to oppressive systemic factors, and that churches are called to exist in economic solidarity and communion with one another. I conclude by asserting that church finance must be rendered more coherent with churches’ own values and commitments to liberating justice as a matter of faith.