Waldrop: Playing economic and spiritual ‘Monopoly’

Remember playing Monopoly as children? It may come back to mind by mentioning the feel of dice in your hands or those difficult decisions about adding houses and motels to your portfolio. Did you buy Reading Railroad if the B & O, Short Line, and Pennsylvania had already been bought — or did you save the $200 in case you were sent directly to Jail (without passing “Go”)? Did you buy the cheap properties of Baltic and Mediterranean avenues or did you save for a chance at Park Place and Boardwalk?

For some of us, the cutthroat nature of the game stands out: the pleasure of reducing our opponents to mush, if not also to tears; and the pain of having it done to ourselves. Some understood Monopoly as a personality predictor that revealed who would eventually succeed or fail in the business world. Look at those former childhood “players” again. Did the winners and losers actually become that in real life (including you)?

Some people live life as a game of Monopoly. There’s big losses and winnings, bankruptcy, even going to jail. There’s the Community Chest, surprise “bank errors in your favor,” but also sudden orders to “go back three spaces.” It all sounds very lifelike, doesn’t it? So much so that it was represented in the Bible many centuries ago. Listen to the prophet Isaiah’s opinion of it:
“Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field until no space is left but yours and you live in it alone. The Lord Almighty has declared to me that your great houses will become desolate and your fine mansions unoccupied” (Isaiah 5:8-10).

Life could be lived as a business in Biblical times, too! Our modern real estate, banking, savings and loan, and other financial scandals are not so new. But where are prophets like Isaiah? Why do so many come to grieve with the people afterwards rather than rail out ahead of time before people lose their homes? Why did relatively few speak out before CEOs committed suicide or went to jail with other people’s money stashed away?

There are reasons, of course. The 2,000 verses of Biblical economics became outdated as critics of runaway capitalism were called socialists or Marxists. Greed was baptized as “good” and prophets were called judgmental regulators. Fearing that label, some stopped preaching because they could not reconcile unconditional love with judgment. (Though parents and teachers have always known better).

Genuine victims of oppressive systems (such as payday and car title loans at exorbitant interest) are called gullible and applauded for their having “learned a lesson” of some sort. Also tragically, some prophets preached a “get-rich gospel”; that is, God wants you to be financially wealthy and if you aren’t, then your faith is weak or you don’t work hard enough, or both. Either way, we mustn’t “punish” those who succeed by expecting more of them, even though Jesus taught exactly that (Luke 12:48).

Perhaps the most grievous error in modern preaching is the omission of social justice. Richard Stearns, president of World Vision U.S.A., asks: “Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?” (See his autographical book, “The Hole in Our Gospel”).

Jesus’ disciples have responsibilities in all social areas: poverty, health care, education, prisons, child care, etc. His question to his first followers about their personal resources for ministry applies to us today: “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. Then, to make himself perfectly clear, he added: “Go find out.” (Mark 6:38). Have you found yours yet?