| Some say money's okay
By Stephanie Biesheuvel
Staff Writer
The Oak Room in the Prince Conference Center was the ideal setting for a panel on vocation and affluence on the evening of January 16. It was filled with over 100 students, as well as members of the community, for a discussion of John Schneider’s book The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth. As Schneider, professor of religion, said, “No one can very well oppose affluence here.” The discussion stretched further than the building, however, into a dialogue on community, context, and capitalism.
Schneider began the panel with a brief overview of his book. The other panelists followed up with synopses of their reactions to Schneider’s views as well as any questions or criticisms they had.
Jackie VanderBrug, a Calvin alumnus, a trustee and a business owner, spoke about her struggles as a Christian in the midst of upper-middleclass society. Basically, she said, it is community that makes the difference.
“I believe that the implications for affluence (or lack of affluence for that matter) are best lived out in the context of community.” She expressed longing for a community where money was not a private matter between Christians.
As an example, she spoke of a church group that decided to share their tax returns with each other as a form of accountability. One member of the group told VanderBrug that this made them feel “more vulnerable than sitting in a room naked together.”
Through out the discussion, she emphasized having joy in God’s gifts. “The joy in having things is realizing that they are not really yours.”
Dr. Doug Koop-man, professor of Political Science and former economist for the U.S. Congress, spoke of his own experiences, from praying for $20 to buy groceries “because we didn’t have it” to praying whether or not to give away $10,000 “because we did have it.”
He urged people to think carefully about wealth, remembering that our goal is to redeem everything. He said, “We often talk about sharing wealth and we mean someone else’s, not our own.”
Jeremy Vecchi, a senior religion major, was the final panelist. He spoke about what he had learned from reading Schneider’s book. “In a way, excess is God’s plan for humanity,” he said. He also questioned Jesus’ and the disciples’ generally assumed poverty, recalling that they had their own carpentry and fishing careers.
Vecchi brought up questions that Christians ask when faced with wealth, such as, “Does affluence keep me from certain spiritual lessons or opportunities for service?” As an example he said, “If I need a part-time job to afford luxuries, will I have time to volunteer?”
Schneider’s response to the panelists’ observations and questions was basically that the most important factor when considering how to behave with money is the context. “Taking your wife to dinner for an anniversary is different from throwing money around at the mall,” he said.
He encouraged the idea of being “creative in affluence,” and flourishing, “Rich people shouldn’t just suck [money] up,” he said.
However, some luxuries are okay. For example, owning a Jaguar means more than just the car. He pondered what the world would be like with no such artifacts - really first-rate things. “This kind of diversity is not just possible, but quite good,” he concluded.
The audience was given the chance to ask some questions that generated more discussion. One recurring topic was that of community. Koopman gave some practical advice: “Always have room in your budget to respond to the needs of the people you see,” he said. “Seek to respond to your community of faith in faith.”
Schneider’s response is that community is important, but not central. “The community is essential,” he said after the panel.
He added, however, “Given the communitarian emphasis of some Christians today, and the almost allergic reaction to anything that encourages freedom for individuals, it is shocking how individualistic Paul (and Jesus too) could be on certain subjects related to moral and spiritual life.”
Students identified with the idea of community. Senior Nancy Veurink said, “The first thing I thought was, ‘Who are the people in our community?’ We tend to forget the world. It seems like we’re only reaching out to people here and within North America.”
Shirley Roels, Director of the Lilly Vocation Project (which sponsored the event) was one of the organizers of the panel.
She said that the topics surrounding affluence are easily avoided, when “they ought to be communal questions.” Community “is all about holding each other accountable.”
Roels shed light on the importance of the subject of affluence within the Calvin community. “If you get a good education and you become invested in stable Christian relationships, you often end up being, on the world’s scale, well-to-do. I still have to deal with the questions, ‘Do I buy the DVD?’ or ‘Do I go to Marshall Fields and buy the new suits?’ We always encounter the questions of money, material goods, and potential wealth and lack thereof.”
Community and context are key ideas to help Christians determine how to act when encountering affluence. But the answers are not always clear. As Schneider put it, there is a lot of ambiguity. This left some students confused or unsure about their positions on the matter.
“I was really impressed with some of the different ideas,” said freshman Heather Venn. “But I’m not quite convinced.”
Schneider’s goal was not to convince. “My main goal simply was to get some of the ideas in the book across to people who had not yet read it.”
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