There are two types of profit that a company can aspire to earn: economic and political. Economic profits are earned when two people take part in a mutually beneficial exchange. One may exchange a product for a cash payment. The recipient of the product values that product more than the cash he paid for it, while the producer values the cash more than the product he sold. Political profits, on the other hand, are “earned” when governments and regulations are used to artificially secure customers and/or revenues. For example, when a group of service providers get together and lobby the government to require all new market entrants to get an expensive license, they are protecting their profits through political means, not economic means. When people do this, it is usually because they would lose profits if the playing field remained fair.
Clearly economic profits appear to be the moral approach to business, but what does this analysis have to do with the Christian view of legal tolerance? It is really quite simple. There was a time in this country that Christian ideas dominated the free market of ideas. People were, more or less, Christian. (While we know that it’s erroneous to state that America as ever been anywhere near completely Christian, most concede that we have become less homogenous in the past few decades.) When Christian ideas could compete in the “idea market” there was no need to seek political profits.
Understand that the inability of Christian ideas to succeed in today’s idea market has no bearing on whether or not those ideas are true. It simply speaks to their appeal (often as they are packaged) and the popularity of Christianity at large. As such, recent decades have seen the Religious Right adopt the approach of many businesses: protecting their profits, in this case the implementation of their ideas, by political regulation instead of competition. The problem with this approach is multi-faceted. First, it makes Christianity less genuine. People don’t relate well to companies that they are required to do business with. Railroading people out of options promotes negative relationships between customers and suppliers. In the case of Christianity, these negative feelings make people turn their ears away from the message. In this way, the Religious Right actually accomplishes the exact opposite of its goals.
The solution to this problem is to vigorously fight for Christian ideas in the marketplace. We need to debate, not legislate. Our national dialogue must take place in our cities, towns, and homes, not the Capitol and our statehouses.
(Reposted from LegalTolerance.com)
