Religion Fails, and Avarice Becomes an Equal - Opportunity Vice

There was a time when members of the Jewish community trembled before looking at the front page of the paper with its inevitable difficult story about Israel or some act of terror against a venerable synagogue somewhere in the world. Today it is the business section that arouses apprehension. Jews are uncomfortable reading about the Ivan Boeskys or the Dennis Levines who are engaged in one financial dishonesty or another. Jews fear that perhaps these revelations will arouse some dormant stereotype of Jews as money lenders or “sharp” business types.

The Jewish community needn’t worry. As the financial pages look more and more like some mutation of the National Enquirer, it is clear that avarice is an equal opportunity vice. Boesky’s story is paralleled by tales of similar wrongdoing by men named Donovan, Brown or Wilkins.

The pervasiveness of these scandals throws one profoundly troubling truth into stark relief: All of the religious traditions of America have failed, and failed miserably, to instill values in their adherents; all have been defeated by a common foe.

The rantings of the religious right are a diversion here. The common foe is not secular humanism (whatever that is). The great moral issues of the moment are not pornography or abortion. The false value that has triumphed over the teachings of all religious communities is the implicit ethic of our economic system: “looking out for No. 1.”

None of the admonitions to charity, compassion and honesty have withstood the withering sirocco of the ethic of self-advancement at any cost, which lies at the heart of the unbridled competition that is necessary to succeed in the terms of our socioeconomic system. As the game gets increasingly frantic and complex, is it any wonder that some players will want the field tilted in their favor? Perhaps we should be less concerned about the players and more worried about the rules of the game.

Of all the religious bodies in the country in recent years, only the Roman Catholic bishops have had the courage to question the system by which our economy functions. In their forthright and incisive pastoral letter concerning the economy, the bishops dared to broach questions that touch on the very nature of the American character. They challenge the American equation of the good life with financial success. They point to the dehumanization that befalls both loser and winner in the constant and unrestrained competition for material advantage. They go so far as to challenge so many Americans’ “primary or exclusive focus on maximization of profit,” and suggest that such an ethic is contrary to the values taught by all our Western traditions.

Boesky and Levine, Donovan, Brown and Wilkins are not aberrations. They are the product and the extreme expression of the secret ethic that fuels American life. The triumph of that value is a tragedy that bespeaks the real failure of American religion--even in the face of its supposed vigor and strength.

In their pastoral letter the Fathers of the Church are inspiring teachers. Their lessons are a challenge to all Americans of every religion who care about the moral fiber of our society.