Social Gospel in Germany and America

It can be very discouraging to be a Christian in the United States these days.  So many self-described "Christians" are energized by the urge to exclude and marginalize others.  Take the case of Virgil Goode, the evangelical Christian congressman from Virginia.  He recently sent a letter to the voters in his district demanding the expulsion and exclusion of Muslims in the US. Or witness the growing schism in the Episcopal Church in America, as more and more congregations split off to join an Anglican movement led by a bigoted Nigerian archbishop who supports the imprisonment of gays and lesbians.

So I was heartened to read this interview in the Berliner Zeitung with Bishop Wolfgang Huber, head of the Evangelical (Lutheran) Church in Germany.  Bishop Huber offers up a strong criticism of corporate greed in Germany, income inequality, and the need to reform the labor market to make room for older employees:

"Das Durchschnittseinkommen liegt in Deutschland bei rund 40 000 Euro im Jahr. Wenn ein Manager 20 Millionen Euro verdient, sprengt das jede Vorstellung von Gerechtigkeit. Beim Abbau von Arbeitsplätzen wird zu Recht die Frage gestellt, wie viele Jobs sich von einem solchen Gehalt sichern ließen". (The average annual income in Germany is 40,000 Euros.  If a manager receives 20 million Euros it defies any measure of justice. When jobs are eliminated it is fair to ask how many might have been preserved by an enormous salary.)

"Besonders in Großkonzernen dreht sich das Denken aber scheinbar oft nur um den Aktienkurs. Faktoren wie die Zufriedenheit der Mitarbeiter oder der Kunden stehen zurück. Diese Mentalität muss dringend beendet werden. Wer allein am Aktienkurs die Leistung von Managern misst, verliert seine Glaubwürdigkeit." (Especially in big corporation there is a one-sided focus on on the share price.  Other factors, such as customer or employee satisfaction are ignored.  This mentality must be stopped.  Whoever measures an executive’s performance only by the the share price loses all credibility.)

Of course, Bishop Huber and the Lutheran Church don’t have the same public influence in secluarized Germany today, but his comments were picked up and reprinted by most of the major media outlets.  The interview went completely unnoticed in the US, where Huber’s message was even more meaningful. In this Christmas season we learned about $56 million bonuses on Wall Street, and the ex-CEO of Pfizer, who actually destroyed the company’s share price through mismanagement, was rewarded with a $200 million severance package.

More hopeful is this article in the New York Times Magazine on the revitalizaiton of the Catholic Church in America through the influence of Mexican immigrants.