Globalization

Dear Victorious,

Do you think that globalization is Biblical? It seems that the goods we buy are all produced somewhere else. And the services that we receive also come from so many other places. Sometimes I wonder if there isn't an ethical or moral dilemma being presented here. What's the truth?

Angela M. - Dallas, TX

Dear Angela,

I believe it's a good question to ask. Unfortunately there are no easy answers. Certainly there are a number of Biblical principles to guide our thinking here. One that comes to mind is the mandate to pay people fair wage for their work. Another is the mandate to not be unequally yoked with people who don't share our faith and our values (i.e., our God).

So from my point of view, globalization has a couple of problems. Much of the manufacturing and services we obtain are from very poor countries - and the work we hire them to do is paid at significantly lower wages than we'd otherwise pay. Overlapping some of those countries, we have trading partners who don't share our God or our values. So the poor countries like India, China and Mexico would be in the first category. In the latter category would be India, China, Russia, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, etc.

God told the Israelites to make no treaties with such people and to do no business with them. This is precisely how we've pursued globalization - making treaties with and doing business with people who don't share our values or our God. Even when they do, we tend to exploit their poverty. Neither seems like a very righteous choice from my perspective.