Every year, Jim Wallis speaks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. That is where the elite eat, meet, and retreat. Then they go back home and run the world.
Here, the richest and most powerful people on earth meet -- about one-third of the 6,000 people who constitute what David Rothkopf has labeled the Superclass. (There are 2,500 in attendance, but several hundred are journalists and speakers who are not part of this class -- merely its agents.)
Rev. Wallis has a two-fold calling in life: (1) persuading evangelical Protestants in the name of Jesus that the superclass has too much money, and the U.S. government ought to take most of it away from them; (2) persuading the superclass that if they give a lot of it away voluntarily before the state takes it away, God will approve of them.
Most evangelical Protestants have never heard of him, and the few who have think he is just another social gospel Leftie, which is exactly what he is. The Superclass love to listen to him once a year, because he makes them feel good about their inner lives. They know the world's governments will not be able to get their money, since they control the governments, so they are content to give a little of their money away to their favorite charitable projects . . . in their wills. They are very much like the rich medieval landholders who gave land to the church or a local monastery on their deathbeds. They like to hear about how pleased a vaguely described, utterly creedless god will be with them on their deathbeds. Rev. Wallis consoles them. He makes them feel good about themselves. So, they invite him back every year.
Jim Wallis plays the same role to them that Harry Emerson Fosdick played for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who built the gigantic Riverside Church for him, 1925 to 1930. Fosdick served as his pastor until he retired in 1946. Like Fosdick, Wallis preaches what the rich want to hear . . . once a year. He is harmless politically back home, and he is non-confrontational rhetorically in person.
In 2014, he spoke on this topic: "A Leap of Faith: Confessions from Davos."
He began with a reference to Pope Francis.
In our opening session for this 2014 annual meeting, we heard a letter read to us from Pope Francis, a leader who has captured the attention of the world. He called us here to "deeper reflection" and to "reshaping the world." He said something quite striking, "I ask you to insure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it."
The top 85 members of the Superclass are said to own or control the wealth equivalent to the wealth owned by 3.5 billion people at the bottom. Anyway, that was what a Left-wing organization said in the week the meeting opened. Rothkopf says the top 1,000 own twice what the bottom three billion own. In short, the listeners at the meeting were the Pope's target audience.
So, to that deeper reflection: I believe that for many of us here at Davos, there was a moment -- a remark from a session, a smaller discussion, a meal interaction, a personal conversation, or a walk in the snow -- that made us think and feel some things we don't normally focus on in our day-to-day environment back home. It could have been an insight, a new angle or framework, a challenge, or a reminder of things lost -- something that struck you more deeply than just more talk and made an impact on you. Often these insightful moments are about our values, or challenge our values, or bring us back to a moral compass that we have, or would like to have, or miss from earlier in our lives.
Or maybe nothing of the sort happened this year. Or last year. And even if it did, so what? Because nothing at the top ever changes -- including Rev. Wallis' annual invitation to speak.
I often get pulled aside for conversations here, in a corner or over a cup of coffee, about deep ethical concerns that arise from these moments of reflection. Business and other leaders mention their religious backgrounds, moral sensibilities, or moral qualms about something they are doing or not doing, or something they are uncomfortable with. I have come to think of these personal conversations as my "Davos confessionals."
The Bible says this: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). This is what the Roman Catholic practice of the confessional used to be about. (These days, the practice is rarely observed. There are not enough priests to serve 78 million members. With only 500 ordained parish priests each year, there are not enough replacements.)
In his presentation, Rev. Wallis failed to mention Jesus. He failed to mention Christianity.
Then on whose behalf did he conduct his "confessionals"?
This year, we have had some morning sessions on the dilemmas of ethics and values and even taken some time for meditation -- sometimes called mindfulness. Professor Klaus Schwab says that leaders must have soul -- to guide values. These morning reflections were a pause at the beginning of the day to help find our way back to our moral compass. So I have come to think of these morning pauses as "Davos Devotionals."
Sam problem: devotion to what?
They revealed some of the obstacles that keep Davos participants from implementing their values back in their work places and regular life.
The Bible has a word for these obstacles: sin.
I hear about those often at Davos. Leaders tell me something that inspired them; then I ask how they are implementing that back home in their work place -- and, too often, they say "I can't do that." That is what has to change, and what I want you to think about as we close.
Why does it have to change? Who says it has to change? It did not change in 2013. Or 2012. Or any time since the Davos meetings began in 1971.
This closing session is called "Leap of Faith," with spoken word and music, which goes to the heart. It well describes the bold leap that often must be taken to carry out the best expression of the World Economic Forum's mission statement -- to improve the state of the world. The transformation of the world, which many of us long to see, requires the changing of frameworks, ethics, and, most of all, our decisions; and that will not happen without taking risks, a true leap of faith.
Again, a leap of faith in what? Why a leap? Why not a hop, skip, and a jump? Why not just tiptoe through the tulips?
What values? Whose values? Enforced by what? Involving what sanctions? There is no such thing as a social covenant. There is a personal covenant to God. A family covenant. A church covenant. A civil covenant. Then there is the overall dominion covenant of Genesis 1:26-28: to subdue the earth in the name of the God of the Bible. A covenant in an oath-bound formal agreement under God. If its ethical terms are broken, God brings negative sanctions against the covenant-breaker. But social covenant? That's Rousseau's idea, not Christianity's.
Is our primary metric our isolated bubble, our executive team, our shareholders' quarterly profit and loss statements? Metric? This is MBA jargon. Common good? By what standard? Enforced by whom? With what sanctions? I never read this. Given by whom? The state? Are we to trust the state? As in Congress? Does Congress have the common good as its operating standard? If so, where? When is this enforced? First, who says the invisible hand of voluntary exchange is not a reliable indicator of the common good. Who says "we" are supposed to restore the common good? How was it lost? Should we blame the free market? Or is Congress the most likely suspect? Stewardship. A great idea! I read about it in Genesis 1:26-28. But here is the deal. A stward is a steward on behalf of an owner. The very concept of stewardship is an extension of the concept of ownership? The central question is this: Who owns the world? Who sets the terms of the leasehold? Who enforces these terms? Who has the authority to fire a steward? Jesus dealt with this issue in Matthew 25: the parable of the talents. What has this to do with Davos? My suggestion: If you cannot identify the owner, stop talking about stewardship. Stop talking about the failure of the free market. Bold action! Let's hear it for bold action! But who are actors? The people at Davos, who are the owners of most of the world's wealth? The have been acting for decades. They are at the top of the pinnacle of the pyramid of power and wealth -- as no group in history ever has been. If the attendees at Davos have failed it, a would-be prophet must say so. But if they have not failed it, he should go home and invest in a diversified mix of stocks and bonds. Nelson Mandela. Not Jesus. Nelson Mandela. Whatever we call faith. This is the Gospel according to Dwight Eisenhower. "Our government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don't care what it is." "Moral authenticity." This is the language of Madison Avenue. "Finally, when seeking moral authenticity consumers desire brands that reflect their personal beliefs. In these cases, cues that signaled sincerity, and the lack of cues signalling commercial motivations are crucial." (Building Brand Authenticity: 7 Habits of Iconic Brands (2009), p. 27.) And a good time was had by all.
Or do we measure our success by the ancient idea of the common good?
Corporations, governments, and institutions of all kinds are in fact given their charter, their very existence with the hope that they will seek the common good.
But what happens when the invisible hand of the market lets go of the common good? That's a deep question. How do we restore the common good and even make that part of our bottom line? What does it mean to seek human dignity for all the many stakeholders of our global economy?
And how does the ethic of stewardship, care for both our planet and our posterity, compared to the short-termism of market fundamentalism? Do we only track our quarterly profit and loss statements or do we go deeper, moving closer toward a value of indigenous people: judging success by how our decisions impact the seventh generation out?
As we now close this year, I want to call for bold action, and encourage our better instincts that we were reminded of here. What we most need is leadership on behalf of values where it matters most, where it is most difficult, and may even cost you a great deal -- leadership in the place where you can have the greatest impact. So I am calling this the Davos "call," to measure ourselves in different ways.
Pope Francis asked us to keep in mind those who are the most excluded from the global economy. And we have spoken here of the multitudes of those still socially excluded. We are perhaps among the most included in this global economy. So how will the most included reach out to the most excluded this year? All our prophets have said that the moral measure of a society -- is not its GDP, military firepower, or the success of its popular culture -- but, rather, how it treats the poorest and most vulnerable. That's the real moral test.
So I close by speaking of courage and hope -- the two most important elements for improving the state of the world. Courage is simply to act on what you know to be right, and a willingness to sacrifice for your values. Or else those values are really of little use. Skills are not the deepest form of leadership; sacrifice is, as Nelson Mandela has shown us.
The Scriptures say that "faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Religion has no monopoly on morality, but our hope is bound up with whatever we call faith. My paraphrase of that biblical text is this: hope means believing despite the evidence, and watching the evidence change. Mandela showed us how to do that too.
We all know that trust in our economic and political institutions has sunk to dangerous levels. What has been lost must now be found again. Pope Francis is teaching us how trust can be restored by leaders with a vision to inspire, and who practice a genuine humility and moral authenticity. As we leave, I ask you to not just consider your career, but also your vocation and the vocation of your company or organization.
When we return home, we will all be confronted with the tyranny of the urgent, which can make us forget what is morally urgent. So I ask you now, as we close this special week together, to do that deeper reflection the pope called us to, to ask yourself what is one thing that you will commit to, right here and now -- to improve the state of the world.
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