Syndicated columnist David Ignatius writing about globalization observed, business today is the leading agent of social change. To support his position he quoted a venture capitalist, Vinod Khosla who said innovative bottom up methods will solve problems that now seem intractable- from energy to poverty to disease.

Two things jump to mind when I read these words. First it disturbs me that business is the leading agent of social change. While it may be true, it bothers me that the church is not seen as the leading agent of social change. If our society is going to follow the change agent called business, I’m afraid we are all in trouble. While business has done great things, especially in America, it has also caused great damage. We are a nation of consumers, materialistic to the core and continue to grow in these vices in great part due to business. A society that follows a business mind set will be primarily driven by competition. Competition is a nice word for, me first, which is about as far as you can get from biblical truth.

The second issue I take with Ignatius’s observation is the idea that business will solve the ills of society. If the business ethic were capable of curing the world of poverty you would think it would have done it by now, at least here in the good ole U.S.A. I’m still convinced that the Kingdom of God is the only hope for disease, poverty, war, crime and all the other sin driven ills of society to be cured.

While business may or may not be the leading agent of change in our society, it is the Kingdom of god that needs to be. Surely Gods people empowered by his Spirit should be leading the way to peace.