Let us begin with the most basic of formulas. Any system that places something other than God on the throne of God is evil and idolatrous. It is easy for us to apply this test to systems that we have already marked out as evil. The fascist states of the last century placed the leader of the people on the throne of God. The State, in the person of Hitler or Mussolini, made itself out to be lord and giver of life. The theory of Marxism would make the community the God of the community, but in practice the crown of God was set on the brow of an individual: Stalin or Castro or Mao. It is easy for us to recognize these systems as evil, so long as we hold them at arms length. The problem becomes much more murky when we consider our own communities. Chesterton says that the Sun is only a star we are too near to see properly, and the Earth is a star we are too near to see at all. We deal with the same problem when we try to look at American Capitalism. Good or bad, we are too close to really see it.

To decide on the merits of Capitalism, we need to imagine that we are standing on the shore of some distant land, and looking at out own home across the open ocean. At this distance we would no longer be able to see those friends and family that we know to be quite content and happy. This incidental happiness is not unimportant, but it is deceiving. The human soul has infinitely more capacity for finding happiness than the world has for bringing misery. There was romance in Hitler’s Germany, and there could be heard the laughter of children even in the Soviet Union. Wherever these two things are found, you will not fail to find joy. But finding happiness beneath an evil yoke should not make us content to keep the yoke where it is, it should spur us on to an even greater desire to see that happiness free upon the Earth.

What do we see when we look at our own land from that distant coast? We see a mass of people totally reliant on an ever shrinking number of employers for all of their life and well being. These few men on the top possess nearly all of the wealth to the exclusion of the people. The theorists of capitalism recognize this, but claim that if the rich continue to get richer the wealth will trickle down to the rest of society. To these men I would ask (in a digression from my main argument) what they think the result would be if ten men stood in a shower together only to have the water come out in a trickle? Would anyone be cleaned? So then why do they hope in a trickle for the enrichment of the millions?

Leaving the injustice of capitalism aside for a time, let us look again at our original formula. We said at the beginning that any system that places something other than God on the throne of God is evil and idolatrous. It is easy to look at the rich few and mark their worship of money. They are the favorite game of those apologists of capitalism that try to reconcile their social system to the social doctrine of the Church. Capitalism itself is all right, it is only the excesses of capitalism that are evil: the orgies of wealth and power enjoyed by the uncaring elite. This may seem reasonable, except that rich people worshiping Mammon is not a part of capitalism, it is a part of every place and every time. Christ might have said, ‘The rich you will always have with you’ with an equal certitude.

It is easy to mark the idolatry of the rich, because they bask in the favor of their god. But the poor do not worship money any less because they bow beneath the rod and pray in agonizing fear. Every penny is like manna sent from heaven. Every boss is a priest of Mammon, and every layoff is a rebuke from their angry lord. Do not be deceived, we do not sacrifice our children to Moloch as pagans did of old. In our fear and our despair we have offer up the blood of innocents to the great god Dollar.

I have not even touched upon the effect of capitalism on other parts of the world. The yoke of our god rests heavy on their backs, heavier even than it lies on the great mass of our own poor. But even if we eradicate poverty, through the overflowing trickle of the rich, as long as the people rely on their employer for their life and prosperity, the system will be idolatrous.

The Church’s message of property releases man from the yoke of Mammon, and leaves him free to rely on God for his fruitfulness. NB: it does not force him into a reliance on God. The farmer in need of rain is free to pray to the Christian Lord, or a pagan rain god; or he may choose not to pray at all, relying only on the fitful will of science. But the wage earner, totally reliant on his job, requires heroic virtue just for the strength to deny the god Dollar.

Such heroic virtue is only possible in the light of the Faith. We must enter into communion with Christ in His perfect gift to the Father. This Gift is the life of God, and only by becoming gifts ourselves do we worship God. Let us work in the world to establish a society more free to rely on The Lord. But we must not trust to worldly success in the endeavor. The true Christian is a failure, in imitation of our King. To establish a just society we need to cultivate a communion of saints by pouring out the Gift of God onto all we meet. We must refuse to hold onto the what we have, but give it away to others, and thereby invite them to enter into God’s gift with us. It is not a practical solution. It is foolishness. It is the Way of Christ.