Darrow Miller and Friends

Actually it’s not the economy, stupid!

Bill Clinton’s campaign-winning slogan seems almost quaint, 18 years hence.  Every day we read of at least one new dimension of economic crisis. Banks are failing, businesses closing, people are losing their jobs, families losing their homes.

Here’s another one:States are taking on more debt. Here’s your share!

Governments spend with abandon while nations are on the verge of bankruptcy. Things are so bad that everyone thinks the problems are primarily economic. Yet the root of the problem is not material capital but metaphysical. (For a superb treatment on this subject, see Is America’s Root Problem Economic? by Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WorldNetDaily.)

To accept Clinton’s mantra is to embrace a materialist worldview. That’s a natural move for atheists; unfortunately too many Christians are doing the same dance.

Today’s economic and political problems are rooted in our metaphysical capital – the capital of the mind, the power of a worldview and the moral vision that stems from the same.

Atheistic materialism defines all problems and their solutions in material terms. This concept was born in the European Enlightenment which led to the French revolution and the atheistic vision known today as liberalism or socialism.

Meanwhile, a more recent competitor here in the West is neo-paganism, the repackaged animism of African Traditional Religions, Hinduism, et al.  Animism worships nature (a la  the blockbuster movie Avatar) and is locked into a fatalistic and capricious mindset. This worldview undermines science, the rule of law, personal freedom and moral responsibility. Its fruit is poverty, material as well as spiritual.

A biblically informed economic system is vital to a society’s health. The core issue in the USA is not economics but worldview, the clash of vision between Judeo-Christian Theism and atheistic materialism. The first understands that all men are “created equal,” birthed for freedom, and designed for internal self government (and thus limited external government). Only on such a foundation is free and virtuous economic exchange built.

As for the vision of atheistic materialism, Jesus summed it up: “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die!” (Luke 12:19) Narcissistic self indulgence leads away from God, away from freedom, and directly into poverty and eventually to chaos.

– Darrow Miller and Gary Brumbelow

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About 
Darrow is co-founder of the Disciple Nations Alliance and a featured author and teacher. For over 30 years, Darrow has been a popular conference speaker on topics that include Christianity and culture, apologetics, worldview, poverty, and the dignity of women. From 1981 to 2007 Darrow served with Food for the Hungry International (now FH association), and from 1994 as Vice President. Before joining FH, Darrow spent three years on staff at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where he was discipled by Francis Schaeffer. He also served as a student pastor at Northern Arizona University and two years as a pastor of Sherman Street Fellowship in urban Denver, CO. In addition to earning his Master’s degree in Adult Education from Arizona State University, Darrow pursued graduate studies in philosophy, theology, Christian apologetics, biblical studies, and missions in the United States, Israel, and Switzerland. Darrow has authored numerous studies, articles, Bible studies and books, including Discipling Nations: The Power of Truth to Transform Culture (YWAM Publishing, 1998), Nurturing the Nations: Reclaiming the Dignity of Women for Building Healthy Cultures (InterVarsity Press, 2008), LifeWork: A Biblical Theology for What You Do Every Day (YWAM, 2009), Rethinking Social Justice: Restoring Biblical Compassion (YWAM, 2015), and more. These resources along with links to free e-books, podcasts, online training programs and more can be found at Disciple Nations Alliance (https://disciplenations.org).
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