Freeman here.I am feeling a bit sheepish. A friend gave me a copy of Christianity Today this week and the front cover said Ayn Rand's Alternative Religion- the article was titled "Ayn Rand: Goddess of the Great Recession" written by Gary Moore, founder of The Financial Seminary. Generally, I have always liked Rand, her literature and her relatively ridiculous philosophy "objectivism" because it prized the individual and placed a high value on hard work and self-determination. I was a typical, perhaps naive, Christian that thought I could easily mix her economic opinions with my faith, and separate out ideas that were anti-thetical (or anti-Christian) to my beliefs. Undoubtedly the article points to Randian ideas that are much closer to Nietzsche, Marx or Hegel than Jesus Christ or St. Paul.
"Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your
life..." -Ayn Rand
Now we are getting around to talking about sausage. The article posits that politically right-leaning Christians blend Rand's anti-government, pro-business, and individualistic worldview with their Christianity-- something of a sausage-making exercise-- and on the other side, the result is not something that Randians or Christians should be pleased with (much like sausage). The result is not true to either camp's ethic. Randians should not be pleased because Rand was wholeheartedly opposed to Christianity and Christians should not because of the obvious problems of sleeping with such a strange bedfellow. The article goes more in depth as to why the two do not mix and why the effort to do so is badly misguided. I recommend reading it, then read Rand's The Virtue of Selfishness and see if you disagree with the article.
"Ayn Rand defied the ideas of more than two millennia by championing individualism, capitalism, egoism and reason." -AynRand.org
I guess I am going to end this commentary here. The point is I used to love Ayn Rand but now I am flummoxed. Although there are several ideas in the article I do not agree with, most of it changed my opinion of Rand (note the part about the giant dollar-shaped wreath on her casket). I will follow up with some more thoughts later or get another one of our contributors to offer a counterpoint.
Adam here. Friend of Grant and fellow IWU grad.
ReplyDeleteNot what I expected, but glad to hear some hesitation about Rand. I live in Bolivia and work with a mission/NGO. The majority of the population here are what you might call 'syncretistic Catholics'. There is no conflict between all traditional beliefs and a thin layer of Christianity spread over top, like icing. As a North American, I tend to think syncretism is for Africans, Asians, and S. Americans, but I'm learning my mistake. I'm afraid far too many N. American Christians have absorbed their cultural/political/economic values without question, without letting the Good News of Christ confront their worldview. All cultures are confronted with a "choque" (as we say in Latin America, a clash or conflict) between their way and the Way of Christ.
At the same time, I also accept that the rest of the Wesleyan quadrilateral (reason, tradition, experience) can speak to God's truth, not only Scripture. Therefore, we must listen to the scientists and economists for new insights that were not known in Biblical times. I have come to accept theistic evolution, for example, so I don't want to dismiss economists out of hand (as I'm prone to do), but we must also remember the over-arching themes we see in the New Testament community: putting the interests of others before our own, sacrificial love, not storing up treasures on earth, etc.
Glad to keep reading posts here.
Oh Adam- I knew you would love this. Now comment on my post.
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