October, 2008 Volume 10
Number 4
Business and the Bible
It was the late H. L. Mencken, satirist, journalist and confirmed curmudgeon who once expressed the harsh view that “Perhaps the most revolting character that the United States ever produced was the Christian businessman”. Regardless of opinion, their ranks are growing and, contemporaneously, as the economic gloom in the United States of America continues, some Protestant churches are offering investment advice to their flocks; this mixing of finance with faith has even moved from church benches to board rooms.
One thing is for sure, as I observed in the March issue of our sister newsletter, the Offshore Pilot Quarterly, corporate chaplains are on the increase and some estimates have put their number at 4,000, working for both small as well as large businesses. Some of the larger companies, in fact, have in-house chaplains complementing their in-house lawyers. (White collar crime could take on a new meaning should a priest be caught with his hand in the corporate till.) There are also some rent-a-chaplain companies which are doing very well. Whilst I accept that religion can serve as a moral compass, I am not so sure if it can set the right course for temporal endeavours.
But there is no doubt that this blending of the bible with business has also travelled south into territory which, traditionally, has been the preserve of the Roman Catholic Church. Protestants are known as Evangelicals in the US, and their particular brand of religion is gaining ground across Latin America, especially one particular strain, modern Pentecostalism, with its distinct approach. Although the degree of influence that the US once enjoyed in the region has diminished, it is the reverse when it comes to exporting religion. Today, although there are just under 6 million Pentecostal Christians in the US, there are 24 million in Brazil alone. Brazil, the continent’s largest country, is, in fact, a good illustration of how this particular Christian concept, rather than Catholicism, can prevail.
The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God is the third-biggest Pentecostal group in Brazil and it has branches in 172 countries; but only in Brazil (so far) does it have its own political party, the Partido Republicano Brasileiro. It also owns the country’s second-largest television network, which has a 24-hour news channel, and at the same time encourages members to donate 10 per cent of their income to the church. Churchgoers are encouraged to see these donations as investments that can bring dividends, not necessarily in heaven but on earth, through the church’s blessings in the form of either miraculous healings or success in their personal lives.
Religious orthodoxy has been injected with a fervour where the traditional use of hands and knees as part of worship has been sidetracked. A few years ago one leading spokesman from Rio de Janeiro’s Institute of Religious Studies put it simply: “… these people were hungry for more than just food. The Evangelicals met the peoples’ emotional and spiritual needs better”.
Ironically, Edir Macedo, who controls the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, is a former Catholic who began preaching in 1977 to a dozen or so people in a rented room above a funeral parlour.
Rubber Balls and Religion
If Catholicism, like US influence, is on the decline in Latin America, inflation certainly isn’t. It has frequently plagued the region since the 1960s and is back again with a vengeance – particularly in those countries, such as Venezuela and Argentina, where it has been helped along by rapid economic growth. Even countries which have been cushioned from higher fuel costs by subsidies are seeing food prices rising uncomfortably and as they do, many Latin Americans who were hungry for more than food might find their priorities shifting.
The author, David Stoll, once wrote that in Latin America “born-again religion has the upper hand”, but in Brazil they also enjoy a born-again economy. You might say that Brazil is the rubber ball that always bounces back off the wall, as the past bears out. In May of this year Brazil’s monthly inflation rate reached its highest in three years (5.6 per cent), but back in 1993 it stood at 2,500 per cent. Although in the April Letter from Panama I referred to the beginning of an era of steady economic growth in Brazil, it should be appreciated that between 1965 and 1980 annual growth averaged 9 per cent, a feat that India has only achieved in the last few years.
Whether or not under the influence of Christianity, Brazil continues to strive for more equality amongst its population of nearly 200 million. The country’s billionaires, whose faces appear regularly on magazine covers, are not always criticised for their wealth; more often than not their success is praised in a country where the message is getting across that being born rich is not the only road to success. This is not the case in most other countries in South America, but will that Brazilian benevolence continue as the world economy weakens further and many people begin to really suffer?
Brazil’s economy, as I alluded to also in the April newsletter, is tied to the faltering global market and despite this the optimistics in government believe that their economy will maintain its current pace for perhaps the next 20 years or so. Non-believers, on the other hand, think that Brazil’s good times have already peaked. Perhaps Lord Tennyson, the Victorian English poet, who said that “more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of” was right. Certainly, that was so for those gathered above a funeral parlour in 1977.
Letter from Panama is published by Trust Services, S. A. which is a British- managed trust company licensed under the fiduciary laws of Panama. It is written by Derek Sambrook, our Managing Director, who is a former member of the Latin America and Caribbean Banking Commission as well as a former offshore banking, trust company and insurance regulator. He has over 40 years private and public sector experience in the financial services industry. Our website provides a broad range of related essays.
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