Notes on WATER
Teleconference with Dr. Keri Day
"Is Moral Economy Possible?" Wednesday, December 18, 2013
WATER is grateful to Dr. Keri Day
for her time and talent in discussion questions of economics and religion. Her
book, Unfinished Business: Black Women,
the Black Church, and the Struggle to Thrive in America (Maryknoll, NY:
Orbis Books, 2012), is a good starting point for understanding her powerful
perspective. The following notes are meant to augment the audio version. They
are not a verbatim transcript.
Dr. Day began by outlining the background and debates
transpiring in Christian ethics and economics. The question is whether
economics and Christian ethics can talk, that is, do they have meaningful
overlap in vocabulary and goals? Many economists see economic theory as neutral
with a self-regulating market and no ethical control. Irrational, non-economic
variables are not seen as affecting economic exchange. Economists act as if
cash is enough to motivate people.
Theologians/ethicists
say people are always dealing with norms and values. Catholic social teaching
and Protestant social ethics deal with values. From that perspective, work is
not reduced to economic exchange but seen as vocation, related to God. So
religious studies challenge economic understandings on what it means to be
human.
The
question “Is Moral Economy Possible? is not so much a theological but an economic/anthropological question. For
example, food prices are a moral issue. In her new work, Dr. Day is looking at
four social movements of women of color, two Protestant and two Catholic.
2. The Circle for Concerned African
Women founded
by Mercy Oduyoye in Ghana to develop liberative African feminist literature for
greater gender justice
3. Madres
y Abuelas
de Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to oppose the 1976 dictatorship and find the
children/grandchildren kidnapped by the military
These
women and organizations enable us to “dream dangerously” that a moral economy
is possible. Poor women of color confront market values with new visions and
commitments. They respond to distorted values with new, inclusive,
justice-seeking ones. They offer clues about how to think about the beloved
community, and how to think about participatory economics vs. the free market.
_______________________________________________________________
Discussion
followed.
1. One
questioner asked if Dr. Day had had a chance to raise her concerns at a recent
White House consultation to which she had been invited.
Keri
replied that she did not. It was mostly a listening session on economics and religious
freedom abroad. She would have wanted to have more time spent on the kinds of questions
she is raising. Women of color are too often rendered invisible and inaudible.
No spaces exist to have this kind of conversation. Both in the current
administration and in the Black Church she notes the same dynamic: needs
related to basic survival go unaddressed. There is rhetoric in support of the
safety and well being of Black women, but when it comes to practice or spaces where
women can be heard there is very little. Dr. Day left the White House meeting
with a new understanding of the seriousness of her own work. There is also a
need to do it in community as mujerista
theological scholars like the late Ada Maria Isasi Diaz proved.
2. Another
participant asked about theological identity and message of the groups that Dr.
Day is researching. Where does God show up in social movements when looking for
a preferable future through social activism?
Dr.
Day talked about her new project, tentatively entitled Cooperative Virtues: Global Feminist Approaches to Moral Economy. All
four movements have cooperative virtues. This is not cooperation in the
sociological sense of a means to an end. Rather, cooperation is seen as a
vocation, something that was part of earliest church communities. Cooperation
is a moral end in itself; it is participation in the life of God.
3. The moderator inquired about cooperatives. Are
they important for women of color in their organizing?
Dr. Day
affirmed them with the proviso that there is still much thinking on a
structural level that needs to happen. She emphasized that cooperatives might
not address larger structural questions on how wealth is unequally created and
distributed. These larger structural
questions need to be pursued alongside cooperative enterprises. She cited
Michael Albert’s work as useful. Albert, Michael, and Robin Hahnel. The Political Economy of
Participatory Economics. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991.) PARECON, participatory economics, is a
movement that is making inroads.
4. One
more participant asked what religious groups could do with regard to the
economic questions.
Keri
said that many churches have been hindered by neo-liberal models. Success is
determined by how an individual achieves success. But that dynamic does not
take into account that all are born with initial endowments. These endowments
can be social helps or obstacles to reaching goals. She mentioned the work of
William Cavanaugh, Being
Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, as a resource for thinking about these questions. She said
that some churches feel no responsibility for people who are poor. The merger
of free market thinking and a certain reading of the Gospel leaves aside many
people. Prosperity Gospel theology claims that God’s favor is upon those who
prosper materially while those who are poor do not enjoy God’s favor. But Dr. Day
is hopeful based on her reading of the Gospel from the underside. Churches have
to listen to the needs of the poor.
5. The
moderator inquired about the current budget wrangling and whether there is hope
in any of the current legislative work for more economic justice.
Dr.
Day cited the passage of the Affordable Care Act and certain programs for women
and children who are poor as examples of forward movement. Citizens need to be
vigilant in keeping the government honest in this arena. But with 80% of the
country’s wealth in the hands of a few people, there are simply many who are
still poor. We need conversation on structural matters and policy
recommendations based on an asset-building approach to make real change.
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WATER
thanks Dr. Keri day and looks forward to her new book.
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