Moral Gourmets
Chris Roberts
January 1, 1996
"Smoked salmon socialism" is how I refer to the overly earnest brand of liberation theology that enthralls me from time to time. I long to be a moral gourmet, but I'm not always as practical as I should be.
Once when I was an undergraduate I sat with a roommate denouncing "the system" and lamenting that so many of our classmates, seemingly bereft of imagination and moral vigor, were seeking jobs in the financial services industry. Our third roommate finally interrupted. He could bear our self-righteousness no more. His father was president of a massive reinsurance company and was thoroughly immersed in capitalist culture. "Listen," the third roommate said sharply, "do you guys think you could get by without the system? What about all the groovy granola-munching camping trips you take? Do you think the university could subsidize the Outing Club without a real good insurance policy?" Chill out, was his message; it takes all kinds, including the people in suits who shuffle money, to make the world go 'round.
I took and still take the point. Nevertheless, I continue to struggle with how far we Christians should accommodate ourselves to the market culture as we make our career choices. I doubt our imaginations are as robust as they could be.
I know a father and his son who (like me) are Baptists. The father urges the son to study accountancy and acquire "business skills" in his first few years after college. Yet the son has just returned from a summer working on a grass-roots project in an obscure place with poor people. He loved his summer, and I know how much he admired the people he met; when he returned his face was alive with a glow that said he had really lived, that he had confronted some genuinely good and embodied ...
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