Dr. Wayne Grudem is a New Testament scholar turned theologian, author, and Research Professor of Bible and Theology at Phoenix Seminary, Arizona ("Wayne Grudem," ). In lieu of many of his great accomplishes, Dr. Grudem has also written numerous books and articles. Among those books, he is the author of Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, which advocates a Calvinistic soteriology, the verbal plenary inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, the body-soul dichotomy in the nature of man, and the complementarian view of gender equality ("Wayne Grudem," ). In 2003, Dr. Grudem released a book titled “Business for the Glory of God: The Bible's Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business”. Within this work, Dr. Grudem tackles intricate and arguable matters, in which he unravels what the Bible teaches regarding the moral goodness of business. Applying the idea of moral goodness with business, however, is often a contradictory concept in lieu of the malicious and often scandalous behavior that businesses are notoriously publicized with. Enron, an energy company based out of Houston, Texas, is perhaps the most popular of scandals of the century thus far. Their name is synonymous with corporate fraud and corruption after the allegations of accounting fraud hit the headlines in 2001. The scandal was also considered a landmark case in the field of business fraud and brought into question the accounting practices of many corporations throughout the US (Raslan, 2009). Under this shroud of deceptive business practices and activities, applying the idea of moral goodness with business is a difficult sell to readers. Nevertheless, in the Business for the Glory of God: The Bible's Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business, Dr. ... ... middle of paper ... ...rguments towards deceptive business practices and activities, any admirable argument to go against any of Grudem’s nine concepts is difficult-to-nearly impossible. In fact, I agreed with all the concepts, and found the concepts of ownership, money, and profit to be the most convincing and most intriguing. Dr. Grudem (2003) concludes his book with a compelling and ardent reflection on the impact of business in relation to world poverty: "I believe the only long-term solution to world poverty is business. That is because businesses produce goods, and businesses produce jobs. And businesses continue producing goods year after year, and continue providing jobs and paying wages year after year. Therefore if we are ever going to see long-term solutions to world poverty, I believe it will come through starting and maintaining productive, profitable businesses" (p. 81)
Pogge, Thomas Winfried Menko, and Keith Horton. "Famine, Affluence and Poverty." In Global ethics: seminal essays. St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2008. 1-14.
The world seems to look at business as the root and means of many forms of evil, even Christians. It is easier to see the lies and deceit behind many business deals and even successful business than it is integrity and honesty within the realms of business. Why is it that the business world seems so tainted by sin? These are the issues that Wayne Grudem addresses in his book, Bussines for the Glory of God: The Bible`s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business. Grudem specifically develops arguments for why 11 specific aspects of business are actually fundamentally designed to glorify God rather than cause evil. Grudem doesn’t only want believers to see these Biblical truths but also nonbelievers. His hope is that the business world be the one in which we see the world transformed by the Gospel. He hopes that each individual can and will take heed of the Biblical truths regarding business and hold fast to them, overcoming sin and temptation, in order to bring glory to the God who created it all. Two of the specific aspects he addresses are employment and borrowing and lending. Grudem develops an argument for each of these aspects as to why they are fundamentally good and why and how they each provide individually many opportunities for glorifying God. Grudem effectively fleshes out how employment is a biblical principle starting with Jesus words himself, “The laborer deserves his wages.” (Luke 10:7) Grudem uses
Green, Joel B., & Longman, Tremper (Eds.). Holy Bible -- The Everday Study Edition. Dallas: Word Publishing. 1996.
Ethical behavior, in a general sense, is a definition of moral behavior in regards to lawfulness, societal standards, and things of that nature. In the business world, ethics commonly refer to acceptable and unacceptable business practices within the workplace, and all other related environments. The acceptance of colleges regardless of ethnicity, gender, and beliefs, as well as truthfulness and honesty in relation to finances within the company are examples of ideal ethical business conducts. Unethical business behavior would include manipulating procedures based on bias or discrimination, engaging in activities that promote political gain, as well as blatant fabrication of monetary factors within the company and “can affect organizational performance and is costly to employers, employees, shareholders, and other organizational stakeholders” (Cox 263). When a corporation practices proper ethics, it is representing not only itself in a positive manner, but its partners, shareholders, and clients as well. On the other hand, when an organization partakes in unethical activities, all parties are negatively affected. The collapse of Enron is a major case of unethical conduct in the corporate world, because the circumstances surrounding the firm’s chaotic plunge where so scandalous that it left “creditors wrangling over Enron's skeletal remains” (Helyar) long after the company had seen its demise. There are numerous instances to be mentioned, including deliberate failure to properly report fiscal losses, insider trading, and overall relentlessness. The inclusive purpose of this paper is to further explore the underlining factors that contributed to the downfall of the once powerful Enron, and how a new way of approaching business ethi...
Peter Singer is an Australian philosopher whose solution to world poverty is overwhelmingly known globally. He has an excellent idea that is keenly and carefully looked into by many across the world. Peter clearly understands that the world poverty solution can only be addressed and solved if individuals from rich countries are willing and are in a position to offer their luxurious wealth to the needy. He, however, asserts that it is not necessary to spend money on assets like television, cars, movies, expensive meals, and brand new clothes as well (singer, 223).
While some scholars argue for more teaching of ethics in college curriculum, others argue that a business culture or environmental change is needed. Some experts and experienced members of the field argue that business is not an inherently bad field, but that the reputation has been soiled by a few bad apples. Given all this information, I tend to agree with the argument that finance and business are not bad fields, they have just been soiled by a few evil people. I believe there are several bad businesses such as the Nestlé Corporation; and good businesses like Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that prove cases of evil and corrupt business practices can be linked to the actions of a few evil people in power. I find this argument to be relevant and interesting because unethical business practices often appear in the news, and this influences the public perspective on businesses. Many people tend to think most businessmen are evil, greedy, and corrupt. This is not always the case, and I aim to demonstrate why others should think in the same
More than $3billion people in the world which is nearly half of the world’s population are living on less than $2.50 a day and more than $1.3 billion live in extreme poverty which is less than$1.25 a day. (Unicef 2013). One third of deaths a year are cause by poverty. An estimate of 600 million children live in absolute poverty, every year more than 10 million innocent children die of hunger and PREVENTABLE diseases, such as diaorreah, pneumonia and malaria 19 million kids worldwide remain unvaccinated, even a simple net would prevent malaria. During 2011, 165 million kids under the age of 5 were stunted( reduced rate of growth and development) due to chronic malnutrition 870 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat. More than half a million women die in pregnancy and child birth every year… one death a minute. Why do we have cases of poverty in 2014? “Overcoming poverty is not a task of charity, it’s an act of justice. Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man made an it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings”. Mandela (2005). It’s heart breaking that in this day and age there are children dying of hunger, and easily preventable diseases. Poverty reduction is one of the most dominant themes in current scholarship, policy formation and international discussion on economic development. A sign of it importance is shown by the fact that the very first target of the millennium development goals (MDG) is in fact to reduce the people living under $1 a day by half by 2015. Relative to this dissertation the role of economic growth in in poverty reduction is of high importance. Substantial and lasting reductions, if not complete eradication of poverty has been and will continue to b...
Dr. Gregory Boyd is a professor of theology at Bethel College. He attended such universities as the University of Minnesota, Yale Divinity School, and Princeton Theological Seminary. As well as being a professor he is a preaching pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has authored three books and several articles. This particular book is a dialogue between he and his father, Edward Boyd. Edward lives in Florida and worked for 35 years in sales management. He has six kids, 15 grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.
Poverty is not just an issue reserved for third world countries. Instead, poverty is a multifaceted issue that even the most developed nations must battle
This first section the authors bring up that continued “corporate ethics violations” have created a need for discussion of “moral issues” in the business world, including that of “corporate social responsibly” and indoctrination in managerial programs of ethical practices (Kim et al., 2009, p. 115). The authors point to the growing trend of business leaders following Christian practices, such as the founder of Chick-fil-A, Truett Cathey (Kim et al., 2009, p. 115). The authors then question how modernism affects the mainstream culture and marginalized the usefulness of worldview ethics that could provide “insight and guidance” to researchers and businesses alike (Kim et al., 2009, p. 116).
The fact that the number of people who live in poverty around the world has been decreasing since the 1990s is made even more remarkable by the fact that the United States is experiencing increasing poverty levels, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2007 through 2009, the poverty status of persons in the labor force for 27 weeks or more increased each year; in 2007 the number was 146,567 and in 2008 was 147,838 whereas in 2009 it was 147, 902. If the situation of poverty in America, the world’s most advanced economic nation in terms of development, is rising, the situation in third-world countries must be even more dire. According to Macroeconomics by Andre B. Abel, there are 6.4 billion people in the world
Grudem’s book Business for the Glory of God explores the business world, and how the characteristics of God can be found throughout business (2003). The book reveals the many aspects of business and ways God can be glorified through these activities: “ownership, productivity, employment, commercial transactions, profit, money, inequality of possessions, competition, borrowing and lending, attitudes of the heart, and the effect on world poverty” (Grudem, 2003, p. 12-13). Grudem attempts to prove that business is fundamentally good instead of the general thinking that business is characteristically found to have misconduct. The purpose of the book is to demonstrate that the various aspects of business activities can produce morally good things, but also how business could be altered and become sinful. This paper incorporates a summary of the book, plus an analysis on a couple of ideas that was presented.
...s extreme poverty that we contribute to, then we are at least partially responsible for its alleviation. As a consequence, we do owe an effective and changing solution. In recognising responsibility we now need to find solutions and do our part to stop the phenomenon of poverty destroying more innocent lives. The question is now whether affluent states do have the ability to make those changes. Pogge, whilst continually advocating minor changes and simple solutions in the two papers, does not actually suggest the mechanisms of any. As a consequence, more thought needs to be given to the possible solutions that can alleviate global poverty and eliminate our debt to the poor. This however, does not justify continued imposition of the problem. Just like if a builder is incapable of fixing leak he would hire help, so too must society look to find an adequate solution.
The 2008 documentary The End of Poverty? is a film that focuses around global poverty and how it became the tragedy that it is today. Poverty was created by acts of military conquest, slavery and colonization that led to the confiscation of individual’s property and forced labor. However, today the problem remains because wealthy countries who take advantage of developing third world countries. The film interviews several activists who discuss how the issues became and several ways in which they could be eliminated, as well as interviews from individuals who are experiencing it firsthand.
The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil