Introduction

Explore this public good approach to Christian ethics in the public square, especially in the United States. This series will highlight twelve key relationships distorted by Plantation Capitalism, a system of production where elites exploit people and the planet, and corrected by Jesus in his Jubilee Economy.

In August 2024, Mako gave a radio interview with S.J. Munson, on his program, Majoring on the Majors, to describe this series.  Mako and S.J. talked about what Plantation Capitalism is.  Key soundbite:  "Capitalism generally can be where companies live by the rules of the community.  Plantation Capitalism specifically is where companies set the rules of the community." 

The goal of the series is to suggest helpful ways forward on policies, by being well informed and also rooted in a strong Jesus-centered, biblical framework for loving our neighbor.

Videos 1 - 10 are being offered as a Zoom discussion class in the Winter and Spring of 2025. Register here on our Thinkific site. They analyze twelve major relationships in Scripture, church history, and the contemporary U.S.

Videos 11 and onward focus on specific industries, laws, or policy areas, with suggestions about how we can bring about policy changes.

Video 1: Cain as the First Plantation Owner

The biblical figure of Cain in Genesis 4 became the first plantation owner. Cain murdered his brother and damaged his own relationship with the land, but defied God and built a city, enmeshing his son to produce for him and protect him, producing a culture of violence, lies, and scapegoating. We observe colonial Virginia as an example of Plantation Capitalism. Trigger warning: This video contains an image from Darnell Frazier's video of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on, and murdering, George Floyd. We define Jesus’ Jubilee Economy from passages like Leviticus 25.

Video 2: Plantations vs. Planet; Producer vs. Consumer

We examine Jesus’ teaching on the relationships of Plantations vs. Planet, and Producers vs. Consumers — the first 2 of the 12 relationships we will cover. And: Why do we take a public good, common good approach to Christian faith and public policy? Because Jesus’ teaching & story require us to be concerned about other-harm. He carries forward Israel’s wisdom impacting Gentiles in uplifting the poor and oppressed (we look at 5 examples). Thus, Scripture leads us to a common good, public good paradigm; see this brief debate on X/Twitter.

Video 3: Enslaver vs. Enslaved; Thieves vs. Victims; Debtors vs. Lenders; Workers vs. Employers; Poor Workers vs. Even Poorer Workers

Christian faith had set up certain laws in Europe that abolished chattel slavery, thwarted the worst of labor exploitation, and persistently tried to limit finance and banks. The colonies were a legal gray zone, where people could get away with exploitation and theft that they couldn't get away with back in Europe. European colonizers treated the North American colonies as a safe place to practice their heresies. We examine Jesus’ teaching on the relationships of Enslavers vs. the Enslaved, Thieves vs. Victims, Lenders vs. Debtors, Employers vs. Workers, Poor Workers vs. Even Poorer Workers — 5 of the 12 relationships we cover.

Video 4, Part 1: Men vs. Women on Sex and Childbearing — Yesterday’s Plantation

We examine Jesus’ teaching on the relationships of Men vs. Women on Sex and Childbearing. Please be advised that these are mature topics. We discuss rape during the time of slavery. Enslaved Black women were raped, forced to bear children, and then often separated from them. Meanwhile the sexual purity of White women was seen as the property of White men. But God’s vision was to hold up marriage as holy, and Jewish law recognized that wives had a right to protection from marital rape and a right to sexual fulfillment, whereas husbands do not.

Video 4, Part 2: Men vs. Women on Sex and Childbearing — Today’s Plantation

We examine Jesus’ teaching on the relationships of Men vs. Women on Sex and Childbearing. Please be advised that these are mature topics. We continue from part 1 on the discussion of marital rape, and discuss sexual abuse of women in the military, police, the arts, housing, and hierarchical organizations. We argue against the notion of hierarchy in the husband-wife relationship promoted by some Christians. We explore insights from the biblical story of the rape of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13, and the Book of Samuel as a tragic reversal of the Book of Genesis.

Video 5: Labor vs. Capital; Privatizers vs. Common Goods

Jesus asserted his claim on all creation and all people. So he extended the relational vision of God for human flourishing, where human health and land health, along with human rights and labor rights took clear priority over the rights of capital and the ability of elites to use money to make more money. How does Walmart and Amazon do in our evaluation? As we study that, we talk about how capital rights have been dominant, how banks financialized Black bodies, how rich Whites consolidated wealth against poor Whites and Blacks. We spotlight how disinvestment from public life, and other people’s children, represents the form of exploitation. So do worker injuries, wage theft, tipping, and externalities. But biblical patterns uphold labor over capital, and one policy we get behind is The Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act.

Video 6: The Violent vs. the Victims

Like with the British East India Company, the corporation was developed by colonial governments as a legal mechanism for investors to exploit people and the planet in colonies and other countries. These profiteers hired private security, shaped US gun culture, and even formed public policing to serve their limited interests, not the public good. We are still trying to regulate violence in all its forms. Why is this a matter of concern for Christians? Because US Christians inherit from British Christians a very misleading translation of Exodus 22:2 - 3 popular in 18th century England. It directly influenced the "castle doctrine" and "stand your ground" laws in the U.S. Because even though Jewish law rejects judicial torture, US prosecutors use plea bargaining, which is -- at least in its current form -- psychological torture that accelerates the efficiency of the police-prison state and its violence. Because John the Baptist and Jesus in Luke ch.3, v.14 told Roman soldiers to stop using their coercive power to extort and exploit even colonized peoples -- much less formal citizens -- and serve a public purpose. We are still trying to make regulated, legal violence serve the public, common good.

Video 7, Part 1: The Powerful vs. the Rest of Society — Why Fascism Comes from the Right, and Why Evangelicals Get Drawn In

CNBC business news host Jim Cramer called Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers union, "Marxist and Communist!" Why? What does he hope to achieve? Not accuracy! Cramer wants to produce knee jerk fear in his audience, like how the plantation elite manipulate people to side with their agenda of how they can keep economic and political power. We show why Christian American Exceptionalism contributes to why Christians believe they are entitled to more wealth and power than other people, resulting in White evangelicals siding with the Confederacy, against Reconstruction, with the fascist coup against FDR and the New Deal, and with McCarthy’s accusations. It’s not at all a new pattern or weakness. Confront the history and present reality of White Evangelicals siding with racial fascism.

Video 7, Part 2: The Powerful vs. the Rest of Society — Manipulating Christians Through Disgust

White evangelicals jumped on the fascism train through the emotion of disgust and, especially, the issue of abortion. By joining the Reagan coalition, white evangelical Republicans took leadership of the anti-abortion movement from Catholic Democrats. But by joining Reagan's anti-communist coalition and "Southern strategy" to peel off white Southern segregationists from the Democratic Party to the GOP, they moved abortion policy from a social welfare issue to a criminal justice issue. They also asserted that if you have sex and get pregnant before you're ready, you should have a child as a consequence, and face economic hardship as a punishment. So they agreed with Reagan to dismantle the New Deal with its pro-labor, anti-poverty, democracy of small businesses vision. They supported a "you're on your own" libertarian economics. Catholics and evangelicals also used abortion as an issue to stave off their fears of science and stay culturally relevant. So they tied their politics of disgust to their fears of science. Which is why they have such a hard time reassessing their views of the fetus when the science of embryology shows us that God does not ensoul the fetus from conception. Early on, probably. Conception? No.

In this video, we explain Biblical passages that impact our interpretation of the fetus: Exodus 21:22 - 25 and Psalm 139. We touch on the difference between the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts of Exodus 21. We highlight how the early Christians approached the science of their day as a helpful and necessary ally, and how the Latin West and the Greek East came to different conclusions about the fetus because they followed different scientific opinions. We appeal to Christians today to treat embryology as a friend and ally in our attempt to know and honor the unborn fetus, and not respond to abortion policy with disgust and fear. Confront the history and present reality of white evangelicals siding with racial fascism.

Video 7, Part 3: The Powerful vs. the Rest of Society — Why Evangelicals Are So Fearful: Theology!

White evangelicals jumped on the fascism train by being trained to respond to fear. In movie theaters, a projector projects an image onto a screen to elicit emotions. In society, plantation elites project their fears to get other people to fear the same things. Much of evangelical theology trains people to respond to fear. When people believe that God's justice is retributive, and that Jesus absorbed divine retributive justice as taking the penalty for them (penal substitution), they are being trained to fear God for threatening them with torture, trauma, and separation. It's as if the Bible said, "Perfect love casts out fear, but you have to feel fear first!" Moreover, people who believe in US Christian nationalism also feel fear that God will judge, penalize, or punish the US for deviating from American exceptionalism, or the supposedly Christian heritage of the US, or having too many non-Christian neighbors. The theory of divine retributive justice and the notion of Christian nationalism are both wrong. But much damage has been done, and continues to be done, by training evangelicals to be so fearful. Hayley and Mako explore these fears. They survey many fears which white American evangelicals, especially, have felt in recent years: fear of "communism"; fear of "the end of the world"; fear of being "left behind"; fear of Muslim attacks after 9/11; fear that Barack Obama was the antichrist; fear of racial or sexual minorities. How would Jesus have us respond to these fears?

Video 8: Rest, Work, and Family in Plantation Capitalism

Work today can be back-breaking and mind-numbing. It can also throw your daily and weekly rhythms off, especially if you work odd hours. We talk about a young family's challenges when hubby worked a demanding retail job. Life felt more like the Israelites slaving away under Pharaoh in Egypt than in the garden of Eden or a promised land. Join us as we look at how God made us in creation to rest, then work - work is a reward for resting well, not the other way round. Then God restored rhythms of rest to Israel in the Old Testament. We look at why rhythms of rest continue to be so important for our growth. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, which includes caring for the quality of their rest, and ours. Also, we touch on negative Christian influences that interfere with rest: the "Protestant work ethic," John Locke's theory of meritocracy, and the megachurch mentality of mass-produced church involvement. We show how God made rest and work to reflect our interdependence on each other and creation, not our independence and individualism.

Video 9: Parenting in Plantation Capitalism

Parenting today is more expensive and emotionally demanding than years ago. While children are a joy, they also have the amazing superpower of making you lose sleep, pull out your hair, and make you want to reach out for help. So, why does the U.S. rank almost dead last among peer nations in public investment in children? Why did we just plunge millions of children back into poverty? Is that what it means to be a "Christian country"? Join us as we critique Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin saying that he doesn't think it's society's responsibility to care for "other people's children" — right after the COVID pandemic, and while rejecting the child tax credit.

Join us as we look at how God shaped his people in both Old and New Testaments to care for all God's kids. In the Jubilee of Leviticus 25, God trained the Israelite parents to care for all the kids of the community, not just their own. And in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18, Jesus taught his disciples to welcome and bless all kids; Jesus then taught us about the sharing, generosity, and mission he envisioned for his new kingdom family. What can we do practically to give parents more space, time, and resources to parent well?

Video 10, Part 1: Dominion, Idolatry, and the Marketing of the Plantation System — The George Santosification of Everything

George Santos. Terrible liar. Brilliant self-promoter. Now, disgraced former Congressman. How did we get here? During World War II, governments learned that war propaganda got people to buy war bonds. During the Cold War, many governments propagandized their civilian populations. They built up people's individual self-image and national self-image. This is one reason why especially U.S. Boomers look back at the 1950s Eisenhower era as so glorious. The U.S. was powerful, led the world, and had plenty of jobs.

Spiritually, this marketing experience was based on a Protestant notion of dominion from Genesis 1 as domination of a sort. And not content to dominate nature, the U.S. also set out to dominate people in other countries. That led to a kind of idolatry where we don't simply worship idols, we inhabit the idols we worship to influence others. We sell back an image of ourselves to people. You make your curated social media image, and sometimes physical image, the product you want to control. You make your media diet reflect the national self-image you want to control. George Santos did succeed at this for a while. Meanwhile, social media and traditional media companies make you the product. Massive cloud computing companies are the new feudal landlords, plantation owners of a new order. And technologies of mass surveillance predict out your wants, behaviors, future health, and possible locations just in case the military needs to find you.

Video 10, Part 2: Dominion, Idolatry, and the Marketing of the Plantation System — Exploiting Our Desire for Beauty and to Be Beautiful

Plantation Capitalism exploits our longing for beauty and to be beautiful. Two of the wealthiest ten families in the world made their money off fashion: clothing and cosmetics. The steeper the economic inequality, the more money people spend on looking wealthy, and the more high fashion companies make.

And, our longing for power and to be powerful. Taller people make more money than shorter people for the same job. In mixed skin-color cultures, lighter-skinned people have higher status than darker-skinned people, in part because being indoors is a sign of wealth, in part European colonialism. People are considered powerful and even attractive and sexy if they look individually competent and confident (especially among men) or youthful and fertile (especially among women).

We are suffering the aftermath of two spiritual influences: the corrupted Protestant notion of dominion from Genesis 1 as an individual domination of a sort; and idolatry where we put ourselves in the idol and market it/ourselves back to others. Jesus, in his Jubilee Economy, challenges us to restore the dignity of all. He challenges the way we focus on our appearance. Paul challenged the honor-shame dress code of the Roman world (1 Corinthians 11). We also introduce Orthodox iconography as a way of trying to theologically point to God as the Source of True Beauty and how we can participate in that Beauty in Christ.

Video 11, Part 1: The Church as the Plantation’s High Priest and False Prophet — Reputation Laundering the Plantation

In Ghana, in the Cape Coast Castle, Christian worship services occurred over the cries of people in the slave dungeon. Similarly, many White American Christians have been the reputation launderers of Plantation Capitalism. Whenever the Plantation elite have exploited people and the planet, various White American church leaders bent over backwards to justify it, deflect from it, or ignore it. In the Colonies, John Cotton spoke of "God's Plantation" to co-opt the story of ancient Israel to make the Puritan colony the nation politically covenanted with God and justify seizing land from Natives. After Reconstruction: Dwight L. Moody saved souls but not bodies, supported White reunification but not Black civil rights, and promoted "the sinking ship" idea. During the Jim Crow South, Rev. Moses Drury Hoge of Second Presbyterian Church of Richmond, VA justified the "Religion of the Lost Cause". And in the North, Princeton and J. Gresham Machen and libertarianism justified inaction against racism. During the New Deal Era: James W. Fifield, Jr. and "Christian Libertarianism" argued for unregulated business over labor, and for the rich over the poor and middle classes. During the Cold War Era, Dwight D. Eisenhower rallied Americans against the USSR using God, freedom, and capitalism. During the Civil Rights Era, W.A. Criswell and the Southern Baptists argued for racial segregation and fought Brown v. Board (1954). In the 1970s, Donald Macgavran, C. Peter Wagner, and the "Church Growth Movement" forgot the Christian sins of the past and focused on reaching "Saddleback Sam." In the 2000s, David Barton, the "evangelical" "historian" tries to launder the sins of White American Christians in U.S. history.

Video 11, Part 2: The Church as the Plantation’s High Priest and False Prophet — Penal Substitution as Prosperity Theology for Criminals

Caveat: Many people who hold to Penal Substitutionary Atonement do not go down these paths, thankfully, for other reasons. But we believe PSA opens a door to a slippery slope. In Part 1 of Session 11, we covered historical examples of White American evangelicals reputation laundering the U.S. plantation system. In Part 2, we examine the role Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) plays in reputation laundering.

When many people in The Gospel Coalition and adjacent to it reject the call for reparations for racial injustices; they say it betrays Penal Substitution. There, it's explicit. In cases of clergy sexual abuse and domestic abuse, it's implicit. Some Christians assume that forgiveness means reconciliation, which is not true. While forgiveness is unilateral, reconciliation is not. Reconciliation requires repentance and change on the part of the offender, and even then, the relationship might still never be the same. But under Penal Substitution, you are encouraged to forgive injustice and abuse like God supposedly does: without conditions and with an infinite capacity to suffer ongoing harm. In fact, you are supposed to believe something like this: the declaration of forgiveness itself and full relationship are what motivates an offender to repent. In this framework, oppressed people should not only forgive oppressors but also accept their oppression without critique. Abused wives should not only forgive abusive husbands but also receive their abuse in silence. And abused congregants should not only forgive abusive church leaders but welcome them to stay in their positions. This is a recipe for disaster. And disasters have struck. Over and over and over.

Video 12, Part 1: The Western Plantation Church: Surprise! It’s Not NOT Confucianism

Some Christian women became "mistresses of the manor." What was in it for them? And at what cost to them? Others? The Massachusetts Bay Company was a for-profit company that promised returns to ten male investors back in Old England. To get men to risk their lives, the Company told them that they could be kings of their own little castles. And to help ensure stable families and profits, each husband and father was told to keep his house in order. Christian faith was deformed to serve the bottom line. And God's full vision for good, healthy marriages was deformed. The hierarchy in the home was supposed to serve the hierarchy of capitalist profiteering. The similarity to Confucian hierarchy in the home is striking.

Video 12, Part 2: Confessions of a Confucian Christian Husband

We interview a modern couple to explore how complementarian (patriarchal) theology interacted with this husband’s mental health journey, specifically dissociation and ADHD. It wasn't good, folks. Colonization was carried out by for-profit companies. Christian faith was deformed to serve the bottom line. And God's full vision for good, healthy marriages was deformed. The hierarchy in the home was supposed to serve the hierarchy of capitalist profiteering. The similarity to Confucian hierarchy in the home is striking. We ask whether complementarians can truly embrace 1 Corinthians 7:29 - 35 and Exodus 21:10?

Video 12, Part 3: The One Where We Smash the Confucian Hierarchy in Marriage

We continue exploring how the for-profit company status of the Virginia Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company affected male-female relations.  Recall that marital rape wasn't even a legal category in the UK and US until the 1980s and 90s.  It was part of the incentive system for English men to move their families to North America. We make the case for the egalitarian vision for marriage from Ephesians 5, and against the patriarchal interpretation. We cite a great paper against Wayne Grudem's interpretation of the word "submit." We also comment on how Paul applies the head-body analogy to the husband-wife relationship. We look at Irenaeus of Lyons in the 2nd century and John Chrysostom in the 4th century as evidence, especially their views of Eve in Genesis 2. Finally, we reflect on women's vocations and voice.

Video 12, Part 4: The One Where We Smash the Confucian Hierarchy in the Church

The relational hierarchy in Plantation Capitalism in the U.S. resembles Confucian hierarchy in East Asian countries. That alone should make us stop and think and reconsider.

Hayley and Mako make the case for the egalitarian vision for women in church leadership. We look at what "headship" meant in the Corinthians worship service, when both men and women prayed and prophesied. They represented Jesus as head of the church, because they became a representative of his, as a source of authoritative words to the body. We also make the case that Paul envisioned women as leaders in the church. We answer the tough questions. Why does Paul say, "I do not permit a woman/wife to teach or exercise authority over a man/husband" (1 Timothy 2:11 - 15)? And why did Paul seem to say that elders were men (1 Timothy 3). What is the egalitarian case for women in church leadership from 1 Timothy?

Video 12, Part 5: Nostalgia Politics Refuted by the Bible — Seance and Sensibility at the Tomb of the Vaguely Known Ancestor

In Confucius' teaching, you revere, even worship, your ancestors. It's part of what holds society together. In U.S. Plantation Capitalism, we also revere, even worship, America's ancestors. But do we really know them? Or have we invented a version of the past to serve our current purposes? Do we hide unpleasant memories about our ancestors?

Conservative political leaders cultivate nostalgia from some "lost golden age" and then resentment against those who have supposedly derailed us. Thus, many of our ancestors have become vaguely known. God commands us to not lie. And the Bible’s narrative force means we cannot get nostalgic. On the one hand, the Bible meticulously points out the personal sins of human beings who are our spiritual or even biological ancestors: Abraham and Sarah; Moses; King David; “my people”; etc. On the other hand, the Bible directs us to hope in Jesus, who is the only one who will walk with us into *the good future* - a future even better than the garden of Eden.

Video 12, Part 6: Biblical Critique: Exposing the Mythical Legacies of Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan

Americans often tell lies about Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan. Why? Because in U.S. Plantation Capitalism, many Americans hold them up as ideological ancestors. And we get very defensive about them. It's similar to how, in Confucius' teaching, you revere, even worship, your ancestors. It's part of what holds society together.

God commands us to not lie. And the Bible’s narrative force means we cannot get nostalgic. On the one hand, the Bible meticulously points out the personal sins of human beings who are our spiritual or even biological ancestors: Abraham and Sarah; Moses; King David; “my people”; etc. On the other hand, the Bible directs us to hope in Jesus, who is the only one who will walk with us into the good future - a future even better than the garden of Eden.

See other Study Guides produced by The Anastasis Center.

See more resources on Christian restorative justice as a paradigm for a broad approach to policy and power.