Christ over Capital.

01 / Our first allegiance

Christ over Capital.

Jesus Christ claims our whole life. We owe him our allegiance in our workplaces, our households, and our public institutions. His command to love our neighbors governs what we do with money and power.

We hold that capitalism is incompatible with Christianity. Capitalism gives owners power to accumulate wealth through other people's labor and to direct production toward private profit. A capitalist exercises that power over workers and the resources they need to live. Christ calls those who hold it to relinquish domination, share ownership, and place their resources at their neighbors' service.

People living in a capitalist society earn wages, buy necessities, and provide for their families within the arrangements available to them. Those circumstances describe the world in which we practice our faith. Our responsibility grows with the power we exercise and the choices we can make.

“You cannot serve God and Mammon.”

Read: Matthew 6:24 · James 5:1–6

02 / Hear the harvesters

Workers bear God's image.

God gives every worker a dignity that employers must honor. Work should sustain households, allow rest, and contribute to the life of a community. Workers deserve a living wage, safe conditions, and a meaningful share in decisions about their work.

James condemns the rich who withhold wages and live in luxury at their workers' expense. God hears the harvesters' cries. We answer that warning by supporting workers as they organize, recover stolen wages, and build institutions they can govern together.

Read: Genesis 1:26–27 · James 5:1–6

03 / Possession & responsibility

Wealth is a heavy burden.

We believe God calls few people to carry the burden of administering great wealth for others. The rest of us should give our wealth away, meet our neighbors' needs, and learn to live with enough. Anyone who claims a calling to stewardship must answer for how they acquired their wealth, whom it serves, and how readily they surrender it.

Jesus tells the rich man to sell his possessions and give to the poor. His warning about the difficulty of entering God's kingdom should unsettle everyone who holds wealth. Generosity belongs in our daily lives, our budgets, and our plans for the future.

Basil of Caesarea challenges the rich to make their goods available to others. In the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas carries that teaching forward: people may administer possessions privately, and they must use them to serve others. Surplus goods belong to the provision of people in need.

Read: Mark 10:17–27 · 1 Timothy 6:17–19 · Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 66, a. 2 and a. 7

04 / The preferential option for the poor

The poor come first.

Jesus brings good news first to the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden. He heals people, feeds hungry crowds, and announces freedom for the oppressed. We follow him by giving priority to those who suffer the greatest need.

The preferential option for the poor guides our spending, our organizing, and our judgment of public policy. We listen to people who endure poverty and share power with them. We seek food, housing, care, and freedom with the urgency that their lives demand.

“Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Matthew 25:40

Further reading: Luke 4:18–19 · James 2:1–9 · John Chrysostom, Homily 50 on Matthew, §§4–5

05 / Faith that repairs harm

Repentance requires restitution.

Economic wounds take time to heal. Exploitation takes years of work, separates families, damages health, and deprives communities of resources. Ending an injustice begins the work of repair. Those who caused the harm owe sustained service to the people they injured.

A slaveholder must free the person he enslaved immediately. He must then serve that person's recovery, return what he took, and provide the means to build an independent life. The person who suffered the wrong directs their own future. Repentance requires the former master to surrender control.

Deuteronomy commands provision for those leaving bondage. Zacchaeus pledges half his possessions to the poor and fourfold repayment to anyone he has defrauded. Jesus then declares, “Today salvation has come to this house.” His response places restitution at the heart of Zacchaeus's conversion.

For two thousand years, we have belonged to one Church, united in Christ across generations. We carry the duty of restitution through the passage of time and beyond the deaths of those who caused the harm. As the Church inherits property, institutions, and resources, it also inherits responsibility for repairing the injustices through which it acquired them. We must restore what we can and serve the communities that still bear those wounds.

Read: James 2:14–17 · Deuteronomy 15:12–15 · Luke 19:1–10 · 1 Corinthians 12:12–27

06 / A common life

The Church shares its life and goods.

In Acts, Christians share possessions and distribute resources according to need. Their fellowship joins prayer, the breaking of bread, and material care. Congregations today carry that responsibility into their budgets, their property, and the way they support their neighbors.

We seek an ecumenical Christian witness rooted in Scripture and the historic Church. We learn from the apostles, the Church Fathers, and generations of Christians who have shared their goods and served their neighbors. Their witness calls us to examine our habits of ownership and fulfill our duties to one another.

Read: Acts 2:42–47 · Acts 4:32–35 · Galatians 6:2

07 / The source of our commitments

Christian socialism begins with Christ.

Our Christian socialism grows from faith in the living God, the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the dignity God gives every person. We seek shared ownership, democratic control of work, and provision according to need because love of neighbor requires them.

Materialist socialism explains social life through material conditions, production, and class relations. Its account of history grounds its proposals for economic change. Christian socialism draws its authority and its hope from God. We examine economic conditions through Scripture, the Church's teaching, and our obligations before Christ.

These foundations shape our ends and our methods. We pursue economic justice through solidarity, repentance, and institutions that protect human dignity. We judge every movement and government by how it uses power and treats people. Our hope rests in the kingdom of God.

Read: Colossians 1:15–20 · Acts 4:32–35 · For the materialist account: Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, chapter III

08 / Power & accountability

Democracy gives us duties.

Democracy gives citizens a share in public power. That share brings additional obligations. We must learn what our government does, listen to those who suffer under it, organize with our neighbors, vote with care, and hold officials accountable. When our government oppresses people, Christian discipleship requires us to act against that oppression.

At the end of days, Christ will gather the nations for judgment. We read Matthew 25 as a warning that reaches into our common life: how we feed the hungry, welcome strangers, care for the sick, and treat prisoners matters before God. We must examine the laws and institutions through which we carry out those responsibilities.

Our allegiance to Christ calls us to confront wrongdoing in our own country and seek justice for the people it harms. We bear responsibility for the power we entrust to others and for how we use our own.

Read: Matthew 25:31–46 · Isaiah 10:1–2 · Acts 5:29

09 / Questions & implications

What do these convictions ask of us?

These questions follow the statement above. Each answer starts with our commitments and links back to the sections that explain them. The economic comparisons describe broad approaches; writers and movements within each tradition differ.