Rede vir ekonomiese sukses

Dalk spreek die volgende aanhaling jou ook aan soos vir my:


What answer might you expect if you asked scientists in a Communist setting to account for America’s success?

That was the assignment given the Chinese Academy of Social Science in 2002. What they found surprised them, and stunned Western intellectuals, too.

Here’s their unforgettable statement, as David Aikman reports it in Jesus in Beijing:

One of the things we [Chinese scholars] were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact the pre-eminence of the West [America] over the world. We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective. At first, we thought it was because you [America] had more powerful guns than we had. Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. Next we focused on the economic system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West is so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.

Ek het die klem ingesit.

Die rede vir die sukses soos hier beskryf is natuurlik deesdae besig om weer uit die regering, kuns, politiek, skole, regstelsel, familiebande, wetenskap ens gehaal te word. Dit maak dat opgeleide mense in al die sfere van die samelewing nie meer op die grootste realiteit, nl God, bou nie, maar op baie los waardes wat nie fondasie het nie en soos die Bybel sê voor die storms platgevee word. Die huis wat op die sand gebou is of wat van strooi gebou is.  Die storms kan dinge wees soos geldgierigheid, mag ens. Die proses van groei en bou is dus omgekeer in iets soos weg roes van binne af, want God word as realiteit ontken en onttrek uit die sisteem.

Wat sê dit vir RSA en veral vir ons as die minderheid, maar verspreid oor kulturele grense, wat nog bou op God as die grootste realiteit? God se hart vir die wêreld is in ons. En Hy is lief vir die wêreld in die situasie.

Gesels gerus saam hieroor.

Danie