Since burning out on Wall Street and thinking of seminary in 1986, I've thought extensively about a question that many Americans have increasingly asked since Enron and the credit crisis of 2008: Is capitalism still moral according to the Judeo-Christian ethic. I realize it is moral if you accept the new morality of selfishness preached by Ayn Rand, called Objectivism, and believe the only purpose of an economy is to produce material wealth. But even some of our finest financial minds are no longer sure whether it is moral according to the Calvinist ethic that built our country's prosperity, the ethic that said there's a higher purpose to our activities here on earth. In a way, those economic minds, little known that they are to the average American, are the financial equivalent of theologians and sociologists who expect America has become a post-Christian nation.
Like Noah, I'm always scanning the horizon to glimpse signs of hope above the seeming flood of financial immorality on Wall Street, in Washington, in corporate America and even in our churches. I recently glimpsed one such sign at Princeton University. My good friend David Miller who heads Princeton's Faith & Work Initiative interviewed John Bogle. The subject of their discussion was the Protestant foundations of our economy. Jack, as Bogle is usually called, graduated from Princeton in 1951 so the Calvinist ethic is in his DNA. Before the interview began, I told Jack about my telling Money magazine it could better understand Sir John Templeton's thinking if it remembered John was a Calvinist and it's often said Calvinists can make money as long as they don't enjoy it. Jack expressed the same amusement that John did when Money printed my quip over a full page picture of John. As he talked, it was apparent that Jack also found far more joy in giving money than spending money.
Still, as perhaps suggested by the names they went by during their careers, Jack and Sir John are different. Despite his humble origins, Sir John was comfortable with royalty and intellectuals. Jack meanwhile has the common touch. Interestingly, those orientations probably shaped their approaches to investing. Sir John essentially invested in the inefficient developing markets of the world by use of superior human reason and discipline. Jack invested in efficient developed markets through technology and humility. Having aspired to be a preacher at one point, Sir John could eloquently articulate his faith. Jack on the other hand, reminded me that St. Francis supposedly said to preach the gospel at all times and to use words when necessary. Scholars doubt Francis really said that but he should have as Jack personifies the notion. My point is that despite their differing approaches to our business and our faith, I expect John Calvin would have been quite proud of both Sir John and Jack, as I told Jack after the session. There's an enriching lesson for the Church and all its warring factions in Jack and Sir John being different but equally faithful.
As Jack spoke, it became quite apparent that the amazing success his company has experienced over the decades is a direct product of Jack's passion for putting the interests of investors before his own. Yet that also seemed a major reason Jack seemed rather despondent about the moral condition of America and Wall Street today. While he never mentioned Objectivism, Jack also laments the shift from what he calls "stewardship to salesmanship" on the Street. And he was probably as critical of CEO compensation as anyone I've heard since Peter Drucker told Forbes that CEO compensation reminded him of pigs at the trough.
Jack had earlier given a speech to the business students at Columbia University. You can find it by Googling the words "John Bogle." The interview at Princeton will soon be on Dave's website: http://www.princeton.edu/faithand work/media/ethics-in-the-executive-suite/bogle/. Both are well worth your time. If Wall Street has a Jonathan Edwards today, it might be Jack Bogle. Edwards was the president of Princeton and ignited the First Great Awakening with sermons such as "Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God." Jack didn't rise to quite that level during the discussion but I left with the impression he was capable of reaching those moral heights. I sensed it was only Jack's eighty plus years of experiencing grace that made his message palatable for the rest of us. I found that quite refreshing in our age when most pastors sound more like Dale Carnegie making friends than Jesus Christ making disciples, particularly when addressing the affluent and powerful.
