Letter from America

When I was an undergraduate at university in England, our college hockey team solicited corporate sponsorship from Arthur Anderson accounting LLC. The team used to sing, in raucous and irreligious fashion: 'Arthur Anderson had many sons' to the well-known church tune of 'Father Abraham had many sons'.

Little did I think at the time that Arthur Anderson would be the syndicated accountancy firm hired by Enron. Enron, famously now, has been caught up in an accounting scandal that destroyed the once corporate giant. Now, bad news following upon bad, WorldCom has declared that it overestimated its revenues by several billion dollars. Fast on the heels of that news, venerable stock-safe-haven Xerox has mentioned that it too has overestimated its revenues to the tune of a few billion dollars.

The figures astound and Wall Street is reeling. One Wall Street broker simply remarked, 'This has just got to stop.'

It would be easy for outsiders to look on these accountancy deceits as representative of the weakness of the American corporate machine. President Bush, then, aware of the possible tail spin from such effects as evidenced by what happened to the Asian Tiger Economies not so long ago, has quickly said that such accountancy fraud is not representative of corporate America as a whole. Americans are keen - to say the least - to keep the inward investment that shores up its economy.

But, while it would be tempting to sweep away Bush's comments as political make-up to cover up the fiasco, it is hardly credible that such fraud is genuinely representative of corporate America. Americans work hard, long and effectively. That too has been one of the reasons for their success in the second half of the 20th century.

Postmodern finances

Nonetheless, more to the point would be to wonder whether these issues of fraudulence are symptomatic of the ideology of the postmodern corporate world. Many new business paradigms were touted in the economic roaring 90s. Some of them seem in retrospect to be a reflection of the postmodern feeling that what matters is not the deed but the results that it obtains. The ends justifies the means, would be the old way to put it; or mislead investors about your financial revenues in order to ensure high stock ratings and continued investment. What does it matter as long as money is coming? The issue of truth, sometimes parodied as an intellectual apologetic issue, is no more clearly seen to be thoroughly moral than in Enron, WorldCom, Xerox, and perhaps more bugs under the bed.

In the end, as the City of London used to know full well, business, good business, relies upon trust. And trust cannot survive without truth.

Take a few examples. Management theory these days tends to move away from the hierarchical model to the model of the 'team'. All well and good. Who wants to be told what to do? And great responsibility disseminated to the lowest levels is likely to lead to more of a sense of 'ownership' in the company. But it becomes ridiculous when every clerk and teller in a store is called a 'partner'. This is simply not true. They are not partners in the firm. They are employees. Once we start to use language in such a slippery fashion we are on the fast track to lying. And this model of team work in practice, I am told, can lead to a tendency to constant manipulation and, well, 'spinning' of truth in order to get one's way. In other words, we become hypocrites because we're not willing to face up to the fact that some people are in charge and others are not.

Christian contrast

In contrast, a Christian view of organisation and 'corporate' structure is less ideal and more realistic. The church is the body of Christ, to be sure. There's a 'team' structure if you want one. But there are authorities within the body - those whose gift and calling is to govern, elders, leaders, teachers, etc. Our calling is to recognise such leaders and submit to them.

In other words, I don't think these recent scandals are simply a case of corporate greed (though I'm sure there was some of that). I think they are evidence of how far our public structure has become influenced by postmodern, not Christian, ways of living. Truth is for sale; let's sell it. And as we do, soon enough, we sell out. Sell out to a view of life where I can feel justified in being one thing in one place, and another thing in another, where this 'inconsistent me' is changed to suit the climate, the culture, the share-holders. I constantly meet people whose very fabric is warped by this view of life. And I mean church people, not outsiders.

Enron, WorldCom, and all is a wake-up call to all of us to learn what it means to think, and so act, Christianly. Take a book - any book - from the 19th century and immerse yourself in its worldview. Soon enough you'll come across Christian attitudes to life whereby truth and morality are paramount. Watch a movie - any movie - today and the difference is startling. Somehow we have to call ourselves to repent and believe the truth of the gospel. Otherwise WorldCom will just be the beginning.

Arthur Anderson had many sons

Postmodern finances

Christian contrast

Josh Moody, Connecticut

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