The Corporation

What if a member of your community was out of control? They showed little care for the welfare of the neighborhood; they manipulated circumstances to their benefit and perhaps even lied on a regular basis to achieve their goals. Not only that, their punishment was to pay a minimal fine allowing them to quickly return to their scandalous ways.

I suppose one would be rather incensed at the unscrupulous morals and lack of social concerns of such a person. We have a type of social contract between individuals in our society that dictates how we behave and interact. The Corporation is a documentary that suggests that many companies have been operating in such a manner — in a way we would label deplorable if committed by an individual. The filmmakers offer their diagnosis of the corporation as a psychopath, intent solely on its own gain and committed to the destruction of all obstacles in the way of that goal. “But wait,” you say, “Isn’t that the type of language reserved for people? Not for collections of people gathered for a specific interest.” In a decision after the Civil War that granted personhood to slaves, corporations were also granted the same freedom. The corporation legally became a person. Now the corporation itself could be held accountable for its actions, thus protecting the people invested it. This limited liability meant investors could have limited concern about legal repercussions for themselves from questionable corporate practices. The corporation would take the fall. From this, the modern day company has evolved into an entity singularly focused on profit, yet holds the same rights as a member of society. This has opened the door to actions that are at times questionable and even morally reprehensible. However, many corporations go unpunished, or their punishment is not as severe as the profit that engaging in illegal behavior may reap.

The Corporation paints broad strokes of companies who pollute the environment, employ children at pathetic wages, and steamroll the interests of the community at will. These are problems that are descriptive of some corporations, yet do all corporations engage in all these activities? Is there a corporate identity that all corporations buy into? From the filmmakers’ point of view, almost all corporations are inherently evil. Certainly it would be short sighted of us to ignore the injustices perpetuated by corporations, yet without them and the drive of a free market economy, many of the advancements we enjoy in medicine and technology would be a distant dream. The problem is far too complex to use simple categories of right and wrong. However, this does not change the central concern — that given the legal requirement to making a buck for the stock holders, a corporation’s ability to follow the law (or at least natural and moral laws) will be questionable without some sort of accountability. Currently, this accountability does not exist in the global community.

A film like this begs the question, “What should I do about it?” The Corporation suggests that the people must rise up and act. The filmmakers contend that if working class Bolivians were able to break a corporate monopoly on water, surely with the right leadership the world can restrain corporate growth. As Americans there is something about these idealistic pleas that resonate with us. We have a rich history of protest in this country, whether it is sloughing off British Imperialism, engaging in the non-violence of the Civil Rights movement, or the radical (and at times violent) actions of the Vietnam protests. In all these situations, the protester was tangibly affected by someone in power. The founding fathers bristled at the idea of taxation without representation, African Americans rights were clearly being desecrated, and 60’s era hippies saw their fellow students returning dead or wounded from Vietnam. Yet with corporations many of us do not perceive a direct correlation between their devious behavior and our comfortable lives. In fact, we benefit. If Clothing Company X is able to find cheap and unfair labor wages, that means the cost for a T-shirt is lower.

It seems that as a Christian there is a core issue here, and it is not whether the corporation is inherently evil. Rather, do we value the essential dignity of all people over the personal comfort?

It seems ironic to me that given the created goodness of humanity and God’s universal love of all people we as Christians are not on the front line of these concerns. This is a theological truth that is central to evangelicalism and the source of many traditional views on issues like abortion. Again, it is not because the corporation is evil, but because people and the environment are suffering. Perhaps critics of Christianity are correct when they levy concerns about our fascination with money, power and the American dream.

Do the claims of the Bible in reference to the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and the powerless have any claim on our lives? If they do, the issue of corporate involvement in the global community will become a concern that lives at the forefront of our Kingdom theology.

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