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Democracy Calls for Ethics, Enrichment
By Stan Friedman
CHICAGO, IL (March 30, 2005) - If the United States wants to encourage the
development of democracy in other parts of the world, it must make sure
that multinational corporations act ethically and enrich the lives of
people in those nations, said Peter J. Paris in the Nyvall Lectures
delivered at North Park Theological Seminary today.
Too often companies benefit financially from the foreign workforce while
leaving the employees impoverished, he said. Paris used Shell Oil
Company in Nigeria as an example, where he said the multinational
business has an operation as large as a city, but where the standard of
living has even declined due to pollution.
Paris is the Elmer G. Homrighausen professor of Christian social ethics
at Princeton Theological Seminary. His two lectures Wednesday focused on
"Justice for the Excluded." He stated that social structures in the
United States prevent the poor from gaining upward mobility and foster
continued poverty by denying access to justice, health care, education,
humanizing living conditions and economic opportunity.
The church must "repent of its apostasy" of ignoring the plight of the
poor, Paris said. That repentance would include learning from liberation
theology, which interprets scripture from the perspective of the poor.
He referred to the plight of the Joad family in John Steinbeck's novel
The Grapes of Wrath as typical of the current poor. The family
became increasingly disrespected for the simple reason that it was poor,
Paris said, adding that the disrespect increased as the Joad family's
plight worsened.
The poor who are born into poverty are disrespected - even though they
are poor by being born into poverty, while the wealthy are highly
respected - even though "they had done nothing to merit that blessing."
Paris also said that downsizing and outsourcing have contributed to
increasing poverty by eliminating unskilled jobs in America. Skilled
workers who have been laid off also are taking lower jobs, thus
presenting further obstacles for those in lower economic strata to
improving their lives.
Dr. Peter J. Paris has been at Princeton since 1985. Prior to Princeton
he taught on the faculties of Vanderbilt University Divinity School in
Nashville, Tennessee, and at Howard University School of Divinity in
Washington, D.C. He was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, where he
earned his B.A. and M.Div. degrees at Acadia University. He earned his
M.A. and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Chicago, which honored him
as Alumnus of the Year in 1995. He has published the following books:
Black Religious Leaders: Unity in Diversity; The Social Teaching of
the Black Churches; and The Spirituality of African Peoples: The
Search for a Common Moral Discourse. His most recent edited volume
is The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York.
He has also co-edited other books, authored chapters in books and
numerous essays in academic journals. He presently serves as the
principal project director of a multi-year Pan-African seminar of
religious scholars on religion and poverty, which is funded by the Ford
Foundation.
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