Globalization and Environmental Degradation

Third Quarter 2000

Editor's Watch

by James W. Skillen

An important thread runs through most of this issue. It is concern with the structure of political systems and how they deal with matters of economic justice, especially those matters that affect the life of the poor. In that regard, it is appropriate that most of the space in the editor's column this time should be given to comments by Joyce Ribbens Campbell, the person who opened the first Washington office of the Center for Public Justice in the late 1970s. She and her family have been living in Guinea, West Africa for more than a decade.

"I want to differ with the editorial opinion expressed in 'Agenda 2000' (first-quarter issue, 2000). You wrote that 'fundamental structural change' in the American government's relation to economic institutions 'is not in question.' It may not be in question in the current political debate, but I believe it should be in question by the Center for Public Justice. Two powerful trends, both of which arise from the idolatrous heart of American society and each of which has the potential to dwarf all other issues, show that government's relation to the economy needs fundamental reenvisioning: 1) globalization, with all its ramifications, and 2) degradation of the creation.

"Both of these interconnected issues have everything to do with government's relation to economic enterprises and the market in general. I hope that the Center is not denying their gravity. I also hope that the Center is not thereby saying that its Public Justice perspective has nothing unique to offer to the discussion. These issues are grave and the Center does have, and should further develop, much-needed insight into them!

"You hit the nail on the head when you said, 'Not only should economic growth not be our primary political aspiration, but even with regard to economic justice our first concern today should be to see justice done to society's most fundamental institutions.' It is precisely because economic growth is America's primary political aspiration that justice is not done to the creation or to the poor. And this is why not enough attention is given to the structural issues that are the historical forte of the Center. "As a long-time member of the Center who has lived in West Africa for more than 10 years, these two issues never stop slapping me in the face, both here in Guinea and when I'm in the U.S. They cry out for the kind of wise, careful, biblical, stewardly, philosophical, non-idolatrous, nonpartisan, non-special-interest, non-socialist, non-capitalist Public Justice perspective that only the Center can give."

The editors' intention in "Agenda 2000" was not to suggest that domestic policy changes are unnecessary, and there do need to be structural economic changes at the international level. We were simply affirming the legitimacy of independent enterprises, a federal reserve bank, and similar features of our economic system, in contrast to the existing governance structure for American education.