On this week's episode, four reasons why secular humanism is bad for business. Welcome back to Theology of Business. I'm your host, Darren Shearer, author of the book Marketing Like Jesus, and the forthcoming book, Your Spiritual Gifts in the Marketplace. And this is the show that helps marketplace leaders to partner with God in business, to change the world, to make a difference in eternity. The Theology of Business Podcast is proudly sponsored by High Bridge Books, which provides professional book publishing and author coaching services for inspiring thought leaders. You can take the next step toward getting your book published by requesting our free free video author training course at highbridgebooks.com forward slash course. And even if you don't have a book to publish, but maybe you know somebody who does, if you're interested in becoming one of our affiliates, you can get more information about our literary agent program at highbridgebooks.com forward slash affiliates. And now on to this week's episode. In his 1969 Harvard Business Review article titled Is Business Bluffing Ethical? Albert Carr suggested that those who win in business are not those who seek to apply Christian ethics, such as the Golden Rule, but they're those who approach business as as though they would a game of poker. He argued that, and I quote, conscious misstatements, concealment of pertinent facts or exaggeration, unquote, are all permissible in the business game, just as they are in the game of poker, he suggested. Carr found no fault in the CEO who allowed his company to sell mouthwash made with a cheap and possibly harmful form of alcohol because the cost savings made the company more profitable. The CEO testified in Washington, he said we don't make the laws, we obey them. Then why do we have to put up with this holier than thou talk about ethics? It's sheer hypocrisy. We're not in business to promote ethics. Carr's argument is based on this unspoken assumption that the purpose of business is to worship one's own self interest through the strategic amoral pursuit of profit, as long as those methods are legal. But for a follower of Jesus, the purpose of business is to love God and to love others. Carr's suggested value system, which is determined only by what's legal and financially profitable, is consistent with the religion of secular humanism. And in this religion, which masquerades as a non-religion or an anti-religion, its followers who are both rich and poor alike, its followers have the same goal in mind, regardless of their socioeconomic status, and that is to worship their own self-interests. And secular humanism, if this sounds familiar, it's as ancient and as sly as sin itself. And it's a religion that all of us have had a tendency to follow. And in fact, many of us, if you're like me, uh because of the problem of sin in our lives, we have followed this religion of secular humanism. It's the worship of one's own self-interest. So here are four reasons why secular humanism is bad for business. Number one is that there is no trust. The foundation of a thriving marketplace is trust. And over time, people only do business with people they trust. The perceived value of products, services, and even currencies rises and falls according to the level at which people trust them. And if the objective of one's religion is the worship of his own self-interests or her own self-interests, he cannot be trusted because his ethics will never be consistent, because there is no source of those ethics. It really just sort of comes from within. A short-lived deal may be struck, but the relationship, the business relationship will collapse shortly or thereafter. Because he can't be trusted. His ethics always will be determined by what seems to be popular, profitable, and legal in the culture. And if you don't like what's legal, make it legal. Or if I should say, if you don't like what's illegal, make it legal. And and they do this always with the highest goal of promoting their own self-interest. The secular humanist cannot be trusted because its ultimate goal is to glorify himself, not his creator. Because again, the marketplace is based on trust. The second reason why secular humanism is bad for business is because there's no contentment with this value system. No contentment. When asked how much it would take to make a man happy, industrialist John Rockefeller answered just a little bit more. Discontentment is a dangerous thing. Regardless of one's economic status, discontentment results in fear, jealousy, envy, greed, and depression. As individuals live with discontentment, people get taken advantage of, and entire economies end up in recessions and depressions. And we're seeing this go on all over the world right now. As recorded in the Bible, King David fell into secular humanism when he took a census merely to worship his own ego. You can read about that in 1 Chronicles chapter 21, and also an article that I wrote titled Sinful Accounting: How to Break Free from Stat Checking Addiction. That's at theology of business.com. The result of this was a plague that took the lives of 70,000 men of Israel. Discontentment is driven by the worship of our self-interests. And in business, it often expresses itself as the love of money. And the Bible tells us he who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with his income. That's Ecclesiastes chapter 5, verse 10. We all want to be content and happy, but secular humanism leaves us always wanting more of what can never satisfy. The third reason why secular humanism is bad for business is that there is no rest. Where there is discontentment among business professionals, there's a ceaseless striving to do more, to achieve more, to gain more. And in my own professional life, I found this striving to be exhausting. For many business professionals, this striving leads to burnout, family breakdown, health decline, hopelessness. In the midst of my ceaseless striving several years ago, I became captivated by this verse from Psalms chapter 46, verse 10. It says, Cease striving and know that I am God. At that point, it occurred to me why honor the Sabbath and keep it holy is one of the Ten Commandments. That's in Exodus chapter 20, verses 8 through 11. You can read about the Sabbath. Observing the Sabbath day, which is refraining from work for one full day each week, is not about proving something to God. Instead, as Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So if you haven't been already, try taking just one day of rest from your work each week. It doesn't matter which day, just make it consistent. Making appointments to relax and to spend personal time with God each day, week, month, and each year will strengthen your body and will enhance the productivity of your life. And most importantly, taking a Sabbath day of rest each week will enhance the quality of your relationship with God. As God said to Moses, my presence will go with you and I will give you rest. So when God's presence is with us, we will find rest. And to be sure, rest is something that we must find. It's not going to happen unless we make it a top priority. And not only will rest make you more effective in the marketplace and deepen your relationship with God, it'll help you to and enable you to discover the depth of your identity as a child of God, not as a slave to the marketplace. The fourth reason why secular humanism is bad for business is because there's no relationship. When our aim is to worship our own self-interests, we know innately that we're alone in this effort. Yet God never intended for us to do business alone. He wants to partner with us. He wants us to have a relationship with Him. Partnering with God in business is about more than just applying practical business wisdom from the Bible, because Christians and non-Christians alike can apply the Bible's timeless business principles and experience the benefits. Therefore, it's possible to take business principles from the Bible and apply them with selfish objectives and just leave God out of your business. God is a person, not merely a set of timeless principles. He didn't just give us rules, he gave us a relationship. Pursuing a deeper relationship with God is really the only way to remain free of the self-centered value system of secular humanism that's advancing rapidly in our society. Without partnering with God in business, we're going to look more like secular humanists than Christians, seeking to worship our own self-interests. That's all for this week. I want to leave you with a question, and that is what are some other consequences of using business as a means to worship our own self-interests? I hope you've enjoyed this episode. I know it's been challenging, it's been a little bit more uh confrontational this week, but I hope to hear your feedback at theologyofbusiness.com, where you can get more information about business's ministry, spiritual gifts in the marketplace, marketing like Jesus, and Christ centered leadership and entrepreneurship. Feel free to email me at Darren at hybridbooks.com. If you have any questions or comments related to the theology of business, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening and keep partnering with God in your business.