Good Business
Concerning Christianity, business and ownership of property revolve around stewardship. In this case, stewardship is the concept where human beings were created by God to be caretakers of His creation. From the creation time, human beings were given dominion over other creatures, which is a big responsibility. God considers humans as co-creators. When it comes to taking care of God’s creation, we can learn from the old testament where people were to take care of the land by leaving it un-plowed on the seventh year of their farming cycle. This gave time for the land to regain its fertility. There is also the concept of handing back of land to people who it originally belonged to in the fiftieth year(jubilee). This ensured that people did not lack land to cultivate.
The Bible advocates for people to take care of the weak in society. The Bible discourages people from taking advantage of the vulnerable. In the text, there is the illustration of the Baal Cycle, where people start when they are righteous. Still, along the way, a particular group of people becomes wealthy, and forget their primary responsibility of taking care of the poor. Their lack of compassion toward the weak leads to the poor crying to God for help, who institutes a change of guard and humbles the rich. The newly rich people conform to the tradition of giving until a time when they feel they have given enough and stop giving to the poor. The poor cry to God, who answers their prayer by humbling the rich.
The Bible also advocates for people owning up and taking their responsibility by understanding their role of accountability to others and deciding what to do to help others based on their available resources. As such, farmers are encouraged/instructed not to harvest everything in the farm but to leave some for the poor. The poor, however, have to play their role in ensuring they meet their daily needs. The poor have utilized the resources at their disposal to help themselves. Clement of Rome goes ahead to make sure that there is a balance of responsibility. The strong should listen to the weak, while the weak respect the strong. The rich should feed the poor while the poor should pray for the rich. This cycle would fulfill Shepherd of Hermes, where people are encouraged to live in peace with one another and care for one another.
From the notes, we understand that stewardship is the care of God’s creation, including fellow people and the environment. The onus is in the food processing companies to ensure that they do not use ingredients that can cause health issues to the population. They should be careful not to fall prey to the cycle of Ball. The parable of the tenant is also pertinent here, considering they have been given something to work with, and they should exercise it to the full extent. They should research where they raw materials come from, and the standards of those goods otherwise have that responsibility removed from them by having their licenses revoked. People should also recycle their e-waste. If every person played their stewardship role appropriately, then women in Hong Kong would not have to undergo the pain of miscarriage.