A Birmingham jury's surprising acquittal of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy last Tuesday raises again the question of the relationship between Christianity and business.

"I want to give all the glory to God," Scrushy proclaimed after the verdict was announced. He has been giving visiting sermons at various churches and hosts a Christian program on cable television.

(ENLARGE)
Robert S. McElvaine teaches history at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss.
EMAIL THIS PRINT THIS MOST POPULAR

How easy is it to persuade a Southern jury composed of many self-identified Christians that a man who talks a great deal about Christianity is a "good man," regardless of how un-Christlike his behavior has been?

As a resident of Clinton, Miss., where Bernard Ebbers established his WorldCom headquarters , I have long been familiar with the issue of whether un-Christlike behavior is seen as having any bearing on a person's claim to be a "good Christian."

In the wake of Ebbers' conviction in the largest corporate fraud case in American history, the comment most often heard here was: "But Bernie's a good Christian."

When the fraud was first exposed in June 2002, Ebbers refused comment to the media, but walked to the front of his Southern Baptist church and said, "I just want you to know you aren't going to church with a crook."

He went on to tell his fellow worshippers, with tears in his eyes, "More than anything else, I hope that my witness for Jesus Christ will not be jeopardized." The congregation rose to give the unrepentant Christian a standing ovation.

The unwillingness of so many self-professed Christians to say that any sort of sinful behavior is incompatible with being "a good Christian" is very revealing about the brand of Christianity that has become so popular and so politically potent in the United States in recent decades.

Indeed, for some, the willingness to place a higher value on the claim of Christianity than on behavior extends to criminal deeds far worse than corporate fraud.

We have been reminded in the past few weeks with the trial here in Mississippi of Edgar Ray Killen for the murder of three civil rights workers that the only reason he was not convicted on federal civil rights violation charges in 1967 was that one of the 12 jurors said she could never convict a preacher.

I have slowly come to comprehend the theological beliefs upon which such attitudes are based.

Last fall, two of my students independently wrote in their journals that Christianity differs from Hinduism in that Hindus believe in karma and so that what one does in this world determines what happens to him or her after death. But Christians are, in the words of one of the students, not judged "on their actions in life but rather their belief in Jesus as the son of the one living God."

It is unsurprising that people who believed that Ebbers and Scrushy could bring them huge wealth without effort also are adherents to a religion that might best be called Christianity Lite, which promises eternal salvation in return for nothing more than professing acceptance of Jesus as one's Lord and Savior. Believe in Jesus and He will instantly save you. Believe in Bernie and he will instantly make you rich.

The brand of Christianity embraced by Ebbers, Scrushy and those who still see them as "good Christian men" is one that basically says all you need to do is accept Jesus and then you can do whatever you want.

In effect, it argues that God watches what we say, not what we do.

It is a peculiarly American twist on Calvinism that divides the world into the Elect and the Damned, but democratizes the process by providing for self-election.

This perversion of Christianity reduces Jesus to a "get out of jail free" card.

On the same day that Scrushy was acquitted, federal prosecutors in New York — where just saying "I'm a good Christian" doesn't go as far as it does in Alabama and Mississippi — asked that when Ebbers is sentenced on July 13, he be sent to jail for the rest of his life.