This past weekend I stopped by a blueberry farm to pick up a couple of boxes of fresh blueberries.
I got my blueberries and a whole lot more.
In the building located on the farm where customers come to buy the berries, the radio was playing Christian music. I told one of the young guys working there I liked the music. And asked, "Where do you go to church?"
He said he went to an evangelical Lutheran church, but the family who owns the farm go to the Romanian church and quickly introduced me to one of the owners. We said hello. I told him I liked and appreciated the music.
He said, "Don't I know you?" After a moment of conversation he said, "I grew up watching your television program. My parents had it on every morning."
His parents had fled Romania because of the persecution of Christians. They had come to America seeking religious freedom and a better life for their family.
He asked if he could show me something--I said "sure." In an adjoining room in the building about 15 to 20 teenagers were sorting blueberries as they bumped along the sorting table. He said these were kids from the youth group at their church and that they were earning money to pay for a mission trip later this summer. He said they were also earning extra money to take with them to give to the people they are going to minister to.
He said I was so thankful to live in America. He said his family has been able to give a great deal of money to their church, the youth ministries and to foreign missions.
He said, "Capitalism is the friend of Christianity, you can't do this in other countries."
Is Christianity and free market capitalism compatible?