My Take on Eugene McCarraher's Take on Capitalism and the Culture of Death

In November 2007, Eugene McCarraher (Humanities Professor at Villanova University) was interviewed for Mars Hill Graduate School's The Other Journal. In it he provides some thoughtful reflections on American Christians and their general approach to faith in the culture.

"First, I think that Christians should stop yakking about consumerism.
Consumerism is not the problem—capitalism is. Consumerism is the work
ethic of consumption, the transformation of leisure and pleasure into
duties. Talking about consumerism is a way of not talking about
capitalism, and I've come to think that that's the reason why so many
people, including Christians, whine about it so much."

[McCarraher takes on a great discussion regarding abortion and capitalism. Rather than just cut, paste, and further screw up Google search results, go read that portion here.]

Perhaps my favorite nuggets from McCarraher's interview were the ones regarding empire and Christian economics.

"Given that we're an empire on the downslope, Christians should be
preaching the good news that America can decline gracefully, and that
Americans will be saner and happier when they relinquish the imperial
imperative."

"Christians should be pioneering a whole new economics, not just tacking
values onto capitalism."

I love the idea of pioneering rather than adding onto the world's model. When did we, as Christians, cease being different? When did it become our role to slightly Christianize the structures and systems of the world? We have done a very poor job of living a doctrine of subversive peace and love. McCarraher says "I have no patience with the providentialist bullshit shoveled by
Richard Neuhaus or Stephen Webb. That star-spangeled drivel has gotten
and will continue to get a lot of people killed." Think about it. We live in a country where patriotism is valued more than pacifism, and yet we argue that the Gospel of Christ is somehow glorifed in that.

Not everything McCarraher says is correct, I'm sure. He suggests some form of socialism as "the most inspiring and practical way of arranging our economic affairs in the light of the Gospel." I don't know whether or not I agree with that statement, but I surely have my doubts about what we have been doing for 2000 years.

What about you? Do you have thoughts in response/in contradiction to McCarraher?