With the titans of American commerce, Matthews shares the confidence that American capitalism has created a remarkable model of efficiency, accountability and standards of excellence.

"The church would be blessed if it operated more like that, where people were not allowed shoddy discipleship … [where] our offering to God was the best.  In the best businesses in America, excellence is admired, and excellence is delivered."

Matthews calls that side of American capitalism "wonderful," but he notes with alarm that a business ethic run amuck now threatens traditional, old-fashioned values. Those values are equally foundational in forming the American spirit and, with them, the core values of the Christian faith. "The shadow side of American capitalism is when we take competition to its ultimate, [when] increasing the bottom line is all that matters," he said.

"We have no more evil or wickedness or greed than we have ever had," he said, but "it has become more fashionable or more acceptable to push the legal limit and to consider the law as the only ethic.

"That has replaced the old-fashioned kind of morality or ethic or sensibility or even folkways that govern our behavior."

The rules of the marketplace and how we measure up to the competition—all external measurements—have replaced any deeply held and carefully nurtured sense of self and understanding of right and wrong, according to Matthews.

"Where we get our ethic, our morality, is from our competitor," he said, "and not from a source of dignity, human worth and value" that used to be instilled by the Boy Scout and the Girl Scout troop, the high school coach, the church or the folkways of the community.

"Those, it seems to me, are not of value anymore; but, rather, what is competing against you forms your ethic," he said.

The Market – the new icon

"What has happened in our culture that is so difficult to even name is this emerging idea called The Market," he explained. "The new secular theology is that The Market is the divine one. The only thing that needs to be said is, ‘The Market,' and everybody nods, because if it is market-driven, it's got to be good. And that has to do with ethics, it has to do with profits, it has to do with whether or not you move your textile mill from Alabama to China. It has to do with whether or not you pay the minimum wage or you don't pay it or whether you will accept the new understanding of the living wage. All of those things are washed right away with the word ‘Market.'"

Matthews worries that morality, ethics and Christian understanding of the teachings of Jesus get swept away, become irrelevant under the power of The Market.

"The competitive spirit is not of Jesus," he said. "The very notion of competition being the center of folk culture is challenged by the essence of the pure gospel of Jesus the Christ that says, ‘No, if you compete with your brother, then you are putting your brother down. What you need to do is help your brother or your sister.'"

"The church has a very difficult time with this issue. It is maybe one of the most difficult issues for the church," Matthews said. "I think we are powerless because we, too, have been seduced by the very system that we are trying to address.  We don't yet have a theological language that challenges the concept of competition. We still believe in America that competition is the savoir and free competition is the ultimate savior.

"The Christian faith is so challenged by a culture such as ours that we almost don't have tools, no language, no forms of dialogue that allow us to speak about challenging our own love of competition."