by Milton Mejia, Presbyterian Professor of Theology and Coordinator of the Church and Society Observatory of Reformed University in Colombia

During their time in Colombia, both political leaders expressed their commitment to promote the trade agreement signed at the end of 2006 between the governments of Colombia and the United States - approved by the Colombian Congress but not by its counterpart in Washington due to concerns raised by the Democrats about human rights in the Andean country.

With the possibility that the Republicans and Democrats will come to an agreement to approve the FTA with Colombia, members of social organizations and churches believe that we have los many years of work and they ask themselves what they can do to continue showing their disagreement with free trade agreements like this one. To respond to this question and not feel disheartened, we must be clear that as Christians we are not opposted to this trade agreement for political reasons. Our opposition is for reasons of faith and ethics. The reasons for which we believe that these trade agreements do not go along with faith and Christian ethics are menctioned in the Confession of Faith of Refomed Churches in their gathering in Accra, Ghana in 2004.

In this confession the economic model that is promoted by this type of trade agreement is described in the following way: “The signs of the times have become more alarming and must be interpreted. The root causes of massive threats to life are above all the product of an unjust economic system defended and protected by political and military might.” According to the Confession of Accra, this unjust economic system, in its hurry to increase the profits of the wealthiest, increases poverty, causes the death of millions of human beings, and today is evident in the way in which it is destroying the creation of God.

The Confession of Accra affirms that this is occuring because in neoliberalism, the economy is intended to increase profits and performance for the benefit of the ownders of production and of financial capital while excluding the majority of people and treating the environment as a commodity. The relationship between the economy and our faith in the confession is established in the following way: “We see the dramatic convergence of the economic crisis with the integration of economic globalization and geopolitics backed by neoliberal ideology. This is a global system that defends and protects the interests of the powerful. It affects and captivates us all. Further, in biblical terms such a system of wealth accumulation at the expense of the poor is seen as unfaithful to God and responsible for preventable human suffering and is called Mammon. Jesus has told us that we cannot serve both God and Mammon (Lk 16.13).”

Thus the Confession of Accra encourages us to strengthen education in our churches in society about the danger of an economy that promotes this type of trade agreement which does not protect the life of human beings nor of creation and intends to take the place of God. Along with this, we as Christians need to continue helping communities that organize themselves to develop a product and commercial interchange that has at its center justice and care of all human life and nature. We believe that in this way the proclamation of the good news as life abundant will have greater acceptance among the millions of human beings that have been impoverished and suffer the violence of the economic system that prevails in our world.