The Anti-Greed Gospel

By Travis Jones

As we finish up our discussion this month on racism and greed, I want to bring you one last post summarizing Malcolm Foley’s book, The Anti-Greed Gospel, to help us continue deepening our understanding of racism and how we must respond to it today. Ultimately though, I would highly encourage you to engage with further resources on this topic, which I will list at the bottom. Thank you for sticking with us this month as we have engaged in difficult but necessary conversations around racism and greed. I hope and pray that it has been an edifying conversation for you.

Foley’s work in The Anti-Greed Gospel comes out of years of historical study on the lynching era in U.S. history, spanning from the post Civil War years to the 1940s. During this period, mob rule in the form of lynchings became common place, especially within the southern states that formerly made up the Confederate states in the Civil War. Lynching was used as a means of punishment, but ultimately something much more devious.

While the reason often cited for lynchings was that they were punishment to black men who assaulted white women, when investigated further by individuals such as Ida B. Wells, only an average of ⅓ of the lynchings were punishment for such an accusation, and rarely were the accused given any sort of trial to prove their innocence.¹ Most cases came merely from an accusation by a white individual, and a mob would form to swiftly respond with violent, tortuous punishment.

As Foley mentions in his book, Wells found that, is that lynching was used as a form of violence to preserve the power over black communities. Appeals to morality did not work in ending lynchings, and the best response to lynching came in the form of financial resistance to the systems that were complicit in lynchings. She writes: “..the white man’s dollar is his God…The appeal to the white man’s pocket has ever been more effectual than all the appeals ever made to his conscience.”²

From this and other historical accounts, Foley explains that race and racism were created alongside of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, to justify the exploitation of African bodies for the gain of their enslavers. And violence, such as lynching, was used to enforce that socially constructed hierarchy of races so that those in power might maintain their power and affluence.

This is plainly seen in a number of ways. For instance, Ida B. Wells wrote extensively about a lynching in her hometown of Memphis, TN where one of her own friends was killed. It was primarily instigated by a rival store owner who was upset at the success the black-owned grocery store in town was having.³ Similarly, the only individual to ever be expelled from Oregon under the exclusion laws was a man named Jacob Vanderpool in 1851. Vanderpool owned a hotel in Oregon City and was brought to court by his competitor in town, Theophilus Magruder.* These examples show how, because of greed, individuals have used the guise of race to justify eliminating their competition to their benefit.

While the first half of Foley’s book is spent understanding the connections of racism and greed, the second half is spent describing how we as the Church ought to respond.

Foley writes: “I want to contribute to a society that makes such a group [as the KKK] ridiculous, unattractive, and irrelevant. The evil stoked by the Klan and other such groups should be starved with love rather than fed by outrage. In order to overcome racism, however, it must be addressed at its root rather than at its fruit.”† Our response to racism, as the Church, must address the root, which is greed. Foley writes that the Church should respond to racism with deep economic solidarity, creative anti-violence, and prophetic truth telling.

By showing deep economic solidarity with those around us, that means we share our possessions and power with one another. We do not stockpile resources and power for ourselves, rather we openly share it with others, knowing that Christ provides for all our needs. This is evident in the early Church, as seen in Acts 2.

We as the Church must also respond with creative anti-violence because our fight is not with flesh and blood; it is not with our neighbors. Our battle is a spiritual one, and violence, in all its forms, is a tool of the enemy. As Christians we must not only refrain from partaking in violence, we must actively resist it in all its forms.

Finally, we as the Church must engage in prophetic truth telling. We cannot be afraid to look at the truth of who we are and what we’ve done, no matter how painful or difficult. Through this truth telling, we shame the devil and drain racism of its power, not simply by ensuring racial disparities are eliminated, but by ensuring that no one is a victim of injustice, that no one is exploited or oppressed by another. We want to see that everyone has what they need to thrive.

To conclude, I will leave you with this quote: “The battle against lies is much simpler: tell the truth and shame the devil. You may be told that someone’s housing circumstances dictate whether they are worthy of food, life, or work. Refuse that as a lie. You may be told that certain enemies deserve death. Refuse that as a lie. You may be told that some are responsible for being exploited, dominated, or otherwise sinned against. Refuse that as a lie. Repentance requires us to both turn away from sin and toward one another.”‡

¹ Ida B. Wells, Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (New York; n.p., 1892), 14.

² Ibid., 22-23.

³ “Mar. 9, 1892: Three Black Grocers Lynched in Memphis, Tennessee.” Calendar.Eji.Org. Equal Justice Initiative, n.d. Accessed October 23, 2025. https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/mar/9.

* Read more about this incident in Sarah L. Sanderson’s book, The Place We Make.

† Malcolm Foley, The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why the Love of Money Is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create a New Way Forward, (Grand Rapids, MI; Brazos Press, 2025), 10.

‡ Ibid., 143.