I am writing this on the day the stock market lost more points than on any other day in its history. I know of few people who are not anxious. How will this affect businesses, pension plans, retirement accounts, employment, church budgets, and annual giving?

Not being an economist, there is little that I can say that is reassuring. Nor does it do much good to point fingers at the likely culprits behind all this, or to blame one political party for the meltdown. In a culture which has been dominated by institutionalized greed and lack of social responsibility, there is enough blame to go around.

But for any person of faith, here are some words that come to mind:

Therefore do not worry, saying, "What will we eat?' or "What will we drink?' or "What will we wear?" For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matt. 6.32

I suspect that in the months to come we in the church will have to deal as much with fear as we will with tight budgets. All our parishioners will be affected in one way or another, but in their anxiety we do offer a message of hope. God knows what we need (almost always different from what we want) and God will provide for us, just as God does for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.

I don't want to minimize the pain of anyone who might be facing a job loss or has had their retirement funds impacted by our present economic crisis, but it may even be that hard economic times can be a blessing in disguise as they force us to value those non-material things so important to our spiritual health: a deep worship life, reliance on family and friends, the revaluing of the simple God-given pleasures of life.

Yes, we must take practical steps too, and, as I have already written, dealing with financial issues will be a central part of our time together at Diocesan Convention Oct. 17-18 when we look for the "Good News in Hard Times."

In the meantime, let's all take a deep breath, pray for our leaders, reprioritize our values, and trust in the One who tells us to "fear not, for I have overcome the world."

 

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A Final Thought

Many Christian thinkers are or will be making long overdue comments about Christianity and its relationship to capitalism. Both the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have been vocal in recent days. Here is a good exchange from the PBS show, Religion and Ethics, featuring Evangelical writer Jim Wallis and Jesuit priest and former business guru Jim Martin.

+Kirk

MARTIN: ...I still believe in the capitalist system, and as Adam Smith would tell you, self-interest is what motivates that. So I'm not saying that needs to be set aside. What I'm saying is that the capitalist system, as we've seen, is not perfect, and you do need regulation, you do need the government to step in and care for such things. You know, we look at education, and people are fine with the common good there. I think we have to expand our notion on what the government, on what society needs to do in terms of their responsibility to the poor.

WALLIS: I think government should encourage innovation, but it must limit greed. Self-interest and success is one thing. Losing sight of what is best for the common good is another thing. So capitalism run amok here is really what's happening, and so restoring a sense of what's good for all of us is, in fact, the best business model. So we've lost something here.

ABERNETHY: So, which is to say oversight by Congress and by the firms themselves?

MARTIN: Right.

WALLIS: Yeah, and social regulation is going to be necessary. But I would say self-regulation will, too. Jim is right. We've all got into this culture of greed, the culture extolling greed as a value. In D.C., property values have doubled in four years. So what do they say? Take your equity value and take a loan against that and buy another house, and then you can rent that and pay for your mortgage and then buy a third house. The prophets say you add house to house to house to house -- the whole thing falls apart, and that's what's happened, from Wall Street right down to a lot of our own families.

On the Net: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week1204/perspectives.html