Something largely unspoken about the current economic crisis that is taking place in our nation is this. It is, at its very core, a spiritual crisis more than anything else. On one level it is about derivatives, interest rates, taxes, mortgages, retail sales, and stock prices, but on the other hand it is actually a deeply spiritual crisis. It speaks, on so many levels, about a people who have gotten lost.
The problem is not a simple problem and is has several components.
The first is the problem of individualism.
I often here Christians talk about having a ‘personal relationship with Jesus.’ When queried I am told that this is in the Bible. There is a funny thing about this, however. The word ‘personal’ is not in the New Testament. For that matter, the word ‘relationship’ is not in the New Testament either. Neither is the word ‘individual.’ While there is significant information in talking to and about individuals within the New Testament, the main thrust of the New Testament is not about individualism and individuals in response to God, but about the community, namely the Christian Church.
Within the Old Testament, Judaism is clearly, and fundamentally a communal religion. As Christianity evolves from Judaism there are significant theological changes, but the foundation is one of community. Judaism has widely maintained that strong sense of community; a sense that Christianity has been significantly looser about.
The Bible begins with Genesis and there is a seminal question in Genesis. After Cain slew his brother Abel, God queries Can about the whereabouts of Abel. Cain responds with a question: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The rest of the Bible answers that question in the affirmative. We are keepers of our sisters and brothers.
The other morning CNBC’s Rick Santelli sort of led what many people are calling the Chicago Tea Party when he ragingly asked the traders on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange if they wanted to pay for their neighbor’s bad mortgages. They all booed. I took that as a ‘no.’ (It was, on a side note, rather ironic, that he didn’t ask them if they were willing to accept bail out money for their companies that had blundered in the market, aiding and abetting the current crisis.)
He also failed to ask them how they were going to deal with their defaulting neighbors who were defaulting on their mortgages and vacating houses in neighborhoods, driving the cost of homes way, way down. The reality is that I don’t want to pay tax dollars to bail people out but I also don’t want to lose the investment in my home as people default. The short answer is that we are all in this together and people are all going to pay the bill one way or another. But I digress.
Santelli’s rage was real as was the rage of the people on the floor. It is a rage many people do share. The question however is this. Are we the keeper of our brothers and our sisters? Are we responsible for each other? From the perspective of 2000 years of Christian teaching, and from the Bible itself, the answer is that we very much are responsible for each other. We can debate how we live out that responsibility towards one another politically, but if we espouse Christianity, are ARE responsible for each other.
A second spiritual issue is the issue of greed. That great line in the movie “Wall Street,” is simple: “Greed is good.”
I do understand this. There is much about greed that drives an economy. When we want that bigger, nicer house, or car, or computer, or article of clothing, part of what drives our desire is a certain amount of greed. The fast food industry is a magnificent example of this. When I was growing up and you want to one of the burger places, a hamburger was a 1-2 ounce piece of meat with condiments. Now you can purchase half a steer topped with a quarter of a pig and two pails of milk (turned into cheese) with condiments, on a bun. And, of course, to go with this, there is a pound of fries with a liter of soft drink to wash it all down. Ever since the fast food industry understood greed they grew in leaps and bounds. People desire more.
Several years ago there was a huge rage over what was called the Prayer of Jabez. In 1 Chronicles 4:10 it says:
Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border (or territory), and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!" And God granted what he asked.
The prayer was used at business meetings (and preached from pulpits) as a statement of God’s desire for people to have great prosperity. “Enlarge my border/territory,” was interpreted as increasing one’s sales or geographic territory for sales or even purchasing a larger house on a bigger lot. The prayer of Jabez was actually a prayer by Jabez asking God to widen his heart to be more generous and the prayer was corrupted into being about greed.
There is much spoken about the so-called Prosperity Gospel. Here is the painful reality of the Prosperity Gospel. There isn’t one. It is a mutation of the real Gospel and as valid as a $3.00 bill. Jesus did not preach a Gospel, even remotely, of economic prosperity. Jesus demonstrated an amazing indifference to taxes, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s,” and his advice to the rich young man was to take “ALL he had and give it to the poor.” If a person ever tells you that he or she takes every word of the Bible totally literally, ask them about that passage and watch them wiggle and finesse.
More later.
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