The End of Free Markets and Other Odds and Ends . . .

I haven''t posted in a while because I have been incredibly busy and have been dealing with a lot of stuff, so I thought that I'd post a few thoughts on some current issues that have had me thinking. Maybe some good discussion will be generated for the weekend.

Are we effectively seeing the end of a free market economy with the $700 Billion bailout of financial institutions? If companies can be bought out by the government and their bad debt be acquired and erased by taxpayers, isn't that akin to socialism? If we lose the risk vs. reward incentive that has built our economy, are we not abandoning free markets for the sake of security? Is this yet another step toward the ultimate destruction of our economy?

Well, the bailout is far from a sure thing. It seems that a number of Republicans are rebelling against the bail out as being an excessive overreach of government interference in free markets and a burden on taxpayers. Stay tuned.

Time Magazine had a good article about origins of the crisis last week.

Were the origins of the financial crisis detailed by a New York Times article in 1999?  Check it out and decide for yourself.

Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said that America will lose its role as a global financial “superpower” in the wake of the financial crisis. 

“The US will lose its status as the superpower of the world financial system. This world will become multi­polar” with the emergence of stronger, better capitalised centres in Asia and Europe, Mr Steinbrück told the German parliament. “The world will never be the same again.”

He later told journalists: “When we look back 10 years from now, we will see 2008 as a fundamental rupture. I am not saying the dollar will lose its reserve currency status, but it will become relative.”

To further add to the crisis, Washington Mutual just experienced the largest bank failure in U.S. history. It was taken over by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

From the "I Didn't Think You Could Become Even MORE Irrelevant" File: PETA wants Ben & Jerry's to use human breast milk in their ice cream instead of cow's milk because they say it is not fair to the calves to take their milk. Plus, breast milk is supposed to be good for you!  I honestly believe that PETA would be happy if we became cannibals and ate one another instead of eating animals. No thanks, PETA. 

In other news, it appears that 43% of decisions in a marriage are made by women, while men make 26% of the decisions and 31% are equally divided. The old idea that men were the head of the household has been replaced by women ruling the home, according to an article in the USA Today - and most men are okay with it.

"Across all decision-making realms, it tilts to the woman,"says Rich Morin, lead author of the study, being released today.

"I was surprised by the percentage of men who made none of the decisions in any of the areas. A significant percentage were just bystanders."

Such responses run counter to societal beliefs, says Melinda Forthofer, director of the Institute for Families in Society at the University of South Carolina-Columbia.

"Despite the fact that in our society, we have had this notion of males as heads of households, we have seen the pattern that women tend to really be the managers of the home."

And men don't seem to mind, she says: "When they're not in the workplace, they're content to follow their partner's lead."

So, who makes the decisions in your home? The man? The woman? Is there mutual decision making?  The Bible actually addresses this issue in Ephesians 5:21-6:4; Colossians 3:18-21; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; Titus 2:3-5; 1 Corinthians 14:33-35, and 1 Peter 3:1-12.  I think that because of past sins in this area and the preponderance of fleshly thinking where one has to assert themselves over the other, we either go too far with these teachings or we reject them outright. We must balance the idea of male headship with the perspective that we see in Philippians 2:1-11 that we are to be one in spirit and purpose and we are to humble ourselves even unto death.  One truth does not outweigh another.

Michael Spencer (iMonk) provides us with some provoking thoughts on the missing Christian counter-culture. He brought home a lot of what I have been trying to say in my Prophetic vs. Political series. I think that the coming of the Kingdom of God changes everything and that we should strive to bring all of life under the reign and rule of Christ. That means that there is no area that should be unaffected by Jesus and His Church. But, we are to do it in the way of Jesus. The implications of the "Jesus Way" are profound indeed.

Caelan had scans last week and all is well. Praise God!  Apparently, the oncologists have discovered that his tumor was one of a kind and he is being written up in a medical journal! I'll write more about that later when it is published and I can provide a link. I only understood about 2 sentences of it, but it seems that they have never seen a tumor like his before and his case will be used to help others.

The LSU Tigers are ranked #5 after beating Auburn last week. My son and I got to go to the game at Auburn and got to meet Les Miles afterwards outside of the ESPN Gameday set. It was a great game and it was a relief to beat Auburn AT Auburn. With everything else going on, I am thankful for the diversion that is college football! I'm also taking the kids camping this weekend (long time promise), but we'll be back in time for college football on Saturday night. The kids really want to watch LSU vs. Miss. St. ;)

We are in the middle of trying to sell a house that we have been burdened with for the past year. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong (well, almost everything).  It has been exhausting, but we think that we are near closing the sale. Hopefully by tomorrow this will all be finished. I've decided that I hate home ownership and I don't think I want to do this again. Which leads me to the question: Is it good for pastors to own homes, especially in volitale markets? If a neighborhood goes down and you lose your investment, do you just move and abandon the neighborhood? If you are tied to a house, doesn't that make it difficult to move and be responsive to the Lord's leading? I'm thinking deeply about these things and will likely write more about it later.

I head to India again next week. There will be 6 of us and we will be doing all sorts of things. I'll write from India and provide pictures if I can.  We'll be there 9 days and are bringing 3 men with us from churches in St. Louis, MO. Our hope is that those churches can partner with the ministries that are going on there as we have been doing. I am really excited about this trip and the possibilities that await us. Please pray for us.

Comments

[A S Hodel]

Congratulations on Caelan's recovery! And, while I wish things had gone differently, congratulations in your win over my home town team last Saturday.

[Beth]

Why do you ask the questions about home ownership exclusively about pastors?

[Alan Cross]

Beth,

Because I didn't want to step on anyone else's toes. I really should only apply something like this to myself, but in boldness I extended the question to other pastors. In reality, there is no difference between pastor and laity, so, maybe these thoughts should apply to everyone. I don't know. Everyone is in a different situation and I don't want to play Holy Spirit and be legalistic. God will guide us. It is just something that I am working through right now.

[Beth]

Being military, home-ownership is always a gamble. We started with an apartment, bought here, rented in Alabama, rented and did the base housing thing in Hawaii, and bought here again. Tom will retire here and, although we have no way of knowing if we'll stay, this is the land of jobs for former-military.

We've sought God's will every time we moved. (Don't know if we followed it, but we walked through the doors that opened.) With the natural market volatility and the short-term assignments, there's no hard and fast rules. We sold our house here in 2000 within a couple of months. We have friends who moved to Hawaii three years ago and still haven't sold their house on the East Coast.

I dunno, I think it's one of those God things that doesn't lend itself to universal rules based on occupation or location or economy. And He very well may consider future difficulty selling a house of lesser importance than the present potential to reach a particular neighborhood.

But I sure loved being able to rip up Jack's carpet and lay down a smooth floor for his Hot Wheels without having to convince a property manager.

[Bryan Riley]

Here's a quote from that NY Times article that was predictive:

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

It wasn't a politician saying it. But, of course, that could simply be who the Times decided to put in there, or, it could be that no politician was willing to stick his or her neck out against the easy credit at that time.

I like your thoughts on home ownership. We know the pains of trying to sell a home. While we were gone a water leak was discovered and we have thousands of dollars of repairs to do. And we still need to be free of the debt with what God has called us to. amazingly, He has still made a way in spite of what we see as impossible! :)

God bless, Alan. We really need to catch up on things.

[Bryan Riley]

Foxes have holes....

[Steve Austin]

Parsonages can be a real pain in the neck, but if kept up can be a real workable solution to what you mention.

The bigger deal, of course, is thankfulness that the boy scans free of cancer!!