The Gods of Greed: Collapsing American Banking System?

How bad is this going to get? 504 points down for the NYSE. Lehman Brothers (which started in Montgomery, AL in 1844, by the way) - bankrupt. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - taken over the by the Feds. Merrill Lynch - emergency buyout by Bank of America. AIG, the world's largest insurer is on the brink of collapse. As I wrote last week in an absolutely brilliant essay (no, really, it was brilliant - okay, I'm kidding), greed and the unadulterated drive for consumption is what led us into the housing crisis. It appears that the banks were leading the way as they engaged in risky loans and financial dealings that are now tearing their foundations apart. This is really sad.

My degree in college was in social studies education, which means that I am qualified to teach high school economics. Basically, that doesn't mean a whole lot, except that I am interested in the subject and I know the difference between supply and demand. That curiosity basically just keeps me reading and learning about the issue enough to be a little dangerous. But, I found a really fascinating article on what went down on Wall St. last weekend. It reads like a novel, or a Hollywood movie. Apparently, Bernanke, the Fed Chairman, along with Henry Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, brought in the heads of all the major banks in the U.S. to see who wanted to buy out Lehman Brothers. When the Fed said that there would be no government bail out this time, everyone passed and Lehman Brothers went bankrupt. It is an amazing story and if you want to see just how little control the barons of Wall St., or the Masters of the Universe as novelist Tom Wolfe called them in The Bonfire of the Vanities, actually have over what happens, I encourage you to read it.

Do we get our identity from our homes, our wealth, and our standard of living? Jesus says that if we build our house on sand, the wind and waves that are inevitably coming will wash over it and tear it apart. But, if we hear His words and put them into practice, then we are building our house on the rock and when the winds and waves come, the house will stand (Matt. 7:24-27). Jesus tells us not to love money. He says that it is hard for rich men to enter heaven. Rich men tend to put their faith in their riches and they are always scrambling to get more. Instead of acquiring more for ourselves, the Bible tells us to be generous and to spend ourselves on behalf of the hungry (Isaiah 58). As my friend Strider said in a comment on the other post, the average American home is now 2200 sq. ft., as opposed to 1600 sq. ft. several years ago. This has happened at the same time that our families have gotten smaller. What do we need all of this for? Is it worth it, or are we just trying to fill a gigantic hole in our collective soul?

Our economy is in shambles and no one really knows the way out. Our national debt is at $10 trillion. We are facing a banking crisis like we have not seen in 70 years, all because we thought that we could just buy and spend forever. We have bought into a lie and it is killing us. The truth is that God is the only One who can satisfy us. Bigger homes, more money, and more powerful jobs do little to provide us with meaning and hope. The Church of Jesus Christ should be the ones most loudly proclaiming the message that when we make material things our god, we are sure to be destroyed. But, we've largely been silent on this issue because we have often been pursuing the same things. I am not exempt, either.

The prophetic issues of our day - the areas that God can really shine through - are often lost to Christians because we so closely follow our culture. We go right along with the things that our world says are important. It is often not until things fall apart that we are able to say that God is enough.  Perhaps God will use this to turn our hearts to Him. May all of us who call upon the Lord have the wisdom to place our faith in Him in these uncertain economic times and not fear.  God is enough.

I don't know how bad all of this is going to get, but I know that no matter what happens, God is not surprised. He saw all of this coming when we were all counting the imaginary money that our homes were accruing in the real estate bubble. He is still God and He is still enough. If we will look to Him and not let our hearts be troubled, we might even be able to minister to others as their worlds are rocked and they struggle with fear and uncertainty. Good things can come out of this if we look to the Lord.      

Comments

[Joe Kennedy]

Alan, I'm emailing you something. I need some of your expertise. Dead serious.

[Ray Simmons]

Great post Alan. If greed is so ubiquitous and damaging, and Jesus tells us not to love money, how do we do that in this culture? Certainly Jesus prayed for us not to be taken out of the world, but to be protected from evil one. (John 17:15) But our society is basted in greed. Should we set up barriers against the waves of consumerism?

Will eliminating TV watching help? For me, the biggest pull to greed right now is the internet where I can get anything I want in 3 days from Amazon.com. They even keep my credit card on file; how nice of them!

Interestingly, my internet has been down in my home for 3 days, and it's been kinda nice. I don't feel drawn to go see which power tool is the top-rated and then purchase with a click of the button? (So I just drive to Lowes)

Certainly we can't hide from the advertising and convenient web-purchasing....or can we? I wonder if the Amish struggle with greed like we do?

[Alan Cross]

The Amish probably don't struggle with greed the way that we do, but I don't know that they have all the answers either. Jesus gives us the key to this issue when he tells us to "Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given you asl well." Matt. 6:33. The answer is not necessarily in a negative withdrawal as the Amish do (although that does solve some problems), but in a positive assertion of the Kingdom. Wealth can be a great gift if it is used for God's glory. Unfortunately, when we consistently use our wealth for our own benefit and satisfaction, we quickly come to the point where we are seeking more wealth so that we will have more satisfaction. Our wealth becomes our security and ultimately our identity and we find that it has replaced God as our Source of Life.

We live in a society that has left God. It is not surprising that our pursuit of wealth and comfort has replaced our pursuit of God. But, this has been going on since the beginning and it is nothing that is peculiar to us. The answer is to seek the Kingdom of God so that everything takes its proper place in our lives. When I am seeking God first and asking Him how He wants me to spend my money and my time, then I am able to use His gifts for His glory and the benefit of others while also trusting Him to provide all my needs. There is nothing wrong with a big house and wealth. But, when you mortgage your future for something that you can't afford because you just HAVE to have it, that is a mistake. Or, if you use up all your income on yourself, then how can you bless others? Fortunately, there is grace, but it is also important that we learn from our mistakes. How do we learn unless we talk about it?

[Ray Simmons]

There you go again talking about the Kingdom. You mention that almost as much as Jesus did.

"....on earth as it is in Heaven."

[Camel Rider]

Is the church addressing this at all?

[Alan Cross]

Good question, Camel. I'm addressing it, but other than that, I'm hearing crickets. For some reason, we don't see a coming economic collapse caused by greed as an issue that relates to the church or our spirituality, it seems. The Platonic separation of body and soul (secular-sacred) seems to be in full effect here.

[Steve Austin]

The messy September Wall Street is having is based largely on efforts by the Federal gov't years ago to get unqualified people into home mortgages and houses they could never afford. These people account for about ten percent of mortgage holders, I understand, and it is about that many mortgages that are in trouble. This is more about a too-large government interfering in things it never had any business poking around in than errors by bankers, although it could now send us into a depressed economy. Look for more inflation, interest rates to jump, and a continuation of losses on Wall Street.