THE POISON OF GREED

There has always been violence and there has always been greed in the world. They are containable when law and good government act effectively against them. They become utterly devastating, however, when they take over the reins of power, override law and invade the national culture. The culture of violence underlay the Nazi party in Germany and brought it to power in 1933. From there it went on to infect the whole German nation and bring world-wide destruction. It found a true bedfellow in the equally strong Japanese culture of violence which devastated the Far East and gave us “world” war.
In our generation the culture of greed has captured the economic high places of Western Society; it is not something that appears in a few hidden places, it is endemic. It is highly toxic, it is virulently poisonous and it has already brought widespread economic devastation – in the U.S. alone a national debt of $13 trillion. It was precisely this culture of greed among the rich, the influential and the rulers that Amos and his fellow prophets exposed in the society of their day. Their call was a call back to a forgotten morality and to the fear of God. Ridiculed and ignored they none the less continued to call.
The new Western systemic culture of greed can be illustrated in the story of the U.S. Long-Term Capital Management fund of the 1990s. A group of extremely able professors and economists from Ivy League Universities thought they had devised an infallible mathematical scheme for forcasting long term movements in financial capital. This meant they could invest large sums of money with inevitable and large profits. It was the ultimate gamblers’ dream. Disdaining their distinguished academic roles, their sole aim was now to make as much money as possible, and their status was in proportion to their pay and their profits. They gambled with borrowed money, in billions of dollars, borrowed from significant and leading investors, and charged those who invested with them enormous fees. They typified the new kind of ruthless shark swimming in the waters of the financial world. They made no useful contribution at all to world economy but made “kills” simply by moving money assets around the table. Finally in 1998 the “infallible” scheme was caught out and the fund collapsed with losses of $billions. A bail out by banks had to be arranged very quickly to stop the shock waves destroying the economy. But many paid bitterly for the fiasco.
This high level culture of greed, however, did not die with LTCM. On the contrary it was growing everywhere, rapidly. It had crossed the Atlantic (and other oceans!) and infected the whole banking system in Britain. The sense of responsibility of banking toward industry and the small customer was lost in the fever of making quick and large profit. Corruption became endemic. The rewards attracted the best brains in Britain to the City and the “bonus” became the essential target. We know where it has all led – to a bail out that dwarfs the LCTM bail out, and to the massive time bomb of unprecedented debt.
But, unbelievingly, the culture still remains, lurking in banks which, despite all that has happened, still stonewall any real restraint being placed on them. They are determined to pursue their “Casino” activities and give them precedence over the really productive banking that gives less profit but undergirds the economy and jobs. If they cannot be restrained then inevitably further disaster, and further collapse, probably complete collapse, will follow.This is a desperate lesson in the need of society for moral restraint.

Thank God there are people still in high places who can see the need for restraint, even if they don’t like the word “moral”. But whether they like the word “moral” or not the fact is that humanity cannot survive without moral restraints. In the long history of political thought, those restraints have never been articulated better than in the Ten Commandments.


Bob

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PROPHETIC POPE?

The general understanding of the word “prophetic” is that it describes a perceptive and incisive statement concerning the world in which we live, a statement that warns of danger and points to a safe way forward. It refers to something of consequence, something that has the perspective of a broad historical picture, and something that stands back and interprets crucial movements in society. It generally bucks the trend and requires a degree of courage for its expression.
The Pope began his recent visit by saying in the Queen’s presence, “Today, the United Kingdom strives to be a modern and multicultural society. In this challenging enterprise, may it always maintain its respect for those traditional values and cultural expressions that the more aggressive forms of secularism no longer value or even tolerate. Let it not obscure the Christian foundation that underpins its freedoms”.
This simple statement put its finger on a crucial national spiritual issue, and warned of the national danger of abandoning its Christian heritage. It can rightly be called prophetic. It can be called prophetic all the more so because this was being said at the very highest level of government in the person of the monarch, who is also the Head of the Established Church, and with the national media in eager attendance, eager to hear what this man had to say. It was a godly statement, given to a nation in a way that all could hear. It was not given “in a corner”.
This prophetic statement, it soon became obvious, was not to be a mere starter, it was to be the main course of the whole visit. Later in the day the Pope said, “The evangelisation of culture is all the more important in our times when a “dictatorship of relativism” threatens to obscure the unchanging truth about man’s nature, his destiny and his ultimate good. There are now some who seek to exclude religious belief from public discourse, to privatise it or even to paint it as a threat to quality and liberty. Yet religion is in fact a guarantee of authentic liberty and respect …” Not only did he here again point out the danger but went on to exhort, “For this reason I appeal to you, the faithful. in accordance with your baptismal calling and mission, not only to be examples of faith in public, but also to put the case for the promotion of faith’s wisdom and vision in the public forum.” This warning and rallying call came into focus every time he spoke.
We should be profoundly grateful that such a challenge has been laid down in such high places against the rapid descent of our nation into godlessness, a descent which has been the work of so many of the intelligentsia, intellectuals and libertine opinion formers of our nation. Small wonder the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster said this Pope’s visit could be more significant than Pope John Paul’s great visit.

I have appended below a Post Script of further significant points of the Pope's visit for any who might wish to read further.


Bob

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POST SCRIPT

Further brief comments.

1. The Pope in his capacity as head of the Vatican was speaking to England as a nation, not simply to the Catholic Church as its pastor, though, of course he did do that at the same time. Hence there was a great weight to his addresses.

2. The prophetic message he brought was part of his wider vision for the challenging of secularism across European society as a whole. In fact he touches an issue that affects all western society, European or otherwise. That is a significant perspective we need in our prophetic thinking.

3. The sheer width of the reach of his message during his visit was astonishing. This is because he came as a head of state. He not only spoke to the Queen and, but he spoke to a very distinguished audience of politicians, diplomats, academics and business leaders at Westminster Hall. He spoke in Westminster Abbey to the dignitaries of the Anglican Church. He went on to speak to speak to representatives of other religions, to teachers in the presence of the Secretary of State for Education, to youth and to children. And, of course, he spoke to large crowds of Catholics. This huge reach solidifies the prophetic nature of his visit.

4. The language of his message was such as enabled it to be received seriously. It was very simple and never pretentious; it was direct; one knew exactly what he was saying. It was on the one hand spiritual and on the other hand intellectually of a high order; he knew the issues. There was no religious jargon that might cause an immediate “turn off”.

5. Alongside his wider message he clearly had an agenda as a Roman Catholic. His visit to Westminster Abbey was considered a pilgrimage to the tomb of Edward the Confessor, his discussion of the relationship between politics and religion at Westminster Hall featured Thomas More who was a Catholic martyr, and the beatification of Cardinal Newman who left Anglicanism for Rome became the central piece of his final statement about the importance of the spiritual in human life. We should not begrudge him that stance; after all he is the Pope. It was never arrogant, and it was taken in the context of genuine goodwill and genuine desire for spiritual co-operation on an issue where co-operation could be possible.

6. Seeing a prophetic aspect to this visit in no way implies a compromise concerning purely Christian theological issues. For us the “elevation to the altar” of Cardinal Newman as a figure to be invoked in prayer will always remain a step much too far, as will the central doctrine of trans-substantiation in the Mass. And there are many other issues where we may judge that Rome has strayed. However, if you have a kipper for tea, you would be wise not to throw away the flesh with the bones; we do not have to swallow all, but we certainly have to take on board what is edifying. There was a powerful prophetic stance here that we throw away at our peril.

9/11 - A FADING MEMORY?

The anniversary of 9/11 has just gone by this week-end with very little mention – at least in Britain! The U.S.A.’s most famous opera singer made mention of it publically in between her songs at the last night of the Proms (which was the actual anniversary date) but it received a muted response.

Of course, in life we need to move on and get over things, bad things especially. But there are some things that really need to be remembered, and 9/11 is one of them. The primary reason for that is that it came with a massive prophetic edge (whatever your definition of the prophetic may be). Right at the beginning of the new century it seemed like a great sign post, a great pointer to the future, a warning sign.

Thinking of the event in retrospect, and retrospective thinking is generally more valuable than immediate response thinking, a particular pattern or interpretation has been in my mind. It comes from the fact that in what was a three-pronged attack the twin towers were completely destroyed, the Pentagon was partially destroyed and the White House escaped.
The twin towers were the epitome of the financial/business world; floor after floor was involved in wheeling and dealing. It was a world in which greed and profit were the motivators. Then the unthinkable, the unimaginable happened – both towers completely collapsed. Such a total catastrophe beggared belief. It is the totality of the collapse that needs to be remembered. When we see what has happened to the financial world in the nine years that have elapsed since 9/11 the startling prophetic nature of the event itself becomes starker than ever. For the financial world has almost hit ground zero; one more collapse and it will. It’s as though the towers symbolised the reality, and the reality itself has now virtually collapsed, propped up in a very shaky and uncertain manner. Many fear a ground zero scenario.

On 9/11 the Pentagon, the symbol and seat of U.S. military power, took a severe knock. Once again the last nine years have seen a further playing out of that event; the American military has taken a severe and very expensive knock in its exploits in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was 9/11 that drew the might of the U.S. unwisely into those wars, exposed the severe limitations of “overwhelming power”, and gave a severe dent to overweening pride.

But the White House escaped. I am not sure what that really points to. However, I must admit that it makes me breathe a sigh of relief; some real political horror was not permitted to happen. I can only hope that if the White House is the symbol of a political system based on freedom and the rule of law then somehow in the years that lie ahead this huge (if imperfect) blessing we have of a free society may be allowed to continue.
We remain totally at the mercy of God. He is knocking very severely at the doors of our western society.

Bob

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