NATIONAL BANKRUPTCY

When I wrote the booklet “The Contemporary Countdown to Chaos” during the summer the spectre of national bankruptcy over Europe began to appear very menacingly. This last week, after two months of relative absence, it has returned with more menace than ever. Previously it had been confined to smaller countries like Iceland and Southern Ireland, now it is looming over larger countries, most notably Greece and even Italy.

I was utterly taken aback by stark reality of what was happening, "rich" European nations actually facing bankruptcy. When nations go bankrupt, there is no place to run to for help. They can be too big to “bail out”. Italy certainly is. Perhaps in the light of what I had written in the pamphlet, I should not have been taken aback at the development. But I was. It wasn’t so much that I was surprised as that I was appalled, appalled at nations so steeped in debt that they could no longer afford the interest on their debts; nations enjoying standards of living that they could no longer afford, whilst, at the same time, these standards were being perceived as basic “rights”, and civil disturbance was threatening. The “fall out” from the economic explosion of 2008 really was widely and very dangerously making itself felt. I suppose I knew it would happen, but it came none the less as sickening confirmation of the severe word of judgement which rests on the western nations.
This week there is a lull whilst the new Greek and Italian governments try to get organised, but the spectre will be back.

Whereas clear thinking and wisdom belong to God and are his gifts, confusion is always a mark of God’s displeasure, and confusion is so evident in the European leadership. It arises from a fundamental failure to know what really needs to be done with this collapse of solvency. Should solvent nations risk the “bail outs” that might well drag them under water? Are those “bail out”s simply throwing good money after bad? Is there sufficient money anyway for a big enough “bail out”? Even if the countries which need such help agree to put austerity measures into place, will those measures actually restore prosperity? There is, therefore, a veritable maelstrom of uncertainty and confusion facing European leadership, as it walks an uncertain road where it has not walked before.

We should not presume there is some easy economic answer to the problems, not even on the issue of what austerity measures should be imposed to restore economies. The very people who we might think ought to know the answer to that last question, the economists, are themselves divided. Even the IMF (International Monetary Fund) itself, with all its expertise, has destroyed economic growth in a considerable number of nations on which it has imposed restrictions that have proved too severe. So even the IMF has many and powerful critics. The truth is that pulling the economic levers to put a nation back on its feet is a very delicate process and a process for which there is no definitive text book. Thus getting the austerity measures wrong in Europe (and Britain) could do more damage than ever. The problem is not just an economic problem either. Austerity measures inevitably involve huge social issues of anger and discontent, making it a very difficult political problem. That has been immensely evident in the last week or so in the Euro-zone. Yes, confusion and uncertainty are everywhere.

All this gives me a deep sense of the European nations “hanging in the balance” before God. One feels the bottom could fall out. The scenario is a fearful one.

Bob




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GOOD GOVERNMENT

“The powers that be are ordained of God”, writes St. Paul. That means God conceives of government as a necessary thing for humanity. Why is it necessary? The simple answer is that built into humanity is a terrible tendency for people to hurt each other. Government in the purpose of God is there to prevent that happening. However, there are powers that seek to frustrate that purpose, and all too frequently we see bad government as well as good government, bad government which is self-seeking, fear inspiring and ruthless. When that happens the hurt becomes multiplied.

What makes for good government? Essentially there are two sides to that question, each seemingly opposite to the other. On the one hand good government seeks to release people into freedom. It seeks to provide space and opportunity where people may fulfil their lives. On the other hand government is there to restrain people. People are to be restrained when they pursue what is evil and unjust. In Paul’s words, government “bears the sword”, in order to bring restraint, and to do so forcibly if necessary. These two different sides of government, release and restraint, are not really opposed, however, but belong together since people can never be truly free if evil is not restrained.

Good government cannot operate properly, therefore, without a clear outline of what is evil and to be restrained and what genuinely belongs to human freedom and is to be promoted. That outline is provided by Law. So, in the case of ancient Israel, fundamental to the exercise of good government was the Law God gave at Sinai. It was essentially a “moral” law, a law of behaviour. It was a law of moral restraints designed to secure genuine freedom. At the heart of all good government there must always be this “moral” law. Good government cannot opt out of “moral” law. If it tries to do so it ceases to be effective as true government. There can be no hazy, “please yourself” moral law. There are many areas where choice is legitimate but moral law is not one of them.

The obligation laid on good government is first and foremost to make sure the nation is educated in the precept and practice of its moral law. It is then obliged to restrain behaviour which does not conform to its law and is harmful.

When government becomes confused about moral law it is in danger of becoming bad government. The modern secular government is confused. One of those areas of confusion has to do with sexual behaviour. It has effectively abandoned any kind of restraint. It has encouraged the notion that sex is a private and personal matter for each person to do as they please; permissiveness is a freedom! This is maintained not withstanding the obvious hurt and harm that results. In this way moral law has become personal moral permissiveness. Sex education bears the stamp of this confusion, and is actually an education for permissiveness – it deals with the how but never the why and the when of sex; restraint and self-control are notions not to be mentioned. There is no control over the exploitation of sex in the culture of the times. It contrasts very sharply with the law as we have known it for many generations, “do not commit adultery; do not commit fornication”.

Government is equally confused about coveting and stealing when it comes to the world of finance and business. When coveting and sharp practice becomes institutionalised in our financial structures it is time for government to restrain.Good government is obligated to do so. The opposition against such restraint is of course extremely strong and among the influential and powerful people who benefit. But government needs to be stronger. Over the last two or three decades it has actually acceded to the removal of carefully built laws of restraint on the indulgence of financial greed, so that regulation is virtually non existent. All this has been done under the specious cloak of reformed and liberal economic theory, in the same way that sexual permissiveness has been allowed under the cover of specious theories of what really belongs to human freedom. More to the point here, the confusion over sexual morals has actually been caused in no small measure by the failure to restrain the world of money making from making full use of sex in its quest for profit and riches.


Pray for good government.




Bob




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THE CHURCH ON THE FRONT LINE

It was heartening reading this week to learn that the Church of England is considering withdrawing the large financial investments it has in Internet Service Providers like Virgin Media, BT Broadband, AOL and Sky unless they take more serious steps to curtail the huge and unregulated flow of internet pornography and especially where it might become available to children. This is in line with the Church’s policy not to help fuel the very problems which it is seeking remove from society. I very much hope that the church authorities will act very strongly here, even if it can only bring partial pressure.

It’s a move which has certainly helped to highlight the enormity of a very nasty and corrupting force in the modern world of communications. The most immediate and glaring example of this problem is that presented by the Dutchman, Tabak, who was convicted of murder in the recent high profile case. He was shown to have trawled through an internet site which boasted 58,000 videos and 50 categories of pornography hours before committing his crime. His crime mirrored what he had been looking at.

There are plenty of statistics which bear out a very grim picture of the appalling impact of this internet pornography. It is an “industry” worth £60 billion annually, and reveals the enormous numbers of people who have no compunction in making money out of it. Even more disconcerting, apparently “sex” and “porn” are among the top five search items for children under 18. A third of British teens say they learned about sex from looking at internet pornography. Around 11,000 pornographic films are made every year in the U.S. with most for internet use. Pornography is viewed by 35.9 per cent of U.K. internet users. These sort of facts really take the lid off our society.

The cumulative influence of this on human society and its adverse impact on wholesome and genuine loving relationships between men and women does not bear thinking about. Yet the internet providers are not keen to act, and neither are the police keen to investigate, which renders even current legislation against pornography virtually impotent. But lurid pornography remains one of the most destructive and corrosive forces in society. The church needs to act strongly wherever it can, and if it can make its money “talk” then it should do so.


At the same time that the Church of England made its welcome stand on the issue of pornography, St Paul’s Cathedral clergy also faced a front line problem with its anti-capitalist squatters. Unhappily the clergy have been torn apart and three, including the Dean, have resigned. This, as the Bishop of London said, is a great tragedy. However, it has only arisen because there were those at the Cathedral who wanted to give genuine space for genuine protest and there were those who saw long tern dangers in allowing unaccountable occupation to get a hold, and whose fears were confirmed. The tragedy is that they did not close ranks together and battle through to a solution together. What does remain, however, is the fact that the Cathedral authorities were very aware of the economic and financial injustices that the modern world is presenting and were looking for proper debate on the issue. We can only pray that the Bishop of London, a strong man with real political gift, may get those authorities back on track. We desperately need those in high places to be speaking out about those injustices that the financial world is imposing on our society.




Bob




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