Fear, Compassion, and the Present Crisis

A few days back I asked the question: "Is Capitalism Christian?" That post garnered a number of comments and quite a bit of attention. The reality is that every human political and economic system is flawed, whether it's capitalism or socialism, democracy or monarchy.

Peter Gomes, writing in his compelling study of Jesus, The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus, (HarperOne, 2007), makes this point:

There is, however, no system so perfect that no one will need to be good. Our little systems have their day, and yet even our system of Christian capitalism is inadequate. The rising tide does not lift all boats without putting some people at risk, and because we are not yet good enough to share, we devise reasons why it is somehow God's will that the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. When we're tempted to correct this on the grounds of Christian equality in the political realm, the proponents of change are told not to mix politics with religion unless religion is used to support the status quo of the political order. Goodness has everything to do with it, and I am convinced that not only will there always be outer turmoil, but inner peace will always be compromised until we recognize and affirm that we cannot be ruled by our fears but only by our hopes. (p. 101).


We're living at a most perilous time, not just that the financial markets are in turmoil, but that people are highly agitated and easily manipulated. Remember the 1930s, when demagogues in Europe riled the people up with fascism on one hand or Stalinism on the other, leading to disastrous effects in Europe and in Asia. With that in mind, I think that this last phrase in Gomes' paragraph needs to be attended to: "we cannot be ruled by our fears but only by our hopes." Fear is our greatest enemy, and as Gomes goes on to say, the opposite of fear is not courage, but is instead compassion (p. 107).

Comments

Anonymous said…
You bring up a fear I have for the US, thinking about it during this past week. Currently Congress has a 20% approval rating, the President has 22% approval, and the stock market is melting down causing more panic. Currently all hopes are being thrown on Obama to save the world, but what happens six months from now when people realize he can't? I worry about political revolution, in the most scary form. Most people wonder why Hitler came to power, but when people have no money, no jobs.. and someone comes along and promotes national pride and "blames" a group for the problems.. its not to far of a stretch to see it happen.

Please don't read this as some overly urgent post... my simple point is we must all remain calm during this time. I wish both candidates would talk of the sacrifice americans MUST make.. particularly around using credit and spending too much. However, all I hear about are more entitlements, write more checks to people, and bailing out the problems.

Its a scary time in america.. and I pray Christians rise up and say.. we believe more in a political party, more than a country, our happiness is not determined by the amount of "stuff", and maybe.. just maybe.. as the world panic, they will see Christians being content and wonder "why they have the hope they do". Its idealistic.. but we serve a far bigger God than the stuff and people around us.
Robert Cornwall said…
I share your concern about the possibilities of violence and even outright revolt. It would appear that Barack Obama will, barring some unforeseen event, win in November. But, he's not the savior. Congress will likely be more Democratic, which might make it more possible for something to get done, but even that will not solve all our problems.

It is hard for a candidate to call for sacrifice -- it's not a winning strategy. But whoever wins, may have a short period of a honeymoon to speak clearly about just that need for sacrifice.

We will see how this transpires over the next few weeks and months. But we must not walk in fear -- that's a message that we as Christians need to preach.
Anonymous said…
Sadly, the days of "ask not what your country can do for you" are long gone. The only message of sacrifice is for the "rich guys", an easy group to beat up on b/c they are the minority. Interesting how the evolves isn't it?

As you well know, I am not voting for Obama however I am no great fan of McCain either. Personally, getting nothing done can be a blessing. We seem to be spending like there is no tomorrow right now and I am scared what the final bill will look like for my children. I see Pelosi plans to call in Congress after Obama wins to pass food stamps, unemployment, ANOTHER stimulus package (the last one worked so well didn't it?).

For whats its worth, I will share why I disagree with some of Obama's thoughts. First, I don't believe we can tax our way to prosperity. Going after the rich is an easy target, but lets be honest, they took the biggest beating after this past week. Also, I asked a doctor friend of mine who makes over $250k what he plans to do. He said his office already has a plan, the staff currently has great benefits, they will cut them back to modest benefits to cover the taxes.

My fear is the pre-Reagan days of high taxes on the rich and a large welfare population. Remember the welfare mom's driving Cadillacs? Also, I would challenge anyone to point to an effective government program. Ethanol- drove up food prices, cost more, and bad for environment-- BUST! Stimulus checks -- BUST! Social Security - it will soon bust thanks to politicians borrowing from the fund to pay for other projects.

As a Christian, scripture has no passages about appealing to the state for support of the poor. In fact there is a model that says families need to take care of their own first before burdening the church. (1 tim 5) I think there are cultures that do this VERY well, but in the US, we are too independent for this.

For what its worth..
Anonymous said…
Sorry.. and on the savior comment.. b/c its politically dangerous. My comment is more, Obama has campaigned on big ideals like hope and promise.. the problem is my idea of hope is different than yours. People see hope as saving or rescuing them from their current situation, but as you and I would agree.. the government can't get you out of your situation.. only YOU can! McCain has trumped this up to a Christ Savior ideal which isn't fair either. Hope this makes sense.. but the idea is people will say.. I thought you would do XXXXX for me and now I am mad b/c it didn't happen.
Robert Cornwall said…
As we can see in this conversation, though we may disagree on several points, we would agree that there is no easy way out of this situation. My sense is that whoever wins this election will be in a difficult situation, an almost no-win situation. Losing in 08 might be a good thing, because the winner could be so battered by this that 12 would be ripe for the picking. My hope is that this isn't true.

I don't think we'll be going back to the pre-Reagan years. More likely we'll go back to the Clinton years. Health care will have to be looked at because costs are skyrocketing.

Hopefully we can weather this and come out stronger in the end. But ultimately the rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer, and in many places the Middle Class no longer exists -- such as in Southern California.
Anonymous said…
Agree with you Bob whole heartedly. While we may disagree on political stances, I hope the next election is a hard fought campaign and not a revolt on the winner, b/c that means we all lose.

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