The Prodigal Millionaires?

Greenwich, Connecticut is the informal capital of investment bankers and hedge fund managers. The Washington Post went there to see if burst bubbles had prompted crises of faith among the wealthiest.

So we decided to poll the religious leaders of this town and spend a little time in the pews. Maybe the losses haven’t yet caused a lot of overt damage. But how about interior struggles? Are people in Greenwich searching their souls? How about rethinking their priorities? Is anyone here — and this might be too much to ask — talking about regrets?

The conclusion? Not really.

It’s fair to say that here in the suburban symbol for all that has gone haywire in our financial system, it’s pretty hard to find signs of contrition.

The article suggests that multimillionaires haven’t yet done much soul-searching because they remain focused on their monetary losses, not the value system underneath. Maybe this is a real-life application of what Jesus meant when he said, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Full article at the Washington Post (free registration required)

Christ our sure Deposit

(my meditation on the spiritual lessons of this financial crisis)

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.” —Matthew 6:19

If we’re feeling twinges of grief and fear as the stock market plummets, haven’t we neglected this command of Jesus? The losses from my meager investments are small and my income is safe, yet I worry. The economy now trumps concerns about any other issue. God is showing us that too many Christians have stored up earthly treasures in abundance.

God has no objection to financial success; it is one of His many blessings. His test for us is not how much or little we have, but how tightly we hold onto it. For someone like me—not rich but still secure—the temptation is to become less generous instead of more. To heed the words of Christ, I must open my pocketbook wider to others, even as my net worth diminishes. But there’s a deeper lesson too.

A synonym for treasure is “deposit.” Our financial system works by multiplying a deposit through investments, loans, and other manipulations. But if that foundation proves to be an illusion (as with subprime mortgages), this edifice of wealth comes tumbling down. It’s a real-life illustration of how corruptible earthly treasure can be.

Christ is the true and trustworthy Deposit. Let Jesus himself be the currency of our investments by spreading the gospel, ministering to those in need, and cultivating his life within us. Governments and banks are trying in vain to guarantee the deposits they hold. But God Himself guaranteed our Deposit, sacrificing His only Son so that we might possess him unconditionally.

No other investment is so high in yield and so low in risk. May we literally “bank on Jesus” and depend upon his life within us to produce great dividends, especially when the world’s wealth is withering away.

Did “health-and-wealth” preaching contribute to the financial crisis?

One root cause of our financial crisis was the willingness of unqualified homebuyers to take on shady mortgages. This article in Time discusses whether the so-called “Prosperity Gospel” led some Christians to make unwise home purchases, believing that God encouraged this.

Adds J. Lee Grady, editor of the magazine Charisma, “It definitely goes on, that a preacher might say, ‘if you give this offering, God will give you a house. And if they did get the house, people did think that it was an answer to prayer, when in fact it was really bad banking policy.”

However, just because a certain “brand” of Christianity may have had dubious effects doesn’t mean that it’s entirely without merits:

Other experts note that for all its faults, [health-and-wealth preaching] can empower people who have been taught to see themselves as financially or even culturally useless to feel they are “worthy of having more and doing more and being more.” In some cases the philosophy has matured with its practitioners, encouraging good financial habits and entrepreneurship.

The important thing is not to pass judgment on other Christians, but to consider how matters of faith influence society in unanticipated but concrete ways.

another decade, another bubble

some christian perspective on this financial disaster.

trader on NYSE, AP

An excellent commentary here by Al Mohler–who gives us an Economics 101 lesson along the way. Conclusion:

Today’s crisis in the financial system should not be a threat to the long-term health and vitality of our economic system. There is cause for concern, but no justification for panic. Rather than hit the panic button, spend that energy thinking about how Christians should glorify God in our economic lives. We should watch the developments and debates in Washington and New York with interest, but we should investigate our own hearts with even greater urgency.Read the whole thing.

See also this article in World Magazine by Timothy Lamer who gives an Anatomy of a Crisis: How Washington and Wall Street Got into Trouble. After explaining the six steps that led to this situation, Lamer writes:

The fundamental dynamic is this: Washington and Wall Street helped people buy houses they could not afford on such a massive scale that simply letting the lenders and debtors take their lumps would arguably do grave harm to the economy. They will take some lumps (Wall Street isn’t exactly a hot job market right now), but most of the losses will be “socialized,” or spread out among everyone who pays taxes. This includes those who exercised restraint during the bubble. That’s how it is.

via between two worlds