A number of archbishops and bishops, most recently Wallace Benn, have reflected on the credit crunch and the present economic crisis, for such it most certainly is. Apart from the inability of the press to report points clearly, what also emerges is the backlash from the liberal economic establishment at interference in their domain.
Wallace Benn questions whether it is their domain. He quotes a reliable source who says you cannot serve God and Mammon. Of course, Christ’s words cut through our whole culture at many different levels, but they are intensely relevant to what is now going on. These commentators need to be held to account for their pathetic response and their failure to address the Christian point of these remarks.
The Adam Smith Institute comments: “Many people who have not worshipped materialism have seen their lives made poorer”. Precisely. Since the Bible points out a hundred times or more that the innocent suffer from evil, that point is hardly news from the Adam Smith Institute or the Daily Mail. What they fail to add is that the present suffering of those who have lost jobs or savings is not caused by the messenger, in this case Wallace Benn, but by the financial sector running on the principles of the Adam Smith Institute.
It is easy now to join in the chorus of complaint about the way the financial community has destroyed the Wealth of Nations. However, apart from me, who else was saying that the choices for greed being made in the late 90’s would be catastrophic. Which of the Bishops was saying, this time last year “Get Liquid”. During the recovery from the “Dot.com bubble”, as the rules were being made allowing sub-prime lending, when the derivatives people were playing Fantasy Banking, when students with hope no hope of repayment were being given credit cards like smarties and brokers were going blind to provide mortgages on 9 times salary, when the British Government were changing our Laws to make bankruptcy practically consequence, pain free; those were the times to be speaking up.
Who were they? Does anybody know? Let’s hear the names of the prescient, the prophetic and discerning.