Category: Culture
The Economy’s Immoral and People are Angry, But then What?
Beliefnet often has or links to quality articles. I found this article from the Religious News Service on Beliefnet. It is an interesting perspective on the economy and what persons of faith, specifically Christians, might do or are considering in response to this recession/depression. As one that moved with a companion to a new city because she had a good opportunity I can tell you that the economy is tough inside church borders as well as outside. I’ve applied for retail, for temp work through a service, for work at a local children’s museum, for Christmas work with UPS, and have found service as a part-time interim minister for a congregation that is 83 miles from my home. We are lucky. Our only debt is our mortgage, a student loan, and a car payment. We have some revolving credit, but not too much. We have made it on one salary, but the move spent much of our reserves. We are physically healthy. We are middle class. This summer we will move again. Yes, an opportunity that for my companion you don’t turn down when it is offered. We are lucky. So, I am seeking service in a congregation, an area, or for a Region where I can put my youth ministry experience, within a congregation and Regional, to use. I ramble. It is hard for people, middle class to the working poor, right now. It might even be hard for the wealthy right now, but at least they have more to sell or more that can be cut back and still be comfortable. A few paragraphs from this RNS article and a link.
The Economy’s Immoral and People are Angry, But then What?
by Solange De Saints | Feb. 22, 2010
(RNS) Ever since the Great Recession began in the fall of 2008, Christians and other faith leaders have criticized the speculative excess and greed that led to the crisis.
A consensus on what to do about it, however, has yet to emerge.
The parameters of the critique were recently staked out at the Trinity Institute’s “Building an Ethical Economy” conference here, at Trinity Episcopal Church in the heart of Wall Street. Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams bemoaned the damage that results from “an economic climate in which everything reduces to the search for maximized profit and unlimited material growth.”
Others say change has to come about at the level of individuals. Jim Wallis, president and CEO of Sojourners, a Washington-based Christian social justice group, says the necessary questions in the wake of failed banks and 10-percent unemployment are not “When will this economic crisis end?” but rather “How will it change us?”
Interesting Analysis
I read David Brooks column in the New York Times. He is what I call a thinking person’s conservative. Given all the talk about leadership, quality and the less than qualified, his latest column is an interesting analysis of where the country is and has something to say about leadership in our denomination. Here are a few paragraphs. Click the title to read the entire column.
The Power Elite
by David Brooks | The New York Times Online | February 18, 2010
One of the great achievements of modern times is that we have made society more fair. Sixty years ago, the upper echelons were dominated by what E. Digby Baltzell called The Protestant Establishment and C. Wright Mills called The Power Elite. If your father went to Harvard, you had a 90 percent chance of getting in yourself, and the path upward from there was grooved in your favor.
Since then, we have opened up opportunities for women, African-Americans, Jews, Italians, Poles, Hispanics and members of many other groups. Moreover, we’ve changed the criteria for success. It is less necessary to be clubbable. It is more important to be smart and hard-working.
First, the meritocracy is based on an overly narrow definition of talent. Our system rewards those who can amass technical knowledge. But this skill is only marginally related to the skill of being sensitive to context. It is not related at all to skills like empathy. Over the past years, we’ve seen very smart people make mistakes because they didn’t understand the context in which they were operating.