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Wednesday, 15 October 2008 13:50 |
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'Turbulent' is a word that has been used many times over the past few weeks. That the financial stability that we seem to have enjoyed for so long might be under threat first came to our consciences over a year ago when the Northern Rock bank saw a 'run' on its accounts and an estimated £1 billion pounds was withdrawn by savers in just a few days. Since then the crisis has only deepened, and now it seems we live in an uncertain world as far as the economy is concerned with the only winners being those ready to give quick advice to worried investors.
This uncertainty has prompted people to ask questions about the things that they thought they could rely upon - like banks for example whose power and influence over all our lives has far exceeded anyone's expectations. It has also brought home the fragility of our comfortable existence - how when one domino falls, others quickly follow. No-one is immune and commentators suggest that we will increasingly have to get used to this instability and adjust our behaviour accordingly.
I have no doubt too that over recent months many a preacher has used this instability to their advantage - contrasting the steadfastness of God with the unreliability of human institutions, the surety of faith with the uncertainty of the stock market! However true, I'm not altogether sure myself whether these comparisons are helpful - as I said, none of us are immune and being told to put your trust in God rather than HBOS (or others) seems a rather cheap shot.
I was interested however today to read that the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have both entered the debate by speaking out against the immorality of some city bankers making huge profits trading in the debts of others - paper transactions that have led to the downfall of huge institutions. Perhaps if Christians have any view on the current crisis it ought to be along these lines - challenging the behaviour of those who really do have much to answer for when assessing what has contributed to the state we are in. Another rather sickening fact has also come to light in the proposed US government 'buy back' of bad debt. It is proposed that 700 billion dollars of state money is used for this purpose - a sum of money that I simply cannot imagine. To put this into some kind of perspective though, 'just' 5 billion dollars would save the lives of 6 million children who live in extreme poverty accross the world. Somehow we seem to have our priorities very very wrong.
Perhaps the time for a readjustment of our lives and priorities is long overdue - easy to say but not that easy to live with when it is our pensions, investments, savings and mortgages that are under threat. There is much truth in the saying 'to live simply so that others may simply live'. I wonder, is it our failure to do this that is at the heart of our present predicament? Is it this that is coming back to snap at our heels and make us think again about what is really important in our lives? |
