November 2008
"Faith is built on the solid conviction that truth, when properly applied, works."
No Faith, Nothing But Fear
by Dennis Peacocke
The current financial crisis was birthed in greed, and is now being driven by fear. Fear has power and can only be replaced or negated by faith. Fear usually destroys what it touches, without the counter-balancing presence of faith. Is this a simple-minded Christian advocacy for a “faith” that converts all of America, thus making the financial crisis go away? Hardly. While I applaud Christian conversions, we have millions of Christians in America already, and that has had little, if any, effect on the financial crisis now confronting us. Why? Because Christians as a group have far, far too narrow a view of the role of “Christian issues” affecting nations to have studied enough about economics to have any real “clue,” let alone viable answers for this crisis.
That being said, economic ignorance is in no short supply in America, and therefore Christians have no monopoly on it. Indeed, the “dumbing down” of America is the real crisis in the United States and under-girds a host of other imminent problems yet to fully surface. No, this crisis of ignorant fear has spread its powerful tendrils throughout the schools, legislatures, and even financial institutions of the U.S. and beyond. Without clarity on the root issues underneath this crisis, there can be no faith for beginning to solve it, for faith is not built on setting our hopes on something or mere chance. Faith is built on the solid conviction that truth, when properly applied, works.
This is not really a problem of “liquidity,” that is, enough currency to keep the system running. Neither is it just a “recession” problem of negative growth rates over two financial quarters. It seems to be manifesting as that (the first negative growth quarter just reported), but these are really only economic symptoms bubbling to the surface. The real problem is two-fold: 1) an economic system of forced consumption which is built on a debt-driven philosophy of “prosperity,” and 2) the non-regulation of a massive shadow financial system called “derivatives” (hedge funds) which has no limitations on the levels of financial leverage used to create increasing investments. If this economic “mumbo-jumbo” doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry about it. I’m writing to the people who know what I’m saying.
Franklin Roosevelt’s famous fireside statement to the American people during the Great Depression is a classic: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” That’s a half-truth. Fear is a legitimate response to threatening circumstances when one doesn’t know how to deal with the threat. Right now we have a lot to fear until the American people get some people at the wheels of change who know what to do. Unfortunately, the recent presidential candidates’ debates have proven that neither of them have a clue.
These are very large chickens who have come home to roost. And folks, that is…
the bottom line.
