In Theory

I have just returned home from residency work on a doctorate in ministry in Chicago, where I took a course on economic realities. Like the world’s religious leaders, I too question our business as usual and its lapse in morality. Our culture prizes greed by renaming it as success. We lift up material success to where it appears that money is the only means of attaining success.

Material success does not guarantee happiness and peace. This desire to have more only creates anxiety. The myth that more is better is the foundation of capitalism — creating a need where there previously was not one. There are serious flaws in capitalistic societies — unchecked, they can be quite destructive despite their ability to create affluence.

I am not opposed to all forms of capitalism. I am not a monastic and I can appreciate the affluence of our society. It is not that affluence on its own is bad. However, the disparity between the haves and have-nots is unconscionable.

As people of faith, we are called to speak prophetically. My impression is that because this economic crisis is affecting all levels of society to some degree, people are more willing to listen to the need for strong moral values in the marketplace. It is not always an easy word to preach, but for those of us who follow the prophets like Isaiah, Micah and Amos, and we Christians who claim Jesus, we must continue to call society to ethical responsibility, moral interaction, and loving care for the least of these.

Fairview Community Church

Costa Mesa

Beloveds with whom I live, work and play understand that Gordon Gekko was wrong in the 1987 movie “Wall Street.” Greed is not good!

Jesus’ wisdom, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21, Luke 12:34), gives perspective to “greed” as choosing material possessions, wealth and money over the most important values: peace, justice and love.

Our Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope Benedict’s “Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth)” agree: We have not been truthful with ourselves about the impossibility of limitless growth in a finite world. There has been a steady erosion of trust in our financial life together over at least a decade; unfortunately, we have learned to live with high levels of evasion and anti-relational practices. As the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Katharine Jefferts Schori, says, our world is “in the midst of a crash course in economic interconnectedness”; the excesses unveiled “have been biblical in scale!”

We all share some responsibility for this Catholic (universal, comprehensive) crisis. We have been quick to assert our own needs while ignoring deprivation nearly.

We understand that the task before us is to name this global economic failure as a crisis of truthfulness and to challenge ourselves about the truth and, above all, to live in the truth. Don’t we?

Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

We have to learn why this great recession occurred — because of greed. I was brought up as a child of parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who were all businessmen. They were God-fearing, upright people. Until age 25, I was so naive to believe that running a business for the sake of making a living meant paying all your bills on time, to put some funds away for retirement, buying necessities, and giving charity to those less fortunate. At that age, I thought everyone had the same fair work ethic. Acquiring great wealth was secondary to establishing a good name and making a mark in society; doing your job well and working hard.

To cheat, buy on too much credit, make easy money on investment schemes was, I thought, meant for con artists and crooks. Pursuing my profession through learning and hard work was thought foremost. Using Rabbinic logic, the Bible asks, “Who is wealthy?” There are two answers: those who live by God’s rules, and those who are satisfied with their lot in life.

Greed is a negative attribute. Strong moral values are positive attributes. Religion is one way of giving us a system of checks and balances.

Doing business fairly and in good faith beats cheating and thievery always. This is the lesson we must learn from this “great recession.”

Listening to the message of a sermon in a congregation has to be turned into righteous living in real life.