c. 2000 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C.)

(UNDATED) It is a glorious day for youth soccer. With a 3-1 record, the Green Raptors are confident.

We score first and feel confident. But the blues even the score, then add a second goal. We force a brief tie, but momentum is gone. Our guys seem sluggish.

As the going gets tough, our stalwarts don’t get going. We get discouraged. We turn on each other. One calls the referee an “idiot.” The Raptors are sour in post-game handshakes.

Easy victories didn’t prepare us for challenge.

A similar sluggishness is dimming the global economy. Stock markets are sagging in New York and overseas. Earnings are soft, especially in technology. Corruption and weak leadership are evident at every level, even at giants like Ford, Mitsubishi and Daewoo.

As the relatively easy prosperity of the 1990s fades, we learn again that success is a poor teacher.

Mergers that promised the moon had little lasting impact beyond lower stock prices, massive layoffs and creative re-naming. Feasting on venture capital left dot.coms with Porsche-filled parking lots but no product to sell. Squeezing suppliers and trouncing under-capitalized small merchants made a terrific Act One for megastores like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, but they struggle to find Act Two. Mideast tensions spell trouble for automakers whose ever-larger SUVs show faith in bulk, not efficiency.

With universities’ bandwidth maxed out on downloading music, not academic work, many young adults eager to join the gravy train are finding their skills aren’t sharp enough for real competition. They get wooed, but not retained.

Wealthy nations seem poorly prepared for adversity. The European Union is a tenuous alliance. “Skinhead” rage against immigrants is mounting in Germany. Anti-Semitism is back. Protectionism is on the rise. The Euro is weak. Inflation seems poised to spiral, as consumers flash credit cards to sustain habits of spending. Japan and South Korea are awash in scandal and blaming. Russia is mired in corruption.

Some worry about global recession, and some don’t. But it is clear that a mounting sourness in wealthy venues spells trouble for the have-nots.

Wealth is usually an accident of history, not a consequence of moral or intellectual superiority. It was topsoil, not virtue, that gave Illinois and Iowa an edge over the Dakotas. It was oil reservoirs, not Lone Ranger values, that built Texas. It was air-conditioning, not Baptist teaching, that built the New South. Two oceans and Europe’s self-absorption gave the United States room to outgrow slavery and political corruption.

The lucky, however, rarely want to give due credit to luck. They want to see themselves not only as earning it, but as deserving it. They want to see their “values” as superior and their “faith” as vindicated. Rather than thank the Atlantic Ocean for being there, they talk of “manifest destiny.”

When the going gets tough, there is more at stake than a mortgage payment. An entire worldview is at peril.

This, I believe, is the larger context for what Jesus said about wealth. It isn’t just that the rich will try to enter the narrow gate carrying everything they own. It’s their determination to preserve a fantasy world, in which wealth is seen as proof of divine favor.

Historically, the haves turn mean when threatened. They stone the prophets and install their own religious establishments, offering gold and country club memberships in exchange for joining forces against the poor.

The haves find scapegoats _ witness waves of xenophobia in American history and Germany’s easy drift into anti-Semitism during the 1930s _ and then they restore their fortunes by dispatching gunboats, missionaries and clever traders against the weak.

My concern isn’t sagging stock prices. It’s what we will do when the gravy train stalls. Will we turn against each other? Will the haves make life even worse for the have-nots? Will we turn warlike overseas? Will we get discouraged and become easy prey for those who sell addiction and credit?

We are told these are faith-filled times. But will faith prove resilient? Historically, religion tends to be a genial companion in good times, but a self-righteous bully in tough times. Believers tend to build homeless shelters during prosperity, but refurbish their sanctuaries during adversity.

DEA END EHRICH