c. 2008 Religion News Service
NEW YORK _ Here in America’s financial capital, Sunday (Sept. 14) was normal in most respects. Streets were filled with shoppers, parks with strollers and picnickers, and homes with people watching the Jets lose and the Giants win.
But our always-on communications brought a steady stream of sobering news from emergency talks on Wall Street.
As on Sept. 11, 2001, we could sense reality shifting, old ways failing and new things emerging. Suddenly, the world looked different. Stock portfolios, 401(k) plans, pensions, home mortgages and jobs all looked less stable on Monday morning.
On the one hand, the bankruptcy of investment firm Lehman Brothers and the forced sale of brokerage giant Merrill Lynch struck many as unsurprising after years of living large in a shadowy, high-risk world beyond normal financial regulation.
On the other hand, in the complex interconnections of a modern economy, those collapses will cascade far beyond the pricing of Park Avenue penthouses and will bring pain to Main Street America.
In the interconnections of human systems, Lehman’s 25,000 employees and Merrill Lynch’s 60,000 are friends, neighbors, contributors to charities, soccer coaches and fellow worshippers.
The seismic shifts will take time to sort out. But clearly, as The New York Times reported recently, financial leadership is shifting from New York to other places, principally London for capital, Charlotte (N.C.) for banking, and Asia as the new colossus. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent a nervous weekend assessing danger to a local economy based on financial jobs and real estate values.
As stocks plummeted and otherwise healthy firms scanned their books for deals involving Lehman, a market built on rosy predictions seemed baffled. If non-regulation spawns unwise risk-taking, and regulation means turning to politicians who themselves shun accountability, where can this be going?
Wall Street isn’t asking this question, but I will: How will the Christian enterprise respond?
This moment is a test, make no mistake about it. This specific meltdown and the larger movements it signals compel us to abandon business as usual. We must rethink everything we do. For we, too, have been in denial. We, too, have lived large. We, too, have winked at shabby ethics and escalating greed, and said too little to guide parishioners away from the moral swamp that Jesus spent his life addressing.
We have enjoyed jousting over doctrine and trivial issues that advanced our franchises. We have dabbled in partisan politics and said inoffensive prayers for people making horrendous decisions. We have preached about church affairs to people who were desperate for words about God, values and tough decisions.
For the most part, we ignored the moral swamp. We enjoyed the fruits of easy money and easy debt. Instead of speaking truth to those in power, we stood in line for their donations.
It is time to pull together as Christian communities. When ash-covered citizens fled Ground Zero seven Septembers ago, churches opened their doors to everyone, held candlelight services, forgot prim ideological spats over singing patriotic songs in church, and shielded Islamic neighbors from the vengeful.
This is again such a time. Next Sunday will be the first Sunday in whatever comes next. It will surely be a time for compassion, pastoral inquiries, job assistance, encouragement to the fearful, and candor. Our world needs us.
(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)
KRE/LF END EHRICH625 words
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