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"Forgive Us Our Debts..."
At a Presbyterian conference recently I was reminded that a good slice of Protestantism still prays, day by day, 'forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors' -- and that that is of course a perfectly good translation of what Jesus said. Forgiveness is written in to the gospel from top to bottom; indeed, without it there wouldn't BE a gospel. And to make 'forgiveness' cover only 'sins', and not other things, is of course to collude with the Enlightenment dualism, the split-level world so many of us are firmly reacting against (though without always getting the fresh integration really sorted out).
Anyway: if the only people one could help were the squeaky-clean, I suspect that wouldn't be very many. It's a murky world out there and all sorts of complicated things have gone on which even most of the bankers and investment 'experts' themselves only partly seem to understand. The trouble is that it often isn't them that are really hurt: it's the classic 'little guy' who has done what seemed right at the time and now finds himself (or herself) homeless, jobless, without savings/pension/tuition fees for kids etc etc. But this simply mirrors, close up, the situation that several third world countries have been in for DECADES, and despite massive campaigning we still haven't managed to do very much to help them.
OK, we've remitted some debts; notably, for instance, in Tanzania, where it has made a huge difference. But with many other countries we've done nothing of note (Philippines, Bangladesh, etc.). And the usual right-wing excuse ("They have to learn to pay their debts; It was all done by corrupt people; If we bale them out the wrong people will get hold of it and spend it all again") is now the cause of long, loud, hollow laughter -- because of course that's exactly what's happening with the banks. They got it wrong, big-time; some of them really should go to jail or at least be made to pay back, slowly and painfully, what they took over many years for themselves; and yet we are baling them out and they are STILL paying themselves huge salaries and big bonuses. This is obscene. The very rich are doing for the very rich what they have refused to do for the very poor.
Of course, I know that if the banks fail then millions of 'little guys' get hurt once again as well. But the 'big guys' ought to be made to pay for what they did that was deeply reprehensible and got us into this mess. Otherwise the next generation of bankers will think, "Well, that lot got away with it, more or less, so it doesn't matter that much." Read J. K. Galbraith's book on the 1929 crash for some eye-opening stuff down this line.
So: the ancient Israelite command to have a 'jubilee year' when debts were forgiven makes a whole lot of sense. A lot more than what we've been working with. And anyone who says it doesn't, have a look at your investment portfolio and see where your vested (or invested) interests lie. And the point of forgiveness is, yes, that you may have got it wrong but it's time for a clean start. And if you look at Luke 19 you'll see that when rich tricksters get a fresh start they know they have to make substantial repayments to those they've defrauded.
Obviously lots more could be said about this, but this is for starters. Anyone who wants to see more can look at my speech in the House of Lords on December 8.
By
Nicholas T. Wright
|
March 3, 2009; 5:53 AM ET
| Category:
Morality
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Posted by: jedrothwell1 | March 6, 2009 4:14 PM
Our Debts..."%20%20|%20%204606172&body=%0D%0D%0D%0D%0D================%0D?__mode=view%26_type=comment%26id=4606172%26blog_id=618">Report Offensive Comment
Who bears the responsibility for the "hellholes" of the world is beside the point. Followers of Jesus Christ are called to feed the hungry - not to feed the deserving hungry.
And as far as "nothing ever changes," that simply is not so. All the problems may not get solved, but some hungry people are fed, and therefore some human misery is relieved.
There are more-effective and less-effective strategies for meeting our responsibility to our brothers and sisters who are in need, but saying "it's hopeless, therefore I'll just do nothing" is not in line with the teachings of Christ (or, for that matter, with the teachings of other world religions).
Posted by: stubloom | March 6, 2009 7:37 AM
Our Debts..."%20%20|%20%204606058&body=%0D%0D%0D%0D%0D================%0D?__mode=view%26_type=comment%26id=4606058%26blog_id=618">Report Offensive Comment
"I am sick of seeing good tax dollars go to the hellholes of the world. No matter how much money is sent, nothing ever changes. It is utter waste."
But we have to ask ourselves -why- these countries are the hellholes of the world, as you put it. If we are really honest with ourselves, we will see that we in the West are, collectively, partly responsible for their condition. Many of these countries are still reeling from Western colonialism and the propping up of dictators that ravaged economies in an effort to further our own political agendas in these regions. It just will not do to simply write of these people as being responsible for the states they find themselves in.
Posted by: DaveL2 | March 5, 2009 6:51 PM
Our Debts..."%20%20|%20%204606000&body=%0D%0D%0D%0D%0D================%0D?__mode=view%26_type=comment%26id=4606000%26blog_id=618">Report Offensive Comment
I am sick of seeing good tax dollars go to the hellholes of the world. No matter how much money is sent, nothing ever changes. It is utter waste.
Posted by: mmm1110 | March 4, 2009 9:14 PM
Our Debts..."%20%20|%20%204605763&body=%0D%0D%0D%0D%0D================%0D?__mode=view%26_type=comment%26id=4605763%26blog_id=618">Report Offensive Comment
"we are still so much better off than hundreds of millions of Africans, Asians, and South Americans."
I couldn't agree more.
Posted by: DaveL2 | March 4, 2009 4:55 PM
Our Debts..."%20%20|%20%204605682&body=%0D%0D%0D%0D%0D================%0D?__mode=view%26_type=comment%26id=4605682%26blog_id=618">Report Offensive Comment
Very valuable perspective, bishop.
And, lest we forget, even the hardest-hit "little guy" here in the industrialized West has a series of safety nets that simply are not available to masses of people in undeveloped countries. Yes, it's tough to lose your job and your house - but we are still so much better off than hundreds of millions of Africans, Asians, and South Americans.
Posted by: stubloom | March 4, 2009 2:09 PM
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The comments to this entry are closed.
mmm1110 wrote:
"I am sick of seeing good tax dollars go to the hellholes of the world. No matter how much money is sent, nothing ever changes. It is utter waste."
That's wrong. Sometimes, money changes everything. It depends on who you send the money to, in which countries, under what contractual obligations. Money sent to corrupt government administrators in chaotic Third World countries does no good. Money lent to individual women in some Third World countries does a world of good. See: micro-loans, Grameen Bank
Money provided after disasters such as a tsunami in a reasonably stable country such as Sri Lanka also does a world of good.