The Bible teaches that “perfect love drives out fear,” but human beings, in truth, are far from perfect. I know in my heart that as a person of faith, the worldwide stock sell off should not fill me with fear for the future, but I would be less than truthful if I didn’t say that when the British benchmark falls 5.5%, the Indian is down 7.4%, the Hong Kong blue chips drop 5.5%, its biggest percent drop since the 9/11 attacks and the Canadian stocks drop as well that I look with dread on this coming week on Wall Street.
Investors around the world, as well as the Wall Street traders, were not impressed by the economic stimulus package proposed by the President. Was it not enough? Is the fear too deep? Is there a “perfect storm” brewing made up of runaway spending on the war in Iraq, a sub-prime mortgage crisis, the rolling decline in sectors related to the housing mess and all accelerated by rising oil prices?
In short, is our fear justified?
This is exactly where faith and values comes in. Franklin Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, a speech given at a time of far, far greater national economic distress, is justly remembered for the statement “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
What is less well remembered is how much faith and values language Roosevelt used in that address, an unusually sober and even sobering address for the normally upbeat Roosevelt. “Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment,” said the newly elected president.
In 1933, in the depth of the Depression, Roosevelt reminded his audience, however, that the “common difficulties” in front of the country “concern, thank God, only material things.”
According to Roosevelt, faith and values was in fact the way out for the nation: “The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.” Profit was not the measure of the nation then and it is not the measure of us as a people now.
Americans may be tested in these next months and even years if we are facing tumbling worldwide markets and we will need to find the courage to meet these times.
We need to find the courage of our convictions and that is, simply put, that we as a people are not just the sum total of our gross national product. On the other hand, the suffering of those at the bottom of the economic scale from the economic downturn we face even today is real and it must be alleviated. We will survive as a nation the more there is an “us” rather than “market segments” and we serve the least among us first.
The tumbling global markets, indeed, are a very concrete reminder that in fact the "us" to which I refer is not just the United States but the people of the world. While some economists had insisted that growth in China and India would insult those economies from the impact of the U.S. downturn, this is not the case. Both because of significant exposure by Asian banks in U.S. mortgage securities and because the Asian exports rely on the confidence of the U.S. consumer to keep buying, we are all linked, for good or for ill, in this one global economy.
So, indeed, the human family around the globe will sink or swim together. This is a solid economic truth, but more importantly, it is a deep religious truth.
And so we come back to faith. Having faith in these times means living out the truth that human beings are not just the sum total of their net worth but are, in fact, called to a higher purpose of community and caring both in our own nation and around the world. That is the source of our hope in the future.
We as human beings stand on “higher ground” than just material worth and that fundamental conviction will enable us to let go of fear. Letting go of fear and trusting one another will drive our human as well as economic investment and that is the key to any economic recovery.
That may not yet be perfect love, but it’s getting closer.
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