Conduit- Global Meltdown- Are You Scared Yet?

I really enjoyed it this week when Jimmy Carter (with no sense of irony) spent some time ripping on Bush for the economy that we’re in. Maybe you’re not old enough to remember the gas lines and economy that Carter presided over in the 70’s.

To be clear, it would be a great time for W to give us one of those “we have nothing to fear but fear itself” speeches instead of the sort of monotone “we’re pretty much screwed” speeches from a couple weeks ago. I know that Obama has been giving a lot of those sort of “we have better days ahead if I’m president” speeches, but the trouble is I don’t believe him. Not that we don’t’ have better days ahead, but that he personally can make it happen.

Perhaps I’m just hitting the sweet spot of age and cynicism as it relates to politicians but I remember when many of my friends and family voted for Clinton in the 90’s based upon his sweeping promises of reforming healthcare should he get elected. I think all of these guys really want to make the stuff happen that they are promising, but then there is the crazy little thing called reality.

I want to buy a house for my wife in Laurel Brooke but; well you get my point. It’s just with politicians they get to make these promises and it’s up to you and I to break out the common sensometer and think through whether or not we really can afford to have the government buy our mortgages or if they really can afford to pay for health care for EVERY American without raising taxes on you and I.

The World is experiencing what can only be described with understated broadness as “uncharted territory”. The governments of multiple countries around the world ranging from Egypt to England to America are working in concert to try and quell the fears of the markets. So far infusions of cash well into the trillions combined with interest rate cuts and government backed loans of banks have helped exactly zero.

We’ve gone so far in America as to the government considering ownership stakes in banks. Let that sit in for a minute. The Government can’t even get voter registration done accurately and we want them to own our banks? Imagine getting an overdraft fee removed becoming on the same level as getting a drivers license.

There is much talk of centralization. The risks involved in that is just like buying a trillion dollar TV / VCR combo. If the TV breaks you could still have a perfectly good VCR with no way to use it. Centralizing too much puts us in a position where if one bank fails they all fail. We could have one aspect of the market in fine shape but because it’s bootstrapped to an ailing sector it’s no matter. You can be doing good on the deck of the titanic and it doesn’t much matter.

I heard a guy say yesterday that this is a problem that money can solve it’s just a matter of how much money it will take. The earth changing question is “what if it’s more than we can afford”.

So far the combined efforts of the brightest and the best have resulted in every market around the world down double digit percentage points and as the G7 leaders met yesterday they somberly admitted that the world’s financial markets are on the verge of a complete freeze.

Reading all this information it’s impossible not to notice words like panic, fear, greed and begin to cross reference it with the Bible. A Wall Street investor in an AP article was quoted as saying “the market is driven by greed and fear”; clearly the exact opposite of what we are to base our own lives on. Should we really be surprised that our global crisis exists when you factor in the fuel of greed and fear? A truer house of cards has not existed.

It is not hyperbole when I say these guys are suggesting that this is cataclysmic or catastrophic. (both words used by Government officials) This is real live stuff that sort of makes the war on terror take a back seat when you weigh the potential harm that can come to the United States and the World.

So what does this mean for you and I personally? More to the point, what does it mean on a Biblical front for you and for I? What is going to happen if McCain wins, or dare I say it; what if Obama wins? What if the credit markets do freeze up? Does the fact that the Governments of the major developed nations are working in concert with each other lend itself to some sort of one world Government? What does the Bible say when it looks to the end of days and financial meltdown?

The one question that we all need to know the answer to is: “is it going to be OK?” Maybe you're like many of the folks calling into radio stations, tv shows and newspapers and you're just wanting to know if there is hope.

I have some thoughts that I’d like to share about that tomorrow night. I hope you can make it.

Monday night at 7:30pm, Journey Church in Building 8 at The Factory.