Apprentice 2 Jesus

More thoughts on the financial crisis…

Today the House voted DOWN the financial bailout package. It was not exactly a slam dunk for either party. The Democrats had 40% of their members vote against the package and the Republicans had over 60% vote against the bill. More on that later.

There are heated debates flowing over the meaning of all this. Clearly the markets did not like this news, as the Dow plunged 777 points (a 7% drop). Nasty stuff.

A couple of articles that gave me clarity as to why I was so nervous about the bailout:

One is from Randall Holcombe of Florida State University.

The other is from The Wall Street Journal.

There are certainly good points to be made FOR the bailout as well. Go find them for yourself.

What disturbs me so deeply is our American arrogance. I say OUR. It’s not a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. It’s not a Christian thing or a non-Christian thing. It’s all of us.

We are in this situation because of greed at all levels. It’s not just the greedy billionaires who want to make a faster million bucks. It’s Joe Taxpayer, like myself, who get caught up in wrong thinking that the housing market will always go up, so I’ll just max out my credit cards and housing equity.

The arrogance is there is NO ONE willing to step up and ask for forgiveness. What I find is everyone is willing to step up and point a finger. Republicans point fingers at Democrats. Democrats return the favor. The Church in America is not leading the way in repentance, either.

We look like a nation of fools right now. Everyone wanting to point the blame at someone else. Everyone having their hand out wanting the government to bail them out of their own greedy mistakes.

I am a greedy American and I apologize for my gross sins over the past few years. I may not be a millionaire banker or Wall Street CEO. I may not be a politician. But I am an American and I have acted as greedily as any of them. I am sorry. This is as much my fault as it is the next person’s.

God, have mercy on our nation. You are the One who is the Healer. Yet, the Healer is only effective when we will admit we are sick. Lord, our nation is sick. The Church, the unchurched… all of us. We are sick. We are full of greed and arrogance and we need your healing and forgiveness in our land.

Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s ME, O Lord… standing in the need of prayer.