Hello world!

This blog will become active starting Sunday, April 19, 2009, as way of facilitating online  discussion amongst Countryside Community Church’s 20 small groups studying Asphalt Jesus: Finding a New Christian Faith Along the Highways of America by Dr. Eric Elnes.   If you are not a member of one of these groups, you are still most welcome to participate here.  And if you would like to join a group, call Countryside’s Director of Family Life, Mary Beth Link, at 402-391-0350 and she’ll be happy to provide you dates, places, and meeting times of groups with openings!

Each chapter of  Asphalt Jesus contains a story or two from CrossWalk America’s walk across the United States in 2006.  Each chapter also contains discussion of one of the twelve Phoenix Affirmations – 12 principles of progressive Christian faith organized around Jesus’ Three Great Loves: love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self.  Feel free to post questions and comments.  Dr. Eric Elnes, will be serving as moderator.

The twelve Phoenix Affirmations are:

Christian love of God includes:

1. Walking fully in the path of Jesus, without denying the legitimacy of other paths that God may provide for humanity;

2. Listening for God’s Word which comes through daily prayer and meditation, studying the ancient testimonies which we call Scripture, and attending to God’s present activity in the world;

3. Celebrating the God whose Spirit pervades and whose glory is reflected in all of God’s Creation, including the earth and its ecosystems, the sacred and secular, the Christian and non-Christian, the human and non-human;

4. Expressing our love in worship that is as sincere, vibrant, and artful as it is scriptural.

Christian love of neighbor includes:

5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;

6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;

7. Preserving religious freedom and the church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of church and state;

8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;

Christian love of self includes:

9. Basing our lives on the faith that in Christ all things are made new and that we, and all people, are loved beyond our wildest imagination – for eternity;

10. Claiming the sacredness of both our minds and our hearts, and recognizing that faith and science, doubt and belief serve the pursuit of truth;

11. Caring for our bodies and insisting on taking time to enjoy the benefits of prayer, reflection, worship, and recreation in addition to work;

12. Acting on the faith that we are born with a meaning and purpose; a vocation and ministry that serve to strengthen and extend God’s realm of love.

Modern trickledown economics

@ Duck and Decanter

~

The auto industry has been in the news a lot lately. Most of the news has to do with how the industry is struggling in today’s economic malaise. Most of the news has been about the manufacturers but there are also disquieting hints that the problems are flowing downhill. Yesterday the Chicago Tribune ran an article, Credit crunch: Auto dealerships struggle, close as ‘floorplan’ financing dries up, about the effect on Chicago area dealerships. I am not sure how I feel about this. I feel for the employees of the dealerships, as I do for the employees of the auto manufacturers. These are tough times to be out of work. On the other hand I think that both the manufacturers and the dealerships have needed to change the way they do business (and what they sell) for quite some time now. There is one exception to my sympathy for former employees. That is ex-Chief Executive Rick Wagoner of General Motors Corp.

~

“On Friday I was in Washington for a meeting with administration officials,” … “In the course of that meeting, they requested that I ’step aside’ as CEO of GM, and so I have”

Rick Wagoner as reported in the Wall Street Journal

Wagoner was forced to resign by the feds (here, as well as in WSJ). Wagoner consistently supported SUV and truck sales instead of greener alternatives – the profits on trucks and SUVs are better. As a 30 year employee of GM management, he was a champion of doing business in the same old way. The way it has always been done at GM. Apparently the lessons of the 1970s were lost on him. Those lessons were lost on many of us. The difference is that he was paid a lot more than the rest of his co-workers and the rest of us. The theory for higher pay (and bonuses, stock options and etc) is that the recipient is worth more because of his superior judgment and abilities. GM has done nothing but continue on its decline since he took over as CEO in 2000. I’ll reserve my sympathy for the thousands of workers affected by his bad decisions.

~

Rick Wagoner is not the only one (in GM or the auto industry) desperately trying to keep things the way they have always been. The last time I shopped for a new car (2006) I shopped on the internet first. I checked a lot of auto websites and asked for many quotes from local dealerships. About half of the time the only information I got was a phone call – which I never answered but listened to the voicemail. Sometimes when I didn’t respond they then sent me an email saying: “We have tried to contact you but…” The email always included a phone number where I could contact them. I would then reply back and ask why they were phoning instead of sending me an email with the information I requested. One dealer had anticipated me and sent an anonymous email (reply not possible). I keep the email as a reminder. That email was from a GM dealer. Most of the GM dealers I sent requests to did not respond except to send me their phone number. That was one of the reasons I did not buy a GM product.

~

I think there is a connection between the leadership of Wagoner and my experience with car shopping. The dealers that wanted to talk and not send me information (and I have to admit other brands did also – GM was just the worst) were accustomed to doing business that way. Like Wagoner they balanced profit against change. It is significant to me that Wagoner is an accountant. They had always made more profit by talking than by sending information. Like Wagoner, the dealers have failed to realize that a fundamental shift has occurred, both in the way consumers buy and what they buy.

~

To my way of thinking there is some irony here. Ronald Reagan implemented trickledown economics in the 1980s by pushing tax reforms that benefited the wealthy and large corporations more than individuals with lower incomes. The theory being that wealth flows downhill. The present crises are a result of policies started in Reagan’s era. However I don’t believe that they are a direct result of those policies. The shunting of a disproportionate amount wealth to individuals at the top of the economic pyramids seems to have diverted the downhill flow. The irony is that the removal Mr. Wagoner is part of starting at the top. I hope the benefits trickle down.

~

I have a question. What about the board that appointed Mr. Wagoner?

Cupidity

Let’s begin with a quote.

`

“If God didn’t want us messing with this stuff, we couldn’t do it,” Horner said.

Jack Horner, Curator Museum of the Rockies, author and MSU professor.

As reported in ‘Life after death’ in Bozeman Daily Chronicle.

`

Jack Horner was talking about messing with the DNA of chickens (descended from dinosaurs) and reconstructing “dino-chickens”. I think this is a good answer to anytime religious objections are made to scientific inquiries.

~

OK, I got that off my chest. On to more current topics.

~

~

I have a lot of trouble with shoelaces. Mostly they won’t stay tied. This seems to be especially true in hiking boots and athletic shoes. Actually for me personally those are the only kind of shoes with laces that I wear anymore. I remember back sometime in the 1970s that shoelaces underwent a drastic reduction in size. It seems like I was always going to the store to buy 27 inch laces because the ones that came with shoes were too short. It was also about this time that I began to have problems with laces staying tied. I think these problems drove me to start wearing boots and loafers. I don’t remember having any problems with athletic shoes. Then around 2000 I started having problems with athletic shoes. Only then it was because the laces were too long!

~

The other day I decided that I had had enough and went to the store to buy a pair of 27 inch laces for my new Brooks running shoes. The shortest laces I could find were 40 inch laces. Having thought about this some, I have two observations. Now I don’t know how valid these observations are but they seem related to each other and to other happenings in the world.

~

First observation. I believe I started having problems with laces when they stopped being made of natural fibers. Shoelaces are a lot slicker than they used to be. Concurrently with this phenomenon, I noticed that clothing in general contain a lot less natural fibers. The manufactures (or at least the people who dream up ad campaigns for their products) point out all the advantages of manmade fibers but I believe that price is the driving force here. First in the 70s they started making stuff that used less material (example shorter shoelaces) because of cost and then when manmade materials became more prevalent (and the price dropped) they started making stuff that used more material –see, we are giving you more for your money.

~

Second observation. There is a connection between the length of shoelaces and the cupidity of our society. Almost everything has grown in size. I have two Coke bottles from the Second World War. They contained 6 ounces of Coca Cola when issued to troops. Have you tried to find that size lately? First there was 12 oz and then 16 oz sizes. Individual fountain drinks went from 16 to 32 to 44. Sometimes even larger. Coke, shoelaces and fountain drinks aren’t the only things that have increased in size. It seems as if everything has become larger. Food portions, autos and houses have all increased in size from the 1970s. Not to mention the size of American rears. And when portions do get smaller they try to make them larger by oversized packaging or putting some other spin on the product.

~

I have a friend who is taking classes related to fashion and design. He recently mentioned to me that even jeans have been affected by synthetic fiber and things getting bigger. To make jeans (made out of cotton) stretchy they have added manmade materials (Lycra, I think but I could be wrong). We need stretchy jeans to make our bigger bodies more comfortable in a smaller size. It would appear that vanity and cupidity are driving our use of synthetic materials.

~

Need I say anything about the size of bonuses paid to CEOs, especially in financial businesses?

`

From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

Jeremiah 6:12 NIV

`

Sins of the fathers

@ Duck and Decanter

~

This is NOT a theological discussion so bear with me a bit. I almost titled this post “Alcohol, drugs, and violence in the family” but choose a more biblical one because… well, because that is how my mind works.

Sometimes I have problems with concepts I find in the bible. One such concept is the idea of the punishment for someone’s sins being visited upon their children. For example:

`

6 – And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

7 – maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation”.

Exodus 34:6-7 (New International Version)

You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the fathers’ sins into the laps of their children after them.

Jeremiah 32:18 (New International Version)

“Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

John 9:2

I gave the last only to show that the followers of Jesus believed that sin was punished by bad stuff happening and that children could inherit the punishment. I know from experience that this concept is still with the followers of Jesus. I do not subscribe to this belief myself but I do see that dysfunction (maybe “crap” would be a better if less political correct word – I can think of others) runs in families. Take for example the McInerney’s story.

~

The story, as I know it, started a year ago last February with the son, Brandon. Brandon McInerney is being tried as an adult for the Feb. 12, 2008, killing of Larry King, 15, a classmate at E.O. Green School in Oxnard, Ca. Do you remember hearing about it? What caught my attention was that Larry King was openly gay. That of course made it a hate crime which is one of the reasons why Brandon is being tried as an adult. It was also (according to accounts I read in the Ventura County Star) deliberate and premeditated. Brandon apparently (I refuse to say allegedly) took one of his father’s guns to school and dispatched Larry in class.

~

Brandon’s father, William, died yesterday in an accident in his home. The Ventura County Star carried the story, “William McInerney’s death was accidental, autopsy shows”. The article gave some interesting insights into Brandon’s home life – Brandon lived with his father who was divorced from Brandon’s mother, Kendra. William had a history of alcohol abuse and domestic violence. He had shot Kendra (Brandon’s mother) in 1993 and had been found guilty of domestic violence (against Kendra) in 2000. He was involved in another domestic violence case (against his sister) when he died. It turns out that it was illegal for him to own firearms, since he had been convicted of domestic violence. Had he been law abiding, Brandon would not have had access to a gun.

~

One really interesting point for me was that the domestic violence against his sister came about because he was taking Xanax and washing it down with alcohol. That is not helpful in stressful situations. Xanax is prescribed for stress and users are warned not to take it with alcohol. You should also tell your doctor if you have a history of drug addiction or alcohol abuse (see here). But we know already that William was not one for following laws or rules.

~

It looks to me like Brandon learned a lot from his father. Brandon was one month into his 14^th year when he put his training to use and killed one of his classmates because he was openly gay. I wonder: what were William’s views on homosexuality?

~

I think it a shame when sins of the parents are visited on the children.

Nothing is forever

@ Duck and Decanter

~

I took my father’s microfiche viewer to a Goodwill donation center this morning. My mother and several of my nieces and a nephew had tried to find a place to donate it ever since my father died last December. The sad fact is that no one uses microfiches anymore. Microfiches were invented as a means of storing large amounts of data in small spaces. Essentially they were just large magnifiers that enabled people to read very small print on sheets of microfilm. My dad had one because a lot of census data and other data used in genealogy can be viewed on one. He was into genealogy in a big way.

~

At least he was in the 70s and 80s. In the 90s dementia began to affect his memory and as far as I know he never used it later than 1990. So the micro fiche sat in the room he used as an office for 18 years without being turned on. One of my nieces told me that he almost came to tears because he could not remember much of the family tree he had so patiently built up over the years. That was another of the things my father did – or more properly, did not do. He never showed emotion. He also never wrote anything down so when his memory went everything was lost. I think my father had a common human affliction in this regard. He assumed that he would always be blessed with the remarkable memory that he had up to sometime in his 50s.

~

There have been times that I have assumed that things will always be the same. Between 1974 and 1989 I drove Volkswagens. Got to be a pretty good VW mechanic and really enjoyed working on the air cooled engines. I can remember thinking that I would drive them forever. Ah, well, so much for my ability to predict the future. Before I retired (December 2004) I could not imagine not working in a technical field. I even dreamed that I would do temporary contract work. The truth is that I never even looked into doing that. In 2002 I moved from a condo in Mesa (AZ) to a “patio home” in Phoenix. I picked a place that had a small yard because I imagined that I would still enjoy doing yard work as I had in 1979 (the last year I owned a yard). Something had changed in the 20 odd years that had elapsed. I detest yard work!

~

With millions of other Americans (and billions worldwide?), I could not imagine the stock market, banks and everything else tanking to the extent that it has. All of this proves to me that not only that:

Nothing is forever!

but that I am terrible at predicting the future. Professionals in the financial markets appear to have the same failings.

~

I recently reread a book, Earthlight, by Arthur C. Clarke that I first read as a teenager. Clarke was not only a great Science Fiction author he was a futurist. One could almost say he was professional predictor of the future. I was struck by the fact that in Earthlight there were no hints of some technologies that have shaped the modern world. I am not dissing Clark. For a novel written in 1955 about events and life on the moon 200 years after the first moon landing (1966 the USSR made the first unmanned landing – in 1969 the US made the first manned landing) he certainly got a lot correct. But in the novel, Earthlight, computers were still giant mainframes (and mostly analog), teletypes the latest in communicating and for image capture film still had to be processed using chemical baths. I am sure that had Clarke re-written the novel in, let’s say, 2005 it would have all of those deficiencies corrected. I have seen photos of Clarke sitting in from of PC or Mac. Who knew in 1955? No one, not even a great futurist. I believe that Clarke knew that himself.

‘

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

As found in Clarke’s three laws – article in Wikipedia.

‘

On the way to drop off the microfiche I happened to pass a Seventh Day Adventist Church. There was a big sign – red background – with black letters that advertised “Prophetic Seminar”. I am not sure but I suspect that they are using “Prophetic” in the sense of foretelling the future. Thinking about Clarke, Earthlight and obsolete microfiches I had to laugh.

~

I wonder what attendees at the seminar would think of Clarke’s three laws? Probably they would not be important enough. When you are considering the end of the world, scientific details don’t rate too high. I could be wrong about this of course; I often have been in the past.

Alice in the looking glass?

@ Duck and Decanter

I read five foreign newspapers (online) on a regular basis. I read two British newspapers, The London Times & the Telegraph, two Japanese, Ashi Shimbum & Japan Times and the Singapore Straits Times. I read them for several reasons. It is nice to be able to get new that is not filtered through US eyes as well as stories about what is important or at least going on in other countries. I read these particular ones because they are in English (the Japanese ones also have a Japanese version). I also read them because I am interested in knowing what the rest of the world thinks of us. In general, The Japanese are the most sympathetic, the Brits the most critical and the Straits Times the most even handed. At least in my eyes. I suppose I could read all sorts of nonsense in to my observation but I think I will just accept it as my bias.

~

I read a blog in the (Manchester) Telegraph that I found especially enlightening. The blog, At Last, the Truth about America: It is becoming less religious, was interesting enough. Basically it was about a survey just completed. For the blogs author, Damian Thompson,

…the truth is that the stereotype of the churchgoing American has been out of date for years, and now we have the statistics to prove it.

Damian

I believe it. But, what I really liked were the reader’s comments that were posted. I’ll quote a few. I’ll only give the posting name with the understanding that they all come (as does the quote above) from Damian’s blog, At Last, the Truth about America: It is becoming less religious, in the Telegraph of March 11, 2009.

It’s true that some Christian churches are losing populations, especially those like the Episcopal church, because they are replacing Christ and the scripture with looney leftist idiocy. The Catholic church has been losing numbers of citizens, who have been angered by the church’s advocacy for open borders, and rationalizing the displacement of citizens from jobs they desperately need.

Mares

The US is different from europe – there are very few communal places to integrate – and Church provides that for a vast majority – especially in rural areas.

The population isn’t as dense ; housing is less concentrated ; they don’t have the pub/social club mentality or structures – they don’t even have the phenomena of young mothers networking on the school runs [school buses !].

Churches provide a communal meeting-place moreso than anywhere this side of the atlantic.

onethesideofangles

Americans have always had a bizarre, self-centered & semi-gnostic understanding of religion, even when it took place within the confines of established, mainline Christian denominations. This more theraputic take on religion has certainly accelerated in recent years, but it’s nothing new. Oprah and Joel Olsteen are just the latest permutations of a long line of Americana religion.

Mr.Crouchback

Interesting, is it not?

Out of touch

@ Duck and Decanter

Disclaimer – Try as I might, I could not come up with a tie-in for this post to progressive Christianity, conservative Christianity or even Christianity (or religion) in general.

Last October the battery in my car gave up the ghost. I was irritated because my car was only two years old at the time and I think car batteries should last longer than two years. After replacing the battery I really got upset when I had to get a jump-start. When I took the car to the dealer I was told that the radio had a short in it. Cost of replacement? $600.00. The service rep. was rather apologetic about it and suggested that I look on ebay for a replacement. I haven’t really looked yet and probably won’t bother. Part of the reason for not bothering is that I have a mp3 player (an iPod knockoff) with a 2 gigabyte SD card and a cool set of noise canceling ear buds. I have since grown accustomed to not having the radio on when I am going somewhere in my car.

~

The other reason that I haven’t been looking for a replacement is that I am tired of listening to all of the commercials that comes with the radio. A few months before all of the arcing and sparking with my electrical system I had been shocked to hear a paid program on one of the CW stations that I formerly listened to. Admittedly it was in the 5:30 AM to 6:00 AM slot but I was not (and am not) going to listen to the all the virtues of taking a vitamin supplement for more than 30 seconds. Especially one that tries to deceive listeners into thinking that they are listening to a news program. I was already fed up with the amount and length of commercials on the radio (TV also but I will get to that in a minute). After the second or third commercial in a row my finger always punched the tuner to find music. Do I need to point out that I do not listen to talk radio after my last post? So, I don’t think I will be looking to replace the radio in my car any time soon. Besides, if I get desperate, the mp3 player can also receive AM and FM radio stations.

~

I suppose that ‘infomercials’ on radio should not surprise me. There are very few TV channels that don’t have them on in the wee hours – or on Saturday mornings. The amount and length of TV commercials is overwhelming. In November I timed commercials on several different channels. 15 minutes an hour seemed to be the usual with highs of 18 minutes not unusual. (I think the lowest was 9 or 10 minutes). Because of that I stopped watching TV last December and did not turn the TV back on until this month. I did watch about 15 minutes of the Super Bowl but you all know what that was like. I talked to a friend and he told me that commercials were the reason he bought TiVo with his satellite TV hookup. Even cable companies now offer digital recorders as part of their service. Fast forwarding through the commercials is even better that my method of hitting the mute button. I have to wonder if anyone is watching (or listening) to commercials anymore. It seems as if the ad industry is locked into an ever tightening destructive spiral. The more pitches, the less people pay attention which results in more commercials which results in fewer people watching…

~

I tried to remember the last time I saw (or heard) of a product advertised that I decided to buy. I can’t remember. Nor can I remember the last time I even considered a purchase based on an advertisement. My aversion to ads even extends to the internet. I started small at first and now have an almost ad free internet. I was forced into taking measures when the flash videos began to interfere with being able to concentrate on content of whatever site I was visiting. At first I used the Microsoft task manager to cover whichever annoying ad was demanding most attention from my eyes. Then I discovered “Flashblock” for my Firefox browser. That left just the odd blinking text to block with the task manager (alt, ctrl, del). Then came Adblock. Wow what a difference. Adblock even has subscriptions (all free) to lists (that other dedicated web surfers have developed) that you can use.

~

All of the no radio, no TV, and no ads have left me feeling somewhat out of touch. With the advent of March, I turned the TV back on. As far as I can tell not much has changed. I tried watching two different news programs in the morning and both times was so irritated by the frequent commercial breaks as well as all the “coming up we have…” blurts that I turned the set off and repaired to the world of cyber news.

~

I suspect that I am not the only one not watching, listening or reading ads. I have been wondering if there is some connection between this phenomena and the economy. Ever since I can remember (all the way back to the mid 50s) our economy has been influenced if not driven by the advertising industry. What is going to happen if consumers like me aren’t buying (literally and figuratively) anymore? I think the tipping point may have arrived. Newspapers are going out of business (advertising revenue as the cause), phone books are much reduced – at least the “yellow pages” – no one is watching or listening on the air waves and all that paper in the mail goes directly to the recycle bin.

~

I think I have been sensitized by Amy-Jill Levine and her take on biblical parables. I can think of a couple of non-biblical folk parables that might apply to our present situation. The ‘Goose that laid the golden eggs’ and perhaps the one about ‘the Boy that cried wolf’ might be about the advertising industry. For me personally, I like the Uncle Remus one about the briar patch. Could it be that it is the advertising industry and not me that is out of touch?

~

My friend with the TiVo tells me that one of his favorite programs is Mad Men. As you know that show is all about advertising in its heyday. I don’t know because I have not watched it. Does he fast-forward through the commercials? Bet he does.

Imagine this

@ Duck and Decanter

~

I read Paul Harvey’s obituary in the New York Times this week and was saddened to realize that I would never again hear his distinctive voice. I was also saddened that his brand of conservatism is quieter than it was during his life. It has been many years since I agreed whole-heartedly with his interpretation of world events but I could always appreciate his newscasts. I could also understand his bias and concerns. I am saddened and a little fearful that his style of conservative voice has been replaced by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and JD Hayworth. I give the link for Hayworth and not Limbaugh (if you want to know about Rush you should have no trouble finding out about him without my help) because you might not know that JD is once again a talk show host. He is a former congressman (Arizona 5^th District) defeated by Harry Mitchell. I volunteered to help with Harry’s election even though I don’t live in the 5^th District (that is my bias). I call JD “Rush Jr.” I hope that disses both of them – sorry my bias again.

~

In the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s I often listened to Paul Harvey. I got started listening to him because a co-worker always arranged his lunch to coincide with Paul’s broadcast. During this period I can remember catching his broadcasts many times. Most often it seemed while I was traveling by auto in rural areas of the country. Because of this, rightly or not, I always associated Paul Harvey with small town and rural America, just as I associate Rush and JD with urban America.

~

Tuesday, March 5, 2009, there was an article, You’re Dead? That Won’t Stop the Debt Collector, in the New York Times about collecting debts from the dead. In a similar vein, there was County spent nearly $13,000 pursuing grandmother’s $1004.00 debt in the LA Times. As I read these articles I thought about how Paul Harvey might have reported on these stories. I can’t be sure of just what he would have said but I am sure that he would have researched both thoroughly and then given a compassionate (if conservative) report on the stories. I can also imagine how Rush and JD would talk about the stories. For You’re Dead? That Won’t Stop the Debt Collector the theme (one among many possibilities) might be “of course VISA – or Master Card or … – has a RIGHT to pester survivors for debts”. For County spent nearly $13,000 pursuing grandmother’s $1004.00 debt my pick for the spin would be “BIG GOVERNMENT out of control”. It seems to me that Rush, JD, and others like them often forget the humans that are involved in such stories. Paul Harvey always remembered that people were involved.

~

Maybe I imagine too much.

~

But then again, maybe not. I like to think I and Paul are fellow travelers in this sense: I am more concerned about taking care of the ‘widows and children’ than I am the rights of large corporations that loaned money to people who have died. I am more concerned with a grandmother struggling to survive on Social Security and raising grandchildren than I am about the government wasting money (giving it to outside law firms) trying to collect $25.00 a month. I want justice for the survivors.

~

What about justice for big corporations (and their share holders) and big government (by being downsized and losing power)? “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!”

You can bank on it

@ Unlimited Coffee

~

I read an interesting article, Islamic banking escaped crisis, in the Singapore Straits Times this morning. I am not sure you can read the entire article without registering so be prepared. The article was quotes by Indonesian Vice President, Jusuf Kalla, prior to the annual world Islamic economy forum opening on Monday. Indonesia is the world’s most populous Islamic country. A couple of paragraphs caught my eye.

Islamic law prohibits the payment and collection of interest, which is seen as a form of gambling, so highly complex instruments such as derivatives are banned.

`

Transactions must be backed by real assets – not repackaged subprime, or high-risk, mortgages – and because risk is shared between the bank and the depositor there is an incentive for the institutions to ensure the deal is sound.

ST.com News, March 1, 2009

My first thought was: “interest is gambling?” Well, yes, I can see that one could take that approach. Supposedly the reason that banks can charge such high interest on credit cards is that there is risk. Although, I also note that here in Arizona the banks have reduced the risk by having amended the bankruptcy law to eliminate credit card debt from being cancelled. I don’t believe that any cards reduced the interest rates (until after the financial meltdown).

~

My second thoughts were about how we Christians seem to have overcome our early prohibitions against usury. In medieval Christendom, kings and nobles usually borrowed money at interest from Jews. I have always thought that noteworthy for several reasons. Jews were generally prohibited from loaning money at interest (Exodus 22:25-27, Leviticus 25:36-37 and Deuteronomy 23:20-21 and also Ezekiel 18 and Nehemiah 5). But that prohibition was usually taken as only applying to fellow Jews. As for the Christians, apparently it only applied to those loaning the money not the debtors. Convenient for both sides, no doubt. The other striking part of this is that the despised Jews had the money to lend.

~

In January I received a notice from Citibank that they were changing the rules on a credit card issued by them. The letter also informed me that I could “opt out” so I did – that very afternoon. Please note that “opt out” means that you cancel the card. You may have seen the news that the U.S. government now owns 36 % of Citibank. Here is a rather negative –if accurate – view of the transaction.

~

Finally I thought about the concept of shared risk between the band and depositor giving the bank incentive to make sure that everything is on the up and up. Probably would not have as many defaults in a system like that.

~

I wonder if Islamic banks give obscene bonuses to their CEOs.