I usually agree with Jim Wallis, though I often wish that he would go further in his critique of the current order. But, as he says in the following article, he is a conservative Christian (and I am not). As a nation, is it too much to hope that we may be approaching a new perspective on the systemic crisis that we are facing when conservative Christians start questioning the culture of greed that has marked this country for the last 30 years? Greed that rips apart the social fabric that unites this country? Greed that enriches the few and impoverishes the masses? Greed that skews the moral compass of this country? Greed that worships multi-million dollar athletic contracts and punishes the homeless for not working hard enough to afford a home? The list is endless. Read this article and reflect on it today, Sunday, February 14. Reflect also on the larger meaning of Valentine’s Day and don’t get caught up in the corporate celebration of the day. Instead, reflect on the true meaning of love, which Jim Wallis points to in this essay. His interview of Elizabeth Warren will appear in the April issue of Sojourner’s magazine.
Elizabeth Warren and Goliath
By Jim Wallis
I had a most instructive conversation this week with Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard economist who is also the Chair of the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel. Warren has a way of cutting through the jargon and confusion of many economists and of this economic crisis — right to the moral core of the issues at stake. I knew her for her keen insights, but I didn’t know she was from, as she puts it, a “mixed marriage from Oklahoma” — Baptist and Methodist — and that she is a former Methodist Sunday school teacher. In the interview I did with her for Sojourners, her moral and even theological comments were as impressive as her economic analysis of our present crisis. She said the battle for financial regulatory reform is like the battle between David and Goliath.
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