Christians amidst economic chaos

With the financial sector in crisis and the stock market in a tailspin, our nation's economic outlook is as gloomy as it has ever been in my lifetime. Just today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted another 678 points to fall below 8,000 for the first time since 2003.

Words like "fear" and "panic" are regularly being used in headlines to describe the worries of investors.

Even worse, it is starting to look like the financial meltdown is having a serious impact on the economy as a whole. The New York Times reports that 159,000 jobs were cut last month, the worst job loss rate in years. While our nationwide employment figures are still relatively healthy, statistics like that are not a good sign for what is to come. And that's just in the United States. Worldwide, the drying up of capital due to the subprime mortgage fiasco is raising the spectre of global recession - meaning that our sloppy banking practices here at home could end up hurting a lot of people around the world.

So what are Christians to do in this time? I think the first thing is for us to keep everything that is happening in perspective. A few weeks ago, I wrote a post a few weeks ago about a friend who reminded me of a central tenet of John Howard Yoder's theology - that it is, in fact, Jesus Christ and his church who are driving history. No king, nation-state, or economy can usurp what he has rightfully claimed for his own. It is a basic Christian affirmation, but in such a time as this (when we are tempted to think of the economy and presidential politics as having much greater ultimate importance than they really do) it is really important.

And second, I think any situation where Christians know that their brothers and sisters within the household of faith are going to suffer is an opportunity to help them in tangible ways. In my current column in the UM Reporter - "Hope in the midst of economic chaos" - I suggest that the current economic climate can actually help to teach us what it means to love one another. Now I know that isn't easy. Middle-class people have an almost pathological fear of others finding out that they are hurting financially. But self-sufficiency is a myth, and it is one that we should get past. In the generation after Jesus, the early church shared so that no one went needy (Acts 2:44-45, 4:32-35). If our current economic situation gets as bad as many fear it might, we will find ourselves with the same opportunity.

[November 8th update: This report by David Goldman of CNNMoney points to two troubling current developments in the economy: an unemployment rate that has risen to 6.5% nationally and a loss of 240,000 more jobs in October. The unemployment rate is the highest in the country since 1994.]