September 4, 2012      Martin Mallon  (Ireland)     Martin's previous articles

                             CHRISTIANITY AND BANKS

An article, by Turlough Quinn, published in the local papers of the Northern Ireland based Observer Newspaper Group on 23 August, includes the following quote:  

I went to say a mouthful of prayers the other day. The wife and I headed off to Mass the other morning, Thursday I think it was. We go every day. We reckon that if Jesus goes to the bother of coming to us in Mass we may as well make the effort to go and meet him.

Anyway, I listened to the gospel. I try to do so everyday but sometimes my mind drifts. Now, where was I? Yes, talking about Mass.   The gospel was about a man who owed a king hundreds of millions of pounds in today’s money. He could not pay and begged for mercy. The king granted mercy to him and let him go to rebuild his life.

On his way out he met a man who owed him a few quid for rent. He threatened to bankrupt him and to put him on the street. He would not grant mercy to the man who owed him a few quid.

Silly story really, unless you’re a homeowner facing eviction by a bank which has recently received bailout money and you’re paying taxes to keep in business. Something about Jesus makes his teaching as relevant today as it was then.  

It is good to see someone talk, with a Christian perspective, about the banking crisis, which has had, and continues to have, a huge effect on peoples’ lives in Ireland . Yes, the parable is applicable to bankers and the banking system. Statistics from the south of Ireland reveal that 11% of mortgages are in arrears, excluding Buy-to-Let mortgages, and increasing. One serious problem this is causing in Irish society was highlighted in Turlough’s article of 30 August:  

Another wee Irishman made his views clear to Pat Rabbitte…Minister of Communications in our beloved free state ’s government.  

The wee Irishman whose name the Garda have not made public, castigated Comrade Rabbitte about the state of the nation. “Four people dying by suicide a week while we pay back foreign bankers,” he repeatedly shouted at Comrade Pat.  

The Irish Government has lost any sense of the country’s Christian heritage and appears to be doing all it can to appease international bankers and bond holders; the cost to the Irish people is being overlooked, even when there are “Four people dying by suicide a week while we pay back foreign bankers.”  

In the same article there is comment on the economic woes of the eurozone area of Europe :  

Europe is in recession, Spain is officially in a worse state than America during the Great Depression, Greece is on its knees and we still cannot even find out what is going on. The bankers need to be protected. How can we have faith in these foreign money grabbing bankers?

Imagine you have a family. One of the children gets in to a bit of bother. You bail them out. Do you demand full repayment and threaten to exclude them from the family home if they cannot repay in full? Would you leave your son homeless because he borrowed a few quid from another son and couldn’t repay? Not much of a family that is it.

Well, that’s exactly what Europe is doing with Greece and the rest of the periphery nations; pay up or get out! A community is a community only as long as all members are equally important. It appears that this no longer the case in Europe .

Here’s a question for you. What kind of a reception would the prodigal son have gotten in the Merkel household?  

“Merkel” being Angela Merkel the German Chancellor. Again, Christian teachings would seem to be of little relevance to European politicians with each country only interested in what their government thinks is best for them. The euro was set up with no mechanism for a country to exit, but there is currently speculation that Greece will be kicked out if the cost of saving it is seen by Merkel as being too high. Prodigal son, good-bye!  

A new system is badly needed, one where governments do not depend on bankers for advice on regulating the banking industry and where governments are not scared of the banks. How this can be generated if Christian values, such as the human dignity and value of each person as being made in the image of God, are ignored is a difficult question to answer. Any suggestions?