June 4, 2013 Martin Mallon (Ireland) Martin's previous articles
THE
ECONOMICS OF GOOD AND EVIL
Last week’s article was titled The Church and Austerity. Why should the bishops and clergy be interested in financial debts, mortgage forgiveness or austerity?
Forgiveness, as mercy, is a Christian virtue. However, long before Jesus appeared on the scene, God demanded mercy, compassion and forgiveness from his followers. Hence, we read in Deut 15:1-11:
1
'At the end of every seven years, you must grant remission.
2
The nature
of the remission is as follows: any creditor holding a personal pledge
obtained from his fellow must release him from it; he must not exploit his
fellow or his brother once the latter has appealed to Yahweh
for remission.
3
A foreigner you may exploit, but you must remit whatever claim you have on
your brother.
4
There must, then, be no poor among you. For Yahweh
will
grant you his blessing
in the country which Yahweh
your God
is giving you to possess as your heritage,
5
only if you pay careful attention to the voice of Yahweh
your God, by keeping and practising all these commandments which I am
enjoining on you today.
6
If Yahweh
your God
blesses you as he has promised, you will
be creditors to many nations but debtors to none; you will
rule over many nations, and be ruled by none.
7
'Is there anyone poor among you, one of your brothers, in any town of yours
in the country which Yahweh
your God
is giving you? Do not harden your heart or close your hand against
that poor brother of yours,
8
but be open handed with him and lend him enough for his needs.
9
Do not allow this mean thought in your heart, "The seventh year, the
year of remission, is near," and scowl at your poor brother and give
him nothing; he could appeal against you to Yahweh, and you would incur
guilt!
10
When you give to him, you must give with an open heart; for this, Yahweh
your God
will
bless you in all your actions and in all your undertakings.
11
Of course, there will
never cease to be poor people in the country, and that is why I am giving
you this command: Always be open handed with your brother, and with anyone
in your country who is in need and poor.
Clearly, the Old Testament is much more forgiving and compassionate than
modern economic practice. The penance (fine?) Jesus usually gave was to go and
sin no more. He was and is big into forgiveness, not penance or austerity. He
is love!
Jesus expanded on the Old
Testament teaching to show everyone is our neighbour in the parable of the
Good Samaritan (Luke
If this manner of mercy, forgiveness and love was practised within the
Eurozone we would be close to the perfect social system. Unfortunately, and
demonstrably, we are far from this Christian position. Not only that but we
never hear this approach being advocated by our hierarchy. Why not? This
should be proclaimed at every opportunity. Is our Church capitalist?
Jesus is very clear in the parable of the Good Samaritan, but what else has
Jesus to say on this topic?
In
Mathew 18: 23-35 we read:
23
'And so the
24
When the reckoning began, they brought him a man
who owed ten thousand talents;
25
he had no means of paying, so his master gave orders that he should be sold,
together with his wife and children
and all his possessions, to meet the debt.
26
At this, the servant threw himself down at his master's feet, with the words,
"Be patient with me and I will
pay
the whole sum."
27
And the servant's master felt so sorry for him that he let him go and
cancelled the debt.
28
Now as this servant went out, he happened to meet a fellow-servant who owed
him one hundred denarii; and he seized him by the throat and began to throttle
him, saying, "Pay what you owe me."
29
His fellow-servant fell at his feet and appealed to him, saying, "Be
patient with me and I will
pay you."
30
But the other would not agree; on the contrary, he had him thrown into prison
till he should pay the debt.
31
His fellow-servants were deeply distressed when they saw what had happened,
and they went to their master and reported the whole affair to him.
32
Then the master sent for the man
and said to him, "You wicked servant, I cancelled all that debt
of yours when you appealed to me.
33
Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your fellow-servant just as I had
pity on you?"
34
And in his anger
the master handed him over to the torturers till he should pay all his debt.
35
And that is how my heavenly Father will
deal with you unless you each forgive your brother from your heart.'
This
parable could have been written specifically for the current economic crisis;
we see the bankers being bailed out by National Governments, the citizens, and
the bankers then turn on said citizens and demand their pound of flesh from
each one individually, in many cases leading to people losing their homes,
businesses and even their lives.
On
Spirit Radio Ireland within the last few weeks there was an interview with
Tomas Sedlacek. He was the author in 2011 of the book The Economics of Good
and Evil of which Amazon
says:
Tomas
Sedlacek has shaken the study of economics as few ever have. Named one of the
"Young Guns" and one of the "five hot minds in economics"
by the Yale Economic Review, he serves on the National Economic
Council in
In
his interview he discussed Mathew 18:23-35 and called for its imposition.
Where
is our Christian Catholic Church in all of this? Unfortunately, most of the
hierarchy appear to be copying the politicians by asking the bankers, who
caused the crash, what needs to be done to save the economy. Neither the
politicians nor the hierarchy seem to realise that the bankers are only
interested in saving themselves and their banks; they have no interest in
governments or people otherwise. If you disagree with this statement read the
Articles and Memorandum of Association of the banks. Any banker who thinks and
behaves differently would be sacked immediately as he would not be doing his
job of looking after the bank and it’s shareholders.
Our
politicians are lacking in financial awareness, to give them the benefit of
the doubt. But what excuse is there for our bishops. The Church needs to come
out and vocally support the poor
and suffering in the developed world as well as the third world. Our hierarchy
must condemn current bank practice as described above, perhaps invoke Deut
15:1-11?
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