God and Mortgages?

Posted on October 3, 2008
Filed Under current affairs | 2 Comments

Has the so-called Prosperity Gospel turned its followers into some of the most willing participants — and hence, victims — of the current financial crisis? That’s what a scholar of the fast-growing brand of pentecostal Christianity believes. While researching a book on black televangelism, says Jonathan Walton, a religion professor at the University of California Riverside, he realized that Prosperity’s central promise — that God would “make a way” for poor people to enjoy the better things in life — had developed an additional, toxic expression during sub-prime boom. Walton says that this encouraged congregants who got dicey mortgages to believe “God caused the bank to ignore my credit score and blessed me with my first house.” The results, he says, “were disastrous, because they pretty much turned parishioners into prey for greedy brokers.” Read more

cnn, prosperity gospel, time magazine

What now?

Posted on September 29, 2008
Filed Under current affairs | 7 Comments

Hmmm, so they said no to the $700B bail out. What now then? Quite scary seeing those share prices fall - and that’s just the American market. When Asia opens in a few hours and Europe opens in about ten hours I think we are going to see major share tumbling. I think tomorrow is going to be a bleak financial day.

I hope they sort this out. I have one thing that is ticking me off though. Predictably enough Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other. The Republicans claim it was the Democrats fault that the vote did not go through. What planet are they on? The voting results were 205 to 228, with 140 Democrats and 65 Republicans voting in favor and 95 Democrats joining 133 Republicans against. Do the math republicans 133 of your guys voted against it - you fluffed it up.

To be honest, I don’t know if I’m for or against this bail out. It seems like a whole heap of money - in some ways they might as well just throw in another ten billion to deal with world poverty at the same time - you know what’s ten billion when you’re dealing with hundreds of billion? I think a lot of the companies being “bailed” out have got their just deserts. They’ve been greedy. Some have continuously offered credit to people who they know can’t really pay it back. Part of me wants their CEO’s to suffer and maybe have to give up their jet setting lifestyle. Why should the tax payer have to fund that?

At the same time I realize that if some of these companies do go down then the people who will suffer the most will be the likes of you and I who are simply trying to make ends meet.

There needs to be real wisdom in this whole thing and accountability. What do you think? Are you for the £700b or against and why?

700b, democrats, money, republicans, world poverty

Links

Posted on September 27, 2008
Filed Under blog, current affairs | Leave a Comment

Brother Maynard has written a great post about the $700B and there is also an interesting article here h/t Jordan Cooper

It’s this desire we must understand. More than any other possession, houses are what people use to say, “Look how well I’m doing!” Given the financial anxieties and indignities suffered by the American middle class, it’s hardly surprising that a lower-middle-class child who grows up in a small house feels a burning need to acquire a bigger one.

$700b, brother maynard, jordan cooper