I am in Melbourne for 2 days, being trained in mentoring by Arrow Leadership Australia – a great couple of days of input.
This evening, we heard a talk by an outstanding economist and Christian. He gave a great analysis of the GFC, and then spoke about the evangelistic opportunities it created. It was so much better than ‘we told you not to be greedy’!
His starting point was the way that the GFC elicited 2 remarkable responses:
- moral outrage – those bankers were wrong!
- a security shake – my future / super / security was / could have been taken away in a falsh!
Both of these provide fascinating opportunities for the gospel.
First, the moral character of the outrage provides an ‘in’ to asking people the ground of their morality; what’s more, he made some valuable points about the way that we were all complicit in the GFC, that is, both the public (who drove the demand for dodgy loans, and investments in dodgy packets of loans) and the financial institutions – and therefore, the issue is, where is guilt dealt with?
And second, is there anything that really is secure?
It was much richer than that, of course, and a great model for social comment leading to gospel proclamation.
For a similar but broader take, you might check out a paper I wrote a couple of years ago entitled ‘Does God believe in capitalism’. It’s on our CCIW website here.
Gold, silver, precious stones? 