Thanks For Sharing

I don't particularly care what religious leaders have to say about the economy, since I don't recognize them as authorities on the issue. (They're not authorities on a lot of things they discuss, often seems to me.) Even if they want to relate it to moral issues, their faulty understanding makes their conclusions questionable.

For instance, in this LA Times' piece on the religious reaction to our financial problems, one Episcopal Bishop says the excesses we've seen lately "have been biblical in scale. We have overlooked the greed that engendered this crisis, we have [...] been unwilling to share what we know and what we have."

She should be a bit more clear on what these "excesses" are, since the average American has an excess of goods compared to most humans throughout history, and I'd rather people keep their hands off my percentage of the excess. I also don't approve of whipping up envy of those with more, and recognize that the easiest way to prevent "excess" is to hold everyone down through massive centralization of power.

As for overlooking "greed," she coudn't be more wrong. In fact, we've mistakenly concentrated on greed, both misundertanding it and making it a simplistic scapegoat for our problems (and certainly never giving it credit for any bounty we might have).

And I have no idea where she gets this stuff about not sharing "what we know"--we share information more than at any time in history. We also share massive amounts of "what we have"--both voluntarily and involuntarily.

What bothers me is this woman may be receiving more credence than she deserves because...why? Because she's studied the Bible?