Normally I read a comic named Doonesbury (by Gary Trudeau) with a strong hold of my anger. He is so far to the left that his comic is placed on the editorial pages by many newspapers because, in their judgement, it is not truly comic content. Nevertheless, in today’s comic, he pithily summarized the current situation on Wall Street and with the bailout. I love what he says about today’s situation. He says that both lobbyists and Congress members were involved in, “rigging a game that privatizes profit but socializes risk.”
This is the reason why so many people are upset. The perception us, the public, have is that not only has Wall St. misused our money (for I have funds in an IRA like so many) but that then they have further savaged us by insisting on a bailout, otherwise they would take their ball and go home. The situation with the IGA executives who promptly used $450,000 of the bailout money on an expensive hotel, massages, etc., seemed to confirm the arrogance that is present and the security that nothing will happen to them.
One can see why the prophet Habakkuk said, “How long, O LORD, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrong? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.”
Nevertheless, lest we agree too quickly with with Habakkuk, it is worth remembering that God’s response to his complaint was that justice would prevail and that He was about to bring forth justice by destroying Israel. I do agree with Habakkuk. But, I realize that this means that God’s solution may be to teach us a lesson by letting us feel the full weight of His displeasure. Is that what we really want? Are we prepared to ask for justice, even at the cost of our comfort level, our standard of living, maybe even at the cost of our immediate future? I, myself, am of two minds about this. May God’s will be done, and may He have mercy on us, sinners.
“May God’s will be done, and may He have mercy on us, sinners.”
I think that’s the most appropriate petition. Most of us have expected that sooner or later, there would be a reckoning for our sin. It certainly happened with Israel.
May He show us mercy and compassion.