I can't help but look south, across that line that is drawn from coast to coast the 49th parallel as this economic crisis seems to be going viral infecting the working middle class, and lower. We look around most neighborhoods on this side of the line, and think, things are not so bad, lest you live in the heartland of the Canadian manufacturing and retail industry. Our proxcimity, our trade relationship with the US, is like that of a close family, usually a virus spreads through the whole family...we're going to get a whole lot sicker before we get better.
But more than anything what has got my attention is the empty void of response, conversation...or any real voice from faith communities. Again, the church lags behind like resistant dog being pulled forward, almost dragged into the reality of whats going on.
I would think even right now, as even before an earthquake hits, there are tremors that we need to be listening to. Those tremors are social agencies that are being overloaded, being taxed to their limits, bursting at the seams.
The above image is of a city in southern California where home foreclosures, and unemployment have sky-rocketed. These are not your, this sounds crazy to say, your common homeless, impoverished, addicts, mentally ill street people, this is the working middle class. Could this happen in Canada? I suspect in some cities this will be a growing reality as the economic crisis deepens.
But again, my mind wanders back to faith communities...the dog being dragged, whining, behind the tragedy as it unfolds in front of it.
As these tremors are occurring within the fabric of our social structures church leaders need to be ahead of the pack meeting with city leaders, town councils, schools, leaders of social agencies to do some serious strategic planning.
This economic crisis is a crisis of faith for all of us, it has spiritual implications that are weaved into the very fabric of what it is to be human. This just isn't about Wall Street economics, it's time for faith communities to reveal the economics of the Kingdom.
