The hits to the American economy just keep coming. Shortly before the crucial Christmas shopping season, the Commerce Department announced that the nation’s gross domestic product declined more severely during the third quarter than previously estimated. It was the deepest decline since the months following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The culprit was the biggest drop in consumer spending since 1980.
In an effort to resuscitate the failing economy, the federal government has racked up a record $455 billion deficit with the potential to balloon even bigger. The government wants to help banks loan money, so that businesses can grow and families can buy cars, homes, and other major items. The American economy crumbles without consumer spending, which composes two-thirds of economic activity. The significance of this fact hit home in the aftermath of September 11. Even before the dust had settled, the nation’s leaders urged patriotic Americans to get out and spend.
“I would hope the American people would, in effect, stick their thumb in the eye of the terrorists and say they’ve got great confidence in the country, great confidence in our economy, and not let what’s happened here in any way throw off their normal level of economic activity,” Vice President Dick Cheney said on September 16, 2001.
This attitude should trouble the government as well as the church. Distressing news at home or abroad can send the entire economy into a depressing, downward spiral. The government has embraced the role of propagandist/cheerleader to assure everyone that everything’s all right. Or they feed the beast with stimulus packages the government can’t afford to ensure the economy will become even more dependent on consumer spending.
The church’s concerns should be clear. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned his followers not to store up treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and thieves steal. Instead, we should store up treasures in heaven. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt. 6:19–21). Jesus didn’t mince words: “You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matt. 6:24).
There will be significant pressure on the church to once again miss this lesson amid a national crisis. At one point, Americans valued saving. Now the practice puts our economy in jeopardy. Wachovia economist Sam Bullard observed that declining home values and job losses have prompted Americans to pay down their debt rather than spend more money they don’t have. In fact, personal incomes actually rose 0.3 percent in October, and they rose 0.2 percent in September. The October rate was three times the increase economists anticipated. With personal incomes increasing more rapidly than inflation, real incomes jumped 1 percent. Americans saved this money and more. The savings rate was 2.4 percent in October, more than twice the rate of 1 percent in September. But apparently this isn’t good news.
“Income came in higher than expected, but people are not going out and spending it,” Bullard told CNN. “Unless they spend it, it’s not much help to the economy.”
When what’s good for Americans is bad for the economy, then you know something is wrong. This is the church’s opportunity to help our neighbors and reform our own behavior. We can model for our neighbors a lifestyle that shows more isn’t always better. We can respond in faith to this latest crisis, displaying trust in the God who fortifies us against the stock market’s ups and downs. We can follow the example of the Acts church, whose members with financial means cared for those less fortunate.
It’s not clear that the church is up for this task. Rob Moll shared some gruesome statistics in his December cover story for Christianity Today. He relied on research from Passing the Plate, co-written by leading sociologists Christian Smith and Michael Emerson, along with researcher Patricia Snell. Their study shows that 36 percent of evangelicals gave less than 2 percent of their income; only 27 percent give 10 percent or more. At rates this low, evangelicals won’t be able to help one another, let alone their neighbors. Where is the rest of their money going? We can’t be sure, but I suspect their habits would please the government.
Collin Hansen is a CT editor at large and author of Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists.
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