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Wall Streets woes go beyond financial to spiritual

The blame game is the name of the game in the nation's ongoing financial crisis.

Some say it's the homeowners' fault for borrowing too much. Some say it's the lenders' fault for making loans to unqualified borrowers. Others blame government regulation, or the lack thereof. Some say the media's behind the meltdown.

But it's much deeper - and more spiritual - than any of that, says the Rev. Jim Wallis, leader of an evangelical social justice ministry.

"It's the morality, sinner," Wallis writes in his blog, God's Politics.

The chief executive officer of Sojourners blasts decision-makers in Washington and Wall Street for glorifying greed and abandoning biblical ethics.

Is he right?

The Times-Union put that question to four community leaders in Jacksonville: Episcopal Bishop Samuel Johnson Howard, former vicar of a church on Wall Street; Rabbi Joshua Lief, of Congregation Ahavath Chesed; atheist Earl Coggins, founder of the First Coast Freethought Society; and John McAllister, business dean at the University of North Florida.

Here's how they responded to three key passages from Wallis' blog:

It [the financial crisis] is also the moral consequence of greed, where private profit prevails over the concept of the common good. The American economy is often rooted in unbridled materialism, a culture that continues to extol greed, a false standard of values that puts short-term profits over societal health and a distorted calculus that measures human worth by personal income instead of character, integrity and generosity.

Howard: Greed and sinfulness obviously are elements in all human relationships, but to say that everything that's happening now in the markets and the business world is solely a result of greed, is rather shallow and shortsighted of Wallis. . . . I was the vicar at Trinity Church Wall Street for many years, and I found the business community to be filled with many people who were dedicated to the public interest.

Lief: I think it's a jaded view of the world. It certainly is the case that individuals are encouraged to turn a profit, but it's also the case that the desire for profit leads to innovation and better services to society. ...

Coggins: I think your average human being has a high standard of morals and ethics. ... Also, greed is a violation of all human ethics, not just Christian ethics or any other religion's ethics. . . . To suggest that religion has all the answers, I have to respectfully disagree with him.

McAllister: For him to be talking about unbridled materialism, that's just not the way our society is. I don't think our culture extols greed. ... If there are greedy people, they certainly don't brag about it. ... For companies to be profitable is in the best interest of society. It means plenty of jobs, plenty of philanthropy.

Capitalism needs rules, or it easily becomes destructive. A healthy, balanced relationship between free enterprise, on the one hand, and public accountability and regulation, on the other, is morally and practically essential. Government should encourage innovation; but it must also limit greed.

Howard: I agree capitalism does need rules and I think Wallis is right we need a healthy balance. But that's what the argument always is, isn't it: Where is that balance? ... I'm not sure he's right the government's role is to limit greed. I think government's role is to protect the common good and to ensure a balanced approach. ... But government is no less subject to its own issues and failings and foibles than the marketplace.

Lief: I think accountability is a moral good. Our tradition certainly teaches us that things that we would be doing in secret and would be ashamed if anyone found out, are things we shouldn't be doing in the first place.

Coggins: I agree with him that capitalism needs rules and I agree that greed is destructive, especially when you have a limited amount of resources.

McAllister: I agree with all of it, but I don't know how government would "limit greed." ... You can outlaw immoral behavior; you can outlaw criminal activity. But how do you outlaw greed?

The behavior of too many on Wall Street is a violation of biblical ethics; the teachings of Christianity, Judaism and other faiths condemn the greed, selfishness and cheating that have been revealed in corporate behavior over decades now and denounce their callous mistreatment of employees. Read your Bible.

Howard: It is true we need to read the Bible. But we also need to encourage our governmental leaders and our financial and business leaders to behave in sensible and balanced ways. ... As a former federal prosecutor ... I believe the role for government is an essential and important one ... in prohibiting criminal enterprises. ... As the spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Florida, the answer lies in the softening and turning of hearts toward God and toward the care and welfare of our neighbor.

Lief: I think it's dangerous to cite the Bible as the end-all, be-all example. After all, this is the same text that permits slavery. So the Bible's view of economics is related directly related to the world view from which the Bible came. In some contexts ... it encourages fair treatment of those less fortunate, altruism whenever possible, justice for poor and rich alike. ... But at the same time I'd shy away from relying solely on the Bible in this situation.

Coggins: I think he needs to clarify what he means by "biblical ethics." The Bible has been interpreted a million ways. ... We have some denominations that think gays shouldn't be allowed to marry, while some denominations say they should be allowed to marry. ... The state of ethics in the Christian world is in a state of turmoil. In order to properly evaluate what is going on on Wall Street, we should use secular ethics.

McAllister: More than a question of biblical ethics, the flaw on Wall Street isn't so much greed as it is incompetence. There were too many people in too many organizations who just didn't know what they were doing.