Letter to the editor: Trust in God to get us through the financial crisis

On April 2, a letter to the editor appeared in The Jamestown Sun written by Ellen Linderman, and in that letter she gave glowing praise to Sen. Byron Dorgan for voting against certain deregulations of “big investment banks and Wall Street gamblers.” Linderman said “most senators and congressmen can’t understand credit default swaps and all the other complex schemes of these financiers anyway.”

It is a wonderful thing that Dorgan is the only one in Congress who does, or did, understand how this complex situation would end up; however, I think that deregulation was the correct approach to our system of democracy at that time, and still is the most appropriate and sound way to financial freedom and security for American and the world. A financial bailout of people who lack wisdom will nearly always be wrong. Each individual, business person and company needs the freedom to fail and work through the consequences, which nearly always improve character, ethics and management skills of the people involved.

According to God’s word, we are warned against overextending our financial resources and acting in irresponsible ways that could lead to poverty (Proverbs 6:1-5). Our country’s financial problem was caused by dishonesty and lack of integrity by individual bankers, borrowers and managers who by their own personal choice poorly managed, or yielded to unscrupulous pressure from Congress, lobbyists, unions, lawyers, etc. This was done to circumvent responsible safeguards and thus appeal to persons in our culture who lack the wisdom and ethics to make wise choices about finances. I am thankful that my own banking institution, which is owned by responsible North Dakotans, made wise and ethical decisions and are therefore not part of the problem.

If I were to praise Dorgan it would be because he showed remorse and offered an apology for unknowingly accepting personal perks and money (which he returned) from unscrupulous people like Jack Abramoff but not for his foresight to predict the bad results of deregulation.

God repeatedly tells his followers that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom; therefore, if one-third of Americans are born-again Christians who follow Jesus as their Lord and Savior, that still leaves two-thirds of Americans who do not have the wisdom of God to guide and restrain our sinful nature. The Bible is replete with wisdom for the righteous. Proverbs 8 and 9 are clear on that subject.

The wisest thing that we Americans can do is to always choose true followers of God to be our leaders and bosses. This is by far the best safeguard for honest accountability and personal responsibility in our country’s leaders.

Bob Tatum

Ellendale, N.D.

Tags: opinion, letter, finance, god, economy, religion