Zaki Cooper: Religion has a key part to play in ensuring economic recovery
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Independent Minds
In his speech at St Paul's on Tuesday, Gordon Brown addressed the congregation from the pulpit about changes that need to take place to the regulatory system, and the key themes of the G20 agenda.
If the venue for the speech seemed unlikely, that is because religion and economics sometimes make uneasy bedfellows. Prelates often react with complete ignorance or acute suspicion when it comes to business and markets. And the corporate world, a cornerstone of modernity, has often viewed religion as anachronistic and irrelevant.
But there are two interesting roles that the Church and other faith groups in Britain can play in the current downturn, one practical, the other intellectual. Faith communities have a key role to play in helping those struggling with the effects of the downturn. With unemployment widely forecast to rise to three million by the end of this year, the "social capital" provided by faith groups will be crucial. Their role in providing social, economic and welfare support for the unemployed and those struggling financially will be even more key than usual. The well of volunteering which takes place through faith groups – estimated at 23 million hours of voluntary service from members of the Church of England – can help those adversely affected by the recession.
And even though the economic downturn will be bad news for productivity and growth rates, it could be good news for religion. Religious affiliation often grows at times of great uncer-tainty. In the 1930s in the wake of the Great Depression, Church attendance increased in Britain. It could be that, as our economic wealth decreases, our spiritual wealth will increase.
Second, as anxiety grows through society, faith leaders can play a key role in calming nerves and highlighting the importance of ethics in capitalism. This stream of thinking is starting to permeate debate. Politicians, so wary of "doing G-d", are using the language of ethics in their pronouncements. Nowadays their speeches are littered with mentions of values and "moral capitalism". As the G20 takes forward its agenda, its leaders should not lose sight of the important role that faith can play in addressing the recession.
This is taken from an remarks given by Zaki Cooper in a JustShare Debate in London this week, How Would Religion Regulate Financial Markets?
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Comments
"..as anxiety grows through society, faith leaders can play a key role in calming nerves and highlighting the importance of ethics in capitalism."
Wrong, they'll beat the drum for the establishment, as always, circling like vultures around the weak and vulnerable as they do so.
Give the humanist/non-religious groups time to prosper and you will see that the non-religious are every bit as able to help out of their own kindness as those from a particular Church.
You don't have to be religious to be charitable; I find the author's blithe assumption that religious groups and their holier-than-thou attitudes are the only answer laughably naive.
Prayer - how to do absolutely nothing and still believe you are helping.
Every major religion - and especially Christianity, Judaism and Islam - encourages its followers to have as many children as possible, either by convincing them that raising large families is a spiritual duty to their Creator, or by discouraging or actually forbidding abortion and contraception (often propagating the lies that the latter is ineffective and actually helps to SPREAD STDs such as HIV).
It is obvious why they do this, of course; like corporations, religions can only survive if they continue to grow or, at least, avoid shrinking in size. And by encouraging believers to have as many offspring as possible, they are guaranteeing that the ranks of the faithful will be replenished and swelled with fresh young believers (as many children will 'choose' to follow their parents' faith - i.e. have it forced upon them through constant brainwashing at an early age), thus consolidating and expanding the political and economic power of the faith in question.
As a consequence, the families of devout Christians (especially Catholics), Jews and Muslims are invariably far larger than those of non-believers. And it can be argued that they therefore impose a proportionately larger burden on the Earth's resources, and a larger demand for carbon-generating consumer products and energy. In the present circumstances, such profligate and reckless reproduction is incredibly selfish and resource-greedy, and is directly contributing to climate change.
So if the religious want to make a difference, they can start by using contraception, or just abstain from sex (something which their infamous religious prudishness should make quite natural for them, after all), and stop having such large families.
Of course, their religious leaders would quake at this idea, and fiercely resist any threat of reduction in the ranks of the faithful that this would imply. Because they would far rather sacrifice the entire human race on the altars of their imaginary gods than contemplate the end of their faith through depopulation.