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The Commentary

'It's the economy, stupid'

I’m sure you remember that catch phrase. It was popularised during Bill Clinton’s successful presidential campaign of 1992.

Those words may well come back to haunt the liberal democracies. What really holds the people of a modern liberal democracy together? It is not a shared cultural heritage. We are meant to be multi-cultural and diverse. It is not a shared moral vision. Ian Hislop’s recent BBC2 series, The Age of the Do-Gooders, looked back to Victorian times when both Christian and non-Christian still had some common understanding of what was meant by ‘good’. But times have changed. In our contemporary individualistic secular era, it has become clear that godlessness is unable to make the case for any real moral foundations. So this common consensus has almost died. For example, Christians would generally see the promotion of marriage and the nuclear family as for the good of society at large, whereas the hard secularists would claim almost the opposite.

New Year’s question

So what is it that holds a modern liberal democracy together? It’s the economy, stupid. The diverse groups are happy to get along together so long as they all get a slice of the cake. It has been prosperity which has not only encouraged many economic immigrants but has also glued our country together. Freedom with prosperity has enabled people to have at least an opportunity to pursue what they want out of life. Hence the nation states of the West have functioned.

But, as we move into a new year with the current crisis in the world economy, we are left to ponder a big question. What happens when there’s no more cake? What happens if the money runs out? What’s going to hold people together then?

In recent months people have taken to the streets in France over their government’s meddling with the age of retirement as it tries to balance the books. During November Ireland was on the brink of financial disaster. With other EU countries facing difficulties some even wonder whether the euro can survive. There have been more student protests in Britain against the rise in tuition fees — as if the government has the money to change things. The riots in London on December 9 were quite serious and if the politicians have not got their sums right and Western economies do not make headway we must wonder what the future holds.

Living and active

Our country has turned away from the Bible because generally its people have been brought to think that God’s word is an old dead book and of no use. But they could not be more wrong. It is actually living and active (Hebrews 4.12). Because it is living and active what it says happens.

Why is our country in such financial trouble? It is because we have made an idol of money, and Scripture says that you cannot serve God and money. The word of God tells us: ‘People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil’ (1 Timothy 6.9). It’s almost a commentary on the trap into which we greedy materialistic Brits have fallen as our bankers led the way, plunging us all into trouble. Why has that happened? It is because the word of God is not dead, but living. What it says will happen, takes place.

However, the upside is that what the Bible promises about salvation is also true! ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’

John Benton