 |
Welcome |
 |
More about us |
 |
Diary & Information |
 |
Community Café |
|
Clubs |
|
Contact Us |
|
Movie pages |
BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Monday, March 03, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 1
 Money is the big issue of our day. Money worries concern UK adults more than any other social issue, over terrorism, immigration, climate change and gun crime. Why is that when we are amongst the richest people in our global village, where 53% live on $2 per day or less, and 43% live without sanitation. [See Miniature-Earth.com]. It seems that our privileged position has brought us "money worries" and ... debt!! This "rich" economy is built on consumerism - which relies on consumer spending their hard earned pound to keep the cogs turning. Hence the US plan to try to kickstart their flailing economy with a cash injection to the average John Doe to get them spending again. How warped does that sound!! We are bombarded with attempts to get us to spend our cash on things we "need", "want" and "deserve". Hence the fact that the average household debt not including mortgages is £9,052. A figure that increases to £21,051 if you take out those people who don't owe anything. Debt is a serious problem for many in our society. But does our debt stop us spending? No! 27% of people with debts have increased them in the last 3 months. Debt is a helter skelter, and many of us and our friends are on it. Our economy needs us to spend, we are driven to spend, we are marketing fodder and we oblige. The drive to "have" overrides the stress and the worry of debt. This was my starting point yesterday when I decided, bravely [I thought!] to talk about money. It may have been a little depressive? I realize now that I made things worse on hte cheeriness levels by taking us to the words of Jesus. We are looking at Luke's Gospel at the moment, and I have been struck by his references to Jesus talk of the poor and how we should view money. To start, compare Matthew 5:1-11 with Luke 6:20-22. And I'll post more tomorrow on what Jesus view of it all is [honest!]!! Note: debt figures from Credit Action UK Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 10:19 am |
|
