The Economic Crisis

Despite the fact that I have no money, I have been terribly interested in the current state of the economy on theological and ethical grounds. In early Spring this year I was asked, "Do you think the recession is God's punishing us?" My knee jerk reaction was that this could only be punishment if our economic boons were God's blessing, and I am just not sure we can say that either. I don't deny that for many Christians in America we have assumed that economic prosperity has been a direct result of God's blessing, but I do deny that anything like this comes to us from Scripture. Rather we have another classic example of the American church hearing America everytime a blessing is promised to Israel. Ironically, we do not here America when there is punishment or blame to go around in the Prophets, particularly for things like unjust scales and economies that destroy poor people, but there is still something to commend in the question. This question assumes that God is wrapped up in and concerned about the economic life of the world/country/church/his followers (depending on how you read the "us" in our question). While I like that we see God working, I am uncomfortable with the thin categories we have for naming God's work. Going forward, I want to suggest that before we get into the habit of naming blessings and curses we do at least two things:
1. Know the situation we are attempting to name. Have cogent account of how we have contributed to what is happening around us and know why it is happening in human terms. Be able to describe the situation clearly. In keeping with our current topic of the economy, there are least a a few articles we should be reading, and here are two of my favorites: Matt Taibbi and Michael Lewis.
2. Take the time to do thoughtful theological reflection. Don't be limited to the sort of rhetoric we constantly encounter on talk radio and television news shows. There is no need for the Church, and its members, to make sure it is the first voice people hear on issues, but rather it is time to demonstrate a thorough, consistent, faithful, theological, response to a wide range of issues we face currently.
For an absolutely fantastic example of how to do both of these practices well, listen to William Cavanaugh accomplish just such a feat in his presentation at the Eklessia Project Gathering.