Mammon’s Temple

Wall Street

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You can not serve both God and Mammon.”

—Matthew 6:19-21,24

No one on television can explain the wild fluctuations on Wall Street over the past few days.

I have my own theory: the wild swings that we are seeing on the NYSE reflect something called “faith” in Mammon’s Temples in New York City and Washington.

It is human beings that have faith. They understand reality through the use of symbols and narratives which have power over minds. The wild fluctuations on Wall Street reflect a crisis of faith that is being played out between opportunists and disillusioned investors.

Is it possible that the “Wall Street Crisis” could really just be a crisis of legitimacy in America’s financial institutions? Isn’t a crisis of legitimacy just really a crisis of faith? Ever have a “crisis of faith” with another person?

Is it possible to print faith and call it money? Just what does “In God We Trust” mean? Who is the God that we trust in America? Mammon or Jesus Christ?

What are people willing to do to make that dollar? To waste their time on that type of money?

Note: If you can put your faith in the dollar or in gold or in Paul Krugman’s economic wisdom or in Barack Hussein Obama’s economic policies, why can’t you put your faith in God and invest your thoughts in your own community?