Fed up with the phrase ‘credit crunch’ yet ? Do we need to keep being reminded of the situation by the media ?

Now I appreciate that for many people it is a very serious situation and I know of people who are already feeling the ‘crunch’ (or is it a ‘pinch’) It is noticeable in Fleet that fewer people are going out to restaurants in the evening as people make choices between,for example, paying a mortgage or going out.

But we need to put the ‘credit crunch’ into its context. In recent years it has been too easy to get credit and loans. We have been inundated with adverts and mailings that tell us how easy it is to get more money; Our banks have written to us about extending an overdraft or credit limit…sometimes without asking it has just been done. All of this has ‘fed off’ the ideology of ’spend,spend,spend’ and ‘play now,pay later’

The Christian gospel offers an alternative to this. It says trust in God that he will give you direction and wisdom to act responsibly with the resources you have. It says don’t join the ‘rat race’ of ‘must have’ – instead be content with what you need, not what you want. It says ‘love your neighbour as yourself’ so that in our decision making we think of the consequences for others. It raises the wider dimension of our responsibility to those in the world who are not suffering from the credit crunch…as they have no credit, indeed nothing at all and do not know where there next meal is coming from.

So instead of Credit Crunch (CC) why not think in terms of Christ’s compassion (CC) for us and our neghbours ?