A Reluctant Pope and the Reluctant Republican Field

As posted on the Common Sense Concept Two Cents Blog

After months of speculation, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced over the weekend that he would not seek the Republican nomination in 2012. Despite the support of some prominent Republican leaders, Daniels put family first and bowed out. The decision was a disappointment to many, but Daniels can hardly be faulted for demonstrating such humility and prudent consideration. These are virtues we should desire in candidates for high office. It seems reasonable that one shouldn’t be dragged against their will into a campaign for the most important job on Earth. However, there is a precedent for forced leadership, and the story may remind us of the rare necessity of hoisting responsibility upon a reluctant leader.

It was A.D. 590 and Rome was a disaster. The city suffered from the tragedies of a flood and the atrocities of war. A deadly plague was rampant, and had just taken the life of Pelagius II. When the monastic Gregory learned he had been elected Pope, he refused the office, fled from the city, and hid in the woods. Eventually he was found and physically dragged back to St. Peter’s to be consecrated.

While he was a very unlikely candidate for the papacy, Gregory wasn’t without qualification. He had served as Prefect of Rome under Emperor Justin and as a deacon under Pope Pelagius II. He was identified as the right man for the job. And though Gregory saw his election as a punishment, he nevertheless committed himself to doing the job well. He succeeded, creating order in the midst of chaos. Historian Bruce Shelley explains, the “prestige of the papacy in the Middle Ages rests in large part on the practical government maintained by Gregory” through those troubled times. As a result, not long after his death, the church labeled him “Gregory the Great.”

Gregory’s Rome is not very different from the U.S. today. We are in the midst of war and strife abroad and suffering from the plagues of unemployment, spending, and debt. History often demonstrates that dire straits open the way for a demagogue who inevitably makes things worse; other times, however, the magnitude of a crisis creates a unique opportunity best suited for an unlikely and understandably reluctant leader. Now is such a time.

Gregory was dragged into the papacy kicking and screaming and became arguably one of the greatest popes in history. For those hesitant to see a candidate dragged into the presidential race, it might be worth remembering how one reluctant, sixth century monk came to lead Rome into a period of stability. Many (if not most) conservatives are not convinced that the current crop of candidates includes a leader capable of presiding over a practical government that will bring order to the chaos. It’s time for those who are unsatisfied to band together, go into the woods, find a candidate, and drag them into the race.

Small Still Voice

Lately Ive been reading a couple Francine Rivers books, good stuff. In her books whenever God speaks to the characters it is in a couple words, like "be still my beloved" or "trust and obey." When I pray, I pray in paragraphs, and most of the time I would love God to answer in paragraphs, carefully detailing and describing what he wants me to do. But that is rarely what happens. Most of the time I get that still small voice.

Psalm 46:10 reminds us to "be still and know that I am God." But in the midst of crisis it is anything but easy to be still, I'm looking for answers and directions, preferably in detail. So what do we do?

In May the children's ministry is focusing on "all access," knowing that you can talk to God about anything. One of the aspects of this is what God might say when we pray. I was gently reminded that sometimes God answers our prayers through others, sometimes he says no through circumstances, and sometimes he says wait. In others words, "Don’t worry about

anything. Instead, tell God about everything. Ask and pray. Give thanks to him. Then

God’s peace will watch over your hearts and your minds because you belong to Christ

Jesus. God’s peace can never be completely understood." Philippians 4:6-7.

It is reassuring (and a little frustrating sometimes) to know that God's peace can never be completely understood. Instead, we must wait on that still small voice.

Practice Makes Perfect

Growing up we are told that practice makes perfect. If we want to learn how to we play a song we have to practice (I spent hours pounding on a piano because my mom made me practice when I wanted to play); if we want to be good a free throws we have to practice; if we want to learn how to write cursive we have to practice, and the list goes on and on.

But I have come to realize there are a couple things that I dont think I am good at, and most of the time it is because I dont practice doing those things. I used to not like praying out loud because I didnt think I was good at it I couldn't think of the "right" things to say, whenever anyone would ask "who wants to pray" the trick was to always avoid eye-contact (this also works when a teacher asks the class a question). But you dont get good or comfortable praying out loud if you dont pray out loud, i.e. practice.

We also dont learn how to do something by just reading about it. You dont learn algebra by reading about it, you learn it by practicing it. Same goes for love. You dont learn how to love people by reading about it, you learn how to love people by practicing it. Sometimes you get it wrong, just like you get algebra problems wrong, but eventually you learn how to get it right.

The same also goes for being creative. I was having a conversation with a friend about being creative. I dont think I am a creative person, point blank, but I started to realize that our society doesnt encourage people to practice being creative. We are taught to do what we are told, not to question authority, dont change tradition, and on. I dont think we encourage people to practice being creative. As a result, I have found it hard to be creative because I have never been challenged to be or practiced being creative. How can we learn to do something if we dont practice it?

Another lesson learned: practice makes perfect.

Community IS Important

Over the past couple months I feel like I have heard a lot about community. I have heard that it is messy, it is hard, it is biblical, ect...I totally understood community, and then I went to Japan.

This past week I spent some time in Japan for work, but meanwhile was completely out of Christian community. There are three things I observed: 1) I never realized how much community have, from the people I live with, to the people I work with, to the people I hang out with, I am constantly surrounded by community; 2) how grateful I am for the community God has blessed me with, regardless of the fact that it is messy or hard; and 3) how important community really is.

Community is important to help support, encourage, learn, teach, and keep each other accountable. Paul said in Philippians 1:30-"We are in this struggle together..."

Lesson learned: community IS important.

A Promise Never Seen

In Deuteronomy Moses is retelling a new generation of Israelites their story. He is constantly telling them that they should "remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt" (7:18). Its kind of like a grandpa telling the kids their family history (if your family is some 600,000 people).

While reading, one thing that jumped out at me was Deut 1:38. Moses tells the people that the Lord was angry with the previous generation but that "the Lord was also angry with me for your sakes, saying, 'Even you shall not go in [the promise land]'." There are multiple occasions in Exodus when Moses steps in on behalf of Israel to save them from God's wrath. And because of that he is told he will never see the promise land? If it were me, as soon as God told me I couldnt enter the promise land because of the people of Israel, I would probably say something like "Ok God, well I can travel on my own, I don't really need them, as long as I get to go into the promise land" But that is far from what Moses did, he remained faithful to God and to the people of Israel and led them to the promise land, though never setting foot in it. He knew that it was about something bigger than himself.

I wonder how many times I have give up on something or someone because they were not providing what I wanted at the speed that I wanted. For someone who seriously lacks patience, I can think of a couple instances where I have slacked, or even given up, on praying for someones salvation because it wasnt happening quick enough for me.

Moses made a 40 year commitment to the people of Israel while indirectly sacrificing his chance to enter the promise land. Moses saw it more important to faithfully lead the people to the reward (ie the promise land) than actually receiving the reward himself. How often do we do that?

Your church looks like fun...

Yeah my church is fun, it is a lot of fun. Here is a little example of how fun it is.

One of the reasons I love NCC is that these people know how to have fun and at the same time they know how to love God.

I had the opportunity to hear one of our pastors speak the other night about friendship and how the friends you chose will determine the quality and direction of your life. When I look back I can see this oh so clearly, for better and for worse. Regardless of how my friends have influenced my life I am thankful for them because in some way they made me the person I am today. Like Paul said to the Philippians "everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the good news." It is my hope that everything that has happened to me through the past 23 years, for better and worse can now be used to show the redemption and mercy of Christ.

The people in my life now have helped me to understand that verse in Philippians, and they have also helped to determine the quality of my life and have helped me to find the direction of my life. And the best part, is we have done all of that while having fun, while laughing, while telling embarrassing stories, while watching Never Say Never (what?) and again while laughing. It has all been fun!

Team Goldman

While I realize this post has absolutely nothing to do with what I normally (for 4 posts) write about, but I figured I would switch it up.

After watching the Committee on Homeland Security and Government hearing regarding the role of investment banks in the financial crisis (cause Goldman Sachs was the only investment bank during that time?) it got me wondering why this whole SEC civil suit was such a big deal. For those who dont know the SEC filed a suit on April 16 against Goldman Sachs essentially claiming that Goldman knowingly betted against their clients. That is the easy version of what it is about. More complexly, the SEC claims that Goldman knowingly created a colateralized debt obligation (CDO) with Paulson & Co. (a hedge fund) through ACA Corp. and filled it with mortgage backed securities that were extremely risky, though highly rated. Goldman and Paulson & Co. decided to take a short position on this CDO (they bet against the success of the CDO, they essentially bet that the CDO was going to fail). Now Goldman then sold this CDO, named Abacus, to its investors. For a CDO to work, for every short position you need a long position (betting that the CDO would be successful). Goldman's investors were taking a long position, while Goldman itself was taking a short position. At the time when the Abacus CDO was made, April 07, it would have been a little odd for someone to take a short position on a housing CDO mainly because everyone thought the housing market would continue to decrease. It would have been more common for someone to take a long position on a CDO made up of these securities.

Now here comes the issue with the SEC, Goldman never told its investors that it was taking a short position on this CDO. They also think that if its investors had known that Goldman was shorting the CDO that it would have changed investor behavior, a hypothetical situation. Another issue is that supposedly investors thought Paulson was taking a long position, essentially they didnt know that Paulson was shorting the CDO. The SEC is saying that had investors known this it would have changed investor behavior, another hypothetical situation. Now had Paulson been a big name hedge fund at the time, it may have changed investor behavior. From my understanding Paulson was not that big of a hedge fund at the time and would have probably had a very small impact on investor behavior.

My other issue is, while Goldman knew the securities going into the CDO were pretty much junk, they were rated AAA by both Moddy's and S&P and it wasnt until 6 months later that the securities in the CDO were downgraded (Goldman didnt actually know that the securities were going to be downgraded or that the housing market would crash, they were just betting that it would). I think this become more of an issue with the credit rating agencies than it does with Goldman. Goldman was just smart enough to know that the securities werent the best regardless of their rating. Yeah, ethically, I do think that maybe they shouldnt have been as willing to sell highly rated "junk" securities to their investors but still investors knew the securities that were included in Abacus and they could have easily of done their homework. Regardless of their ratings, alot of investors were willing to buy these incredibly risky assets because 1. they thought the housing market was going to continue rising and 2. the riskier the asset the higher the payoff.

This also brings up the issue that during the early to mid 2000s investors relied heavily on credit rating agencies and what other people were doing. Dont invest in something unless you know what you are investing in. Coming from a lazy person, I probably wouldnt have done my homework, but looking at this case now, I know that if I ever invest in anything I will definitely do my homework, or I wont invest.

Had this issue come up in July or August of 2007 I dont think Goldman would be charged with anything. I think the only reason they are getting charged now is because the market crashed, and they read the market correctly. As a result, I think Goldman didnt necessarily do anything illegal, while it may have been morally questionable, but lets be real banking isnt the most morally sound industry (while I really wish it was). And yeah maybe we do need some more morals in the banking industry but I dont think that is the governments job I think it needs to be individual bankers who make the decision to stand by their investors rather than profits.

In the end, for now at least, I am all for Team Goldman!

Some interesting articles to read:

Abacus Deal: As bad as they come

Trader's Testimony Raises Legal Issues