Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Walk Away ?

So I listen to this interesting economics Blog from Public Radio, it's called "Planet Money". A few weeks ago they had a story which was largely about the burst of the housing bubble and how it had changed the way people think about foreclosures. The woman they were interviewing was a lawyer in Arizona who helped people deal with foreclosure. She was explaining that when she started this work people were mostly looking for help in preventing the bank from taking their home, but now people were calling to see if banks could be forced to take their home. There's a lot of interesting economics behind all that, but it's this observation she made that really tweaked me -- we have, she explained, finally seen a shift in society such that there's no longer a social stigma associated with loosing your home to foreclosure. And she compared it to the change in the 60's when divorce became acceptable, when a failed marriage was something that people walked away from without a sense of guilt. And it struck me thus - how did society ever get to a place that it was socially more acceptable to walk away from another person then to walk away from a thing? When a marriage vow meant less then a signature on a loan? Listen to the podcast here: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/01/podcast_to_walk_away_or_stay.html

1 comment:

  1. Great examples, Rocko, all having to do with a failure of accountability. Not just the responsibility of the person to keep their commitments, but also a cultural climate that puts absolution before confession. (Does love really mean never having to say you're sorry? When we ask forgiveness rather than permission, are we really saying I'm sorry or just satisfied that we got our way?)
    We'd rather practice "out of sight, out of mind" than help each other become covenant keepers. Of course that's due in no small part to the way that covenant has come to be seen as inflexible, all nailed down.
    Accountability doesn't have to be punitive a'la puritanical. Speaking the truth to one another in love is part of maturing in Christ.

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