Foreclosure and Homelessness Root of Evil

From Art at New Wineskins

Some may be inclined, as they read the following story/factoid, to think in entirely earthly terms — i.e., about the hard but essential realities of free market economics, and how the alternatives (socialism, communism, etc.) are much worse. In those terms, I would very much agree with you.

Bloomberg: Home Vacancies Rise as U.S. Ownership Falls to Lowest in Decade

About 18.9 million homes in the U.S. stood empty during the second quarter as surging foreclosures helped push ownership to the lowest level in a decade… Lenders are accelerating foreclosures as borrowers fall behind in mortgage payments after the worst housing crash since the Great Depression. A record 269,962 U.S. homes were seized in the second quarter… [and] probably will top 1 million this year…

I would urge you however, to view this not with human fear or anger, but through God’s eyes, recognizing that what seems impossible to us is very much possible with Him, and that the root causes of the housing crisis go deep indeed in the spiritual dimension.

The thread of culpability for the situation the U.S. finds itself in now with regards to home ownership wends its way through virtually all of our civil, corporate and political institutions (taxes, ‘bailout’ payments, sub-prime loans engaged-in with little thought, etc.), not to mention the corrupt, Greek-chorus, Babylon ‘church’ which echoes: you can have-it-all-now, on this earth. My thoughts on the following passage stem from some reading I was led to the other day for reasons unknown at the time (most of them made before I read the news story; below). Those thoughts are in brackets in black type; scripture in dark red:

Woe to those who devise wickedness and work evil on their beds! [schemes via laptop and cell phone late at night] When the morning dawns, they perform it, because it is in the power of their hand. [dictates via mouse, keyboard; arbitrary power on a whim] They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them away; they oppress a man and his house, a man and his inheritance. [mortgage foreclosures, eminent domain] Therefore thus says the LORD: behold, against this family I am devising disaster, from which you cannot remove your necks, and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of disaster. In that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and moan bitterly, and say, “We are utterly ruined; he changes the portion of my people; how he removes it from me! To an apostate he allots our fields.” [trace the ownership of the major banks receiving these properties] Therefore you will have none to cast the line by lot in the assembly of the LORD. “Do not preach”–thus they preach– “one should not preach of such things; disgrace will not overtake us.” Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Has the LORD grown impatient? Are these his deeds? Do not my words do good to him who walks uprightly? But lately my people have risen up as an enemy; you strip the rich robe from those who pass by trustingly, returning from war. [abuse of reserve military; job loss] The women of my people you drive out from their delightful houses; from their young children you take away my splendor forever. [welfare encourages single-parent households, divorce; abortion and child poverty become endemic] Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction. If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people! [flip open any magazine or sporting event on TV; look at adds for liquor, beer, etc.] (Micah 2:1-11)

H/T, John McTernan, who comments in his Wednesday posting:

[As] America tampers with Israelis living in their homes in the West Bank and Jerusalem, so American homes are vacant.