October 22, 2004
By Manuel Quintero

QUITO, Ecuador - We Churches cannot become filled with enthusiasm about a notion of financial stability that is based on the current system, said Argentine Lutheran Pastor Angel Furlan, in the session dedicated to ethical and theological considerations during the Global Dialogue with the Financial Sector.

The event took place in Quito, sponsored by Bread for All and the Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI).

To the contrary, financial stability should be inscribed in a context of truth, justice, peace and respect for the integrity of Creation, said Furlan, who is coordinator of the Lutheran World Federation's Action Program on the Illegitimate Foreign Debt in Latin America.

Beginning with ancient philosophers and citing decisions made by different Christian councils and the thoughts of Reformer Martin Luther, Pastor Furlan criticized usurious loans as an "act of exploitation."

"In Luther's philosophy, economic activity is fundamentally an act of relating with your neighbor and this relationship has only one norm: the wellbeing of the neighbor," he said.

He said that for the majority of financial institutions "people are not important" nor is "justice, equity and human rights." In the face of these attitudes he added "the very least we can say is that ignorance, voluntary or involuntary, of the consequences of the financial crisis on the lives of millions of people is a criminal act under God's judgment."

In the same session, Puerto Rican lawyer Angel Luis Rivera, coordinator of CLAI's Faith, Economics and Society program presented the John 6 1:15 passage, the miracle of the loaves and fish as a "Biblical paradigm of sustainability and abundant life."

The metaphor that emerges from this event alongside the Sea of Galilee has resonance in innumerable Biblical texts, he underlined. And in the light of this Biblical ethic "those with greater economic possibilities are obligated to share their wealth with those who were marginalized by the system," he said.

On the other hand, social criticism on the part of the prophets is aimed at "the ideology that considers wealth to be a blessing," at the same time as is "energetically denounces exploitation, injustice and corruption and demands attention for widows, strangers and the poor," he affirmed.

It is essential to design and implement clear and fair rules for governing the economy that imply "creating mechanisms of control and arbitration at a national level that promote codes of conduct that regulate investment, capital flow and loans," he said.

The event will conclude this Friday with an analysis of the strategies and actions to coordinate efforts between the financial sector and civil society, aimed at correcting the causes and factors that lead to financial instability.

ALC News Service