From the Desk of Jeff King

Sky is falling

The Wall Street crisis has exposed the nakedness of our ruling elite: the emperor has no clothes. And now he's trying to steal the shirt off our back, our children's and grandchildren's, in a fear-driven $700 billion bailout. Watching cable coverage today of the economic meltdown, I could hear panic in the voices of politicians and newsmen.

But lawmakers are looking for relief in all the wrong places. Blinded by greed and pride, they have not humbled themselves before the God of Israel and considered King David's petition in Psalm 108:12: "Give us help from trouble, for the help of man is useless." Psalm 118:8, the middle verse in the Bible, comes to the same conclusion: "It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man."

10/8 UPDATE: Less than a week after the federal government bailed out insurance giant AIG, the company sent executives on a $400,000 retreat to a posh California resort. The tab included $23,000 worth of spa treatments, according to the Associated Press. Meanwhile, the disgraced CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, was unapologetic when news leaked that he had received $480 million in bonuses over eight years. The greed exposed in this economic crisis seems unprecedented, but is it? The Old Testament addresses similar calamities in Judah centuries ago. The lamentations could apply to present-day America as well:

"O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock." (Jeremiah 5:3)

"For among My people are found wicked men; they lie in wait as one who sets snares; they set a trap; they catch men. As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich. They have grown fat, they are sleek; yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; they do not plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless; yet they prosper, and the right of the needy they do not defend." (Jeremiah 5:26-28)