Posted on 11/06/2009 9:05:08 PM PST by FromLori
After giving free markets a bad name, investment banks are turning to religion. These guys really have no shame.
They pose as free marketeers when every penny they make is propped up by government, and now they want to invoke the good words in the Bible to justify their scamming. IB's are now hitting the churches of London, before they divvy up this year's loot. It is an attempt to do what they do best, confuse great truths with their scams.
Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer John Varley stood at the wooden lectern in St. Martin-in-the- Fields on London’s Trafalgar Square last night and told the packed pews of the church that “profit is not satanic,” reports Bloomberg.
“Is Christianity and banking compatible? Yes,” he said in an interview after the speech in the 283-year-old church. “And is Christianity and fair reward compatible? Yes.”
Varley joins Goldman Sachs International adviser Brian Griffiths and Lazard International Chairman Ken Costa as London bankers who’ve gone into London churches in recent weeks and invoked Christianity to defend a banking system that critics say has created wealth and inequality in the U.K, Bloomberg continues.
“The injunction of Jesus to love others as ourselves is an endorsement of self-interest,” Goldman’s Griffiths said Oct. 20, his voice echoing around the gold-mosaic walls of St. Paul’s Cathedral, whose 365-feet-high dome towers over the City, London’s financial district. “We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieving greater prosperity and opportunity for all.”
Yes, the words are true, but in no way does this mean God is endorsing the scammetry of the IB's. There are ten commandments that need to followed while making money. Something the IB's need to be reminded of the next time they enter church. One wonders if when the Bible was written that perhaps Jesus knew this day was coming and was really warning about false profits.
It’d be interesting to know if these banking hacks tithe their 10%, effectively putting their money where their mouth is.
I’ve been reading Matt Taibbi articles on investment banking/ bankers and am appalled. Although I despise Matt’s personal attacks on conservative icons, his unbiased writings are provacative.
Or the parable of the Rich Fool...
Contrast this with the parable of the ten talents, where the servants are earning wealth for their master (not themselves).
You cannot serve both God and Mammon.
Cheers!
I’d love to see these clowns just spontaneously combust.
Yes. I read Taibbi’s first article on it myself and some of the things about the banks were true but I think he is among those who would welcome the destruction of capitalism.
What I like about this author is his love for capitalism so while he realizes and is angry about the banks taking tax dollars he does not want capitalism to be destroyed. I believe he is a Conservative Libertarian.
They may one day.
Not “religion”, but God, has something to say back to the money men:
“1: Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
2: Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.
3: Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
4: Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.
5: Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.
6: Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.
- James, Chapter 5
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.