Well thank heavens, at least he did not blame TEC! What is sad is that he could not look at the way economies have been structures and run to accrue wealth recklessly and speak about that.

In scanning Jensen's address I don't see that he used the words "punishment" or "judgement". In fairness, here's what he did say:

QUOTE: (pp. 7-8)

"God is a wise God.

"Often we cannot understand our circumstances at all.

"We cannot read them; we cannot work out what God’s purposes may be.

"The thing which holds us is our assurance that our God is both loving and wise.

"You see I am not sure that God is directly ‘speaking’ to us through these large losses - but I am prepared to trust his sovereignty and his wisdom and be led by his word.

"As we do that, as we persist with active faith, we will receive whatever it is that he wishes to give us, whether it is a firmer trust in his goodness, or a deeper repentance, or both.

"When we ask what God may be teaching us, we must be careful to seek the answer in theright place and in the right way.

"It would not be right, for example simply to express our own prejudices and guesses and to confuse them with the word of God.

"After all, we can think of a number of reason why this has happened and even then all of them may be quite wrong.

"Thus, it may be that the Lord is chastising us for our sins - but then some would say that it is the sin of arrogance, others would say it is because your bishops went to GAFCON,
others would say it is because of the Diocesan Mission.

"But then it may not be our sins at all - it may be that the Lord is simply seeking to test us;

"or perhaps he is seeking to stop us doing something which is right in itself but not in accordance with his secret will;

"or perhaps he is challenging our faith, to rely on him more boldly for our finances."

Upon reading the text, one safely summarize his words in this way: "Mistakes were made. But not by us."

Archbishop Jensen's inability to take responsibility for the risks inherent in the investments choices that were made on his watch, and to look for blame outside of himself and the ones who made those decisions is remarkable.

Yes, Andrew. They borrowed money and gambled with it by investing almost entirely in growth stocks. Then they sold at the bottom of the market. If I was a member of the diocese I'd be asking hard questions about these mistakes. To me it's a reliance on an implied prosperity Gospel that because they believed in God and that they were investing in what they were certain was God's work, nothing could go wrong.

Still, the economist in me has always cringed at the parable of the talents taken literally. What am I missing? If I was holding money in trust shouldn't I invest in T-bills?

Still,

Just because the money is gone doesn't mean Jensen & Co. sinned. He is a righteous man who eliminated all signs of idolatry from Sydney Anglican churches (if not from the Treasury Dept.) and still praises the Lord.

Perhaps some boils, rashes and scabs and a garbage dump will see if he is as faithful as he protests.

What I want to ask the Archbishop is why does God have to have anything to do with Sydney's portfolio at all? Couldn't it just be a combination of a bad economy and poor financial decisions?

Last I heard, being foolish wasn't a sin. (Although being willfully foolish might be.) Geesh.