Archbishop-elect Justin Welby writes in Bloomberg on virtue, vice and banks

Posted by Kendall Harmon

Late one night 20 years ago, when I was an oil executive rather than an Anglican bishop, I had run out of steam and patience toward the end of a complex multinational acquisition. We came to yet another bit of box ticking and I suggested we skip it, because we knew the material was accurate.

“Justin,” our wise investment-bank director said quietly, “you know that’s not how we do it.”

Under pressure, everyone is prone to make bad decisions and that story remains in my mind as I sit on the U.K.’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, listening to people talk about banks, bankers and their failures.

Read it all.


Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Archbishop of Canterbury • --Justin Welby • * Culture-Watch • Globalization • Law & Legal Issues • Religion & Culture • * Economics, Politics • Economy • Corporations/Corporate Life • Credit Markets • Currency Markets • Labor/Labor Unions/Labor Market • Stock Market • Taxes • The Banking System/Sector • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • * Theology • Ethics / Moral Theology

4 Comments
Posted January 17, 2013 at 7:00 am [Printer Friendly] [Print w/ comments]



1. pendennis88 wrote:

“I am deeply suspicious of the intensely complex regulatory structures that are emerging out of the crisis. They are well-intentioned, but impossible to operate.”  Well, that is a good sign, at least.

January 17, 11:30 am | [comment link]
2. sophy0075 wrote:

Maybe, but I am hoping the new Archbishop will focus on theology and Christianity, and support the traditional values of each, rather than do the “millennium development goals” religion.

January 17, 1:39 pm | [comment link]
3. Jeremy Bonner wrote:

Sophy,

It doesn’t have to be either/or; there’s a perfectly orthodox tradition of social Christianity in Anglicanism and beyond it. The Global South understand that.

January 17, 2:21 pm | [comment link]
4. sophy0075 wrote:

Jeremy,

Oh, I agree. I am a firm believer that God instructed us in Genesis to protect the environment, but I am so tired of (arch)bishops who have turned the church solely into a platform for social, political, and environmental causes. Frankly, the latter opens the door for many folks who want to be social, political, or environmental activists to say, “why should I go to church? I can join/be active in the Sierra Club/Kiwanis/etc and sleep late or play golf on Sunday.”

January 17, 3:56 pm | [comment link]
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