Good old greed.

Jim Wallis has it right. This current crisis, like all financial crises before, comes from greed. People getting caught with dollar signs in their eyes not caring about ethics or morality, but doing whatever it takes to make a buck. Gambling with other people's money basically.

The crisis is complex. There are no simple solutions, though if some people aren't barred from working in the financial sector then we have an issue.

But my current problem isn't with the government, or even the bankers and traders who helped to precipitate this crisis, its with the church. What does the church have to do with it? Well, when was the last time you heard a sermon preached on greed? Honestly. Especially in many "evangelical" churches.

When talking to conservative christians about sins and politics, how many list greed? Not just as the top issue, but list it at all? Lots will say abortion (which is tragic), gay marriage (which while sinful is...who is this hurting again? Besides those already involved?), but greed, which is America's biggest sin usually won't get mentioned? Why not?

Well, greed is something that most people struggle with. We have a mindset in America that we are supposed be able to have what we want. A big house, a nice car, vacations, etc, etc. Are any of those things bad? Well, a big house maybe, depends on the number of kids, but really, our priorities are so "me"centric, so materialistic, that we miss out on how our collective greed as a nation is fueling these crises.

If Christians really thought about how to use their money, if greed was an issue that was hammered on about as much as others, our nation would be in a very different place. We wouldn't be so far in debt and falling farther and farther behind. We wouldn't be bailing out Wall Street (which I think needs to be done, but not in the way its going to be) and we wouldn't be wringing our hands about the economy and gas prices.

I have a question for conservative voters. Why are you so worried about tax cuts for the wealthy? Or even yourselves? What about using some of that money to help out the less fortunate, to create opportunity, to not sink our country farther in debt?

I have a question for Democratic voters. Would the Democrats be able to not just create new ways to spend income but actually revamp programs in existence to work more efficiently. We don't have enough money as it is, just spending more will not solve anything.

I don't see a lot of hope in either of the parties right now. As Wallis outlined in "God's Politics" we need a change to sweep through the people of America, THEN, and ONLY then will the politicians see fit to change their ways.