Oh Where have all the "Quakers" Gone?

The worldwide Banking/Financial Crises seems to be huge and beyond the life experience of almost everyone. Nobody knows exactly how things will work out or how it will affect each of us as individuals or as families. The Irish government worked throughout the night last week to bring in emergency legislation in order to save the Irish Banks from collapse. Such drama!

But I can't help thinking of how all this trouble could have been avoided if only our bankers had something called Ethics. I could say Christian ethics, but in reality all ethics are Christian based, if you think about it. And I also began to think of how the banking industry started out in the 1600's with the Quakers & other non conformist Christians of the time. The reason they succeeded is that they were honest and reliable and therefore trustworthy, because they worked according to Biblical guidelines. No one else had the same level of trust as those Christians had. And so it was the Christian run banks who won the trust of both the gentry and the man in the street. And it was under their direction that banking became a vital part of everyday life.

How things have changed though. The culture of greed and machismo has destroyed our trust in the banking sector. And so the question. Oh where have all the "Quakers" gone? By "Quaker" I mean Christians with ethics in the banking industry. The modern day Quaker church is not evangelical by and large.....(in fact they have become more new age). But the original of the species were very much evangelical, Bible believing, Holy Spirit Filled.

When all the powerful leaders of the world gather to try and resolve this global crises how good it would be if they looked at the historical roots of banking. And how great it would be if once again Christianity and Ethics were moved back centre stage to the banking industry. Any modern day "Quakers" out there?