There's a lot of controversy flying around these days about the government bail-out of AIG. One commentator said that now the Federal Government is in the insurance business. The Federal Government is in the insurance business anyway. It's supposed to ensure the freedom for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In pursuing this end it has done what another pointed out--that this is a loan, not a gift, and that it will be repayed. The government will own AIG for a while, but it will not run it (thank God!)

That leads me to my real comment. The reason the government sees fit to intervene in this situation is that such financial giants as AIG and Merril Lynch have such influence over the economy of the globe that they must be maintained in place lest the economic earthquake at their collapse send the world economy into a tail-spin. That, for me, is a scary thought. Their very existence is the tiger's tail, and we've got hold of it with both fists. We watch our government like a hawk lest one party amass too much power. Our whole system of government is supposed to live by a system of checks and balances. Yet apparently our economic system does not bear such scrutiny. I believe in a free market, but when another's freedom to make unwise investment choices shakes the world's economic security perhaps things are a little out of whack. If we go on in this direction soon it will be more important who your employer is than what passport you bear. We will no longer belong to the Republic of these United States of America, but to Exxon-Mobile or Citibank.

Perhaps it is best in times like these to remember that as a believer my primary citizenship belongs in a kingdom whose king bought my allegiance with his life, in whose realm the greatest is the servant of all, and whose greatest strength is the power of selfless love.