As if we haven’t had enough of them lately, another massive financial fraud has been exposed. Billionaire R. Allen Stanford has been charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) with masterminding a fraudulent $8,000,000,000 (that’s 8 billion) Certificate of Deposit scheme.  It seems that Stanford and his cronies promised people what the SEC called “improbable and unsubstantiated” rates of return on their investments.

While conventional institutions were struggling to pay paltry rates, Antigua-based Stanford International Bank (SIB) promised double-digit returns-15.71%, to be exact-in 1995 and 1996.  And when the S&P 500 lost some 39% in 2008, SIB reported they were only down 1.3%.  Wow!  SIB claimed they were able to achieve this level of performance through a “diversified portfolio of investments.”  The SEC statement calls it a “massive fraud based on false promises and fabricated historical return data to prey on investors.”

The SEC has done the right thing, I think, to freeze as many of Stanford’s assets as possible in order to protect whatever remains of investors’ monies.  But what makes an investor, be it an institution or an individual, susceptible to the kind of amazingly improbable, highly implausible, incredibly unlikely, yet all-too-irresistible promises of high profits?  I hate to bring up the G-word.  But greed is a factor here, somehow.

Now it’s far, far too easy to say that greedy investors merely got what they deserved.  I don’t think that’s the case at all.  Some were honest people simply looking for the best return on their investments.  But common sense should, at the very least, give all of us pause to consider how people like Stanford or Bernie Madoff make their money, especially when their promises are head-and-shoulders above everyone else.

There is a line-sometimes fine, sometimes not-so-fine-separating true business visionaries who can see legitimate, huge profits where no one else can and phony hucksters who simply see a world full of suckers.  How can an uninformed financial layperson tell the difference, when even trained financial professionals have fallen victim to these schemes?  Two things come to mind.

The first is diligence.  Do your homework.  Ask questions.  Challenge absurd promises.  Maintain a healthy skepticism regarding claims that do not ring true.

The second is this: keep your greed in check.  Reread this portion of 1 Timothy:

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.  Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs (1 Timothy 6:10, NIV).

The desire to get rich quickly and easily can short-circuit our common sense quickly and easily.  Greed makes us particularly susceptible to being pierced at the hands of swindlers and con artists.  Crooks know that.  That’s how they stay in business, looking for people who are in love with money.  You see, they know it’s those people who are more likely to disregard common sense, sound financial advice, etc., in favor of flim-flammery.

I hope the SEC can rein in some of this stuff, and soon.  But until human beings get a handle on greed, there will be more fraudulent schemes.

Excommunication is complicated.  Really complicated.  It’s even more complicated when a member of the clergy is being excommunicated.  Being Methodist, I don’t fully understand the process.  We don’t excommunicate troublesome pastors; we just move them to another church.  But even among Catholics there is a great deal of confusion and distress over a recent excommunication that has been “rehabilitated” by Pope Benedict XVI.

Bishop Richard Williamson is a Holocaust denier.  He denies that any Jews were killed in Nazi gas chambers during WWII, calling such claims “lies, lies, lies.”  He was excommunicated by Pope John Paul II for his extreme views.  But in recent days the current Pope has chosen to “un-excommunicate” Williamson for reasons that seem unclear.  What does seem clear is the furor the Pope’s decision has created.  There are even calls for the Pope to step down over the mess.

I watched an interview with Williamson on Swedish TV.  I also read some of his comments on the 9/11 attacks.  He claims it is “absolutely for certain” that it was not airplanes that destroyed the Twin Towers, but a professional demolition team working in a conspiracy to establish a “police state.” He urges people to go to “9/11mysteries.com” if you doubt him.  In my humble opinion, Williamson is a nut.  Certifiable.

Ordinarily my response to such idiots is to simply ignore them.  But I can’t help wondering what unchurched folks must think when prominent “church” people make such outlandish, hurtful claims and are then “rehabilitated” by the hierarchy of their church.  And I can’t help wondering what my own Bishop would do with me if I gave an interview to the Waco paper claiming that the Holocaust never really happened.

This world seems to find new and creative ways to test my faith every day.  Today’s test was not this morning’s 7:15 a.m. devotional (as some may have expected), but was instead the news that a sweet little lady from our church was robbed last night.  Two young criminals followed her home from the store and took her purse from her in her own driveway.  Thankfully, she didn’t suffer any serious physical injuries and the things the crooks took from her can easily be replaced.  Except, of course, for the sense of safety and security she lost; that’s not as easy.  But the real test of faith came when, after visiting with her, it came time for us to pray.  I am not particularly proud to admit it, but one of my first thoughts was to wish that I could somehow catch up with these young robbers so that I could put my foot square in their a**.  But then the words of this meddlesome Jesus caught up to me, words about praying even for my enemies.   Make no mistake about it, this practice of Christianity we are engaged in is not for the faint of heart.  It requires courage.  A bit of compassion doesn’t hurt either, like when the victim of this crime held my hand and said through tear-filled eyes, “They’re just young boys.”  Mature faith.  Mea culpa.

It didn’t take long for several kooks to claim that President Obama is not really the President, seizing on the now-famous series of gaffes during the administration of the presidential oath of office.  These malefactors, having finally given up their claims that Obama is not a U.S. citizen by birth, now claim that because several words in the oath were confused, Obama’s inauguration was rendered legally void.  I am reminded of the legalism of the Pharisees, who “tithe mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith (Matthew 23:23b, NRSV).  The only difference, it seems, is that the ancient Pharisees carried their precious words around in little leather boxes called phylacteries, which they strapped to their arms.  Modern-day Pharisees have blogs.

I admit it.  I am the one.  The only one, perhaps, in our nation that did NOT observe the inauguration yesterday.  Don’t draw the wrong conclusion; I was simply in the car, on my way to an important meeting about ninety minutes away.  I started to listen on the radio, but the phone rang.  And then there was construction.  And I didn’t really know exactly where I was going, so I was trying to pay attention to my driving.  You get the idea.  So I missed it.  Missed the speech.  Missed the response of the crowd.  Missed the oath (although I understand Justice Roberts did too, so I don’t feel quite as bad about that).  Missed the benediction.  I missed it all, which gives me a bit of a unique perspective on the day after.  You see, I can’t really know what it’s like for African-Americans to see a black president.  But I can imagine the jubilation among African-Americans as they watched the inauguration, Dr. King’s words still resonating in their ears and hearts from the day before.  I can’t really know what it’s like for the parent of a soldier in Iraq to see someone take office who promises to bring their child home sooner rather than later.  But I can imagine the joyful anticipation of a loved one’s safe return.  I can’t really know what it’s like for people who have been marginalized, by race or religion or socioeconomic status or lifestyle, to see what may be the most tangible evidence of equality this nation has seen thus far in the election of Barack Obama.  But I can imagine the euphoria that comes with knowing that one is no longer a second class citizen.  I spent time this morning imagining all the elation I missed yesterday.  It’s almost like the cheering crowds that welcomed Jesus during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.  The crowds shouted hosanna, a Hebrew invocation that can be understood as “O save!”  But no president can save us from ourselves.  I don’t think President Obama has messianic aspirations.  But the more important question is whether we have messianic expectations.   JFK said it exactly forty-eight years ago yesterday, in his own inaugural address: “In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course… And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.  My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”  Yesterday was not the jubilant beginning of a messianic age when elected officials will save us.  Nor was it the beginning of an era in which we save ourselves through a modern works-righteousness.  But by the grace of God, it may mark the day on which a nation turned the page and chose unity over differences, so that when the Messiah does come he may find that construction on the Kingdom of God has already begun.