Punishing our children's children

The recent elections and the various headlines that have resulted led me to the text in Exodus regarding the sins of the fathers, which can be found in various Exodus and Deutoronomic texts. In looking at the commentary, much has been written about the fact that the government has failed with regards to its perceived obligations towards long term sustainability. Certainly many pundits saw this as an election that was going to be determined by the climate change debate rather than anything else. It turns out that rather than the long term future a more crass and selfish understanding drove the political markets on Saturday. I certainly have not reached an age where I have the ability and luxury to look back on a life well lived but with each passing year we all move in the same direction. For myself it is fairly obvious that God speaks to me about the future through the works of my children and their children and their children. If there is little in the future for them there is little in the present for myself, irrespective of how well or how poorly funded I am.

We are all prone to a basic selfishness when we look to the future. This is manifest in all sorts of situations usually towards change and our own customary position of comfort or perception of the future. No matter what institution we belong to or what institution is in the frame of commentary our perceptions and biases keep us from making decisions for our children's children. Let us, for example, look at the generation of power in this country. Current governmental policy, from all accounts, is an investment in a finite resource to the benefit of a few whilst other countries that are not as rich in the abundant resources of God's generous creation have changed their own power facilities to more sustainable resources. We have, for example, abundant resources in sunlight, water (salt and fresh), wind, etc to provide for a long term future of power, yet do not strive to utilise them or invest in them to boost the economic welfare of the people. However, current monetary considerations that line the pockets of a few (including the government) are of greater priority than their children's children.

When do we start concerning ourselves over our debt to our children's children?

Christ says that we must suffer the little children not make them suffer and yet when we look at our own organisational efforts we so often look only for ourselves and not for the future. I have known some places that have overlooked their responsibilities to the maintenance of buildings to such an extent that the children's children have been burdened with the needed repairs. It is a temporary thing that can be covered over with a bit of plaster as the cracks in the wall continues to expand. Only when we start, organisationally, to begin to think of our future do we begin to manage correctly our current burdens. Too often we put them of years down the road when we think we will not be there. Then the neglected issues have to be faced by those ill prepared to face them at a time of crisis. Even when we look at our familial relationships we sometimes neglect to look to the future by not setting up appropriate mechanisms to cope if we ourselves are unable to. Currently our legacy to our children, let alone our children's children, is debt: fiscal, economic, environmental, political and faith.

What would it mean for our future if there was no such thing as party alliance? What would it mean that we had to work with each other as a community rather than build strongholds of independence? What would it mean when we had to vote for a person's own policies and how they were able to work with others rather than a party? What would it actually mean if the future was open to change rather than a dependence on old thinking and old ways of doing and lining the pockets of those who have lived well? We need to begin at least to start thinking about our present vision of a future that only makes people already rich richer whilst not considering those who are poor and their continued degradation. We need to understand that it is we who impose on the generations to come the consequences of our current actions, whilst failing to take the burdens upon ourselves. We want the easy life but do not want to think of the future consequences because we will not be here to bear them. Our mistakes are only borne by those who come after. Christ asks us to bear our cross. He does not ask us to leave it for others to bear.