We invite others to join in the dialogue. If all else fails, we resort not to blood-letting but to silence. Church structure and discipline are always hard. We are reminded here that as community we are not only to nurture and affirm each other, but also to guide, teach, and remonstrate. Behind every action, however, must always be the rule of love.
Love is the measure, even of our discipline.
And as the nation could not pay, the lord ordered that austerity measures be adopted by its government. Henceforth, all government services were to be canceled, millions of employees were to be dismissed, and all health, welfare, and social security payments were to be suspended until the United States' debt was paid. Every available resource was to go toward mounting debt-service payments. And out of pity for him and his people, the lord of that president released him and forgave the debt. He refused and his economic advisers forced austerity measures on the African country, whose people died of malnutrition while their own resources were used up to service the debt.