Understanding of the Church

Understanding of the Church

Taking a closer look at the present situation

More than a decade after the dramatic political changes in Central and Eastern Europe the time has come to take a closer look at what is really going on in the various countries of the region. What especially is happening to ordinary people; what is built up or ruined in their lives by economy and policy? Opinions differ about those questions; not only between 'the winners' and 'the losers', but also from country to country. We cannot speak here about a homogeneous group of countries: they differ in cultural traditions, historical experiences and also in their previous economic development. Some general facts, however, cannot be denied: "In 1989 about 14 million people in the former Communistic bloc lived on less than four dollar a day. By the mid-1990's that number had risen to about 147 million" (UNDP report 1999). This indicates a sharp (tenfold) growth of the level of poverty, which in most countries goes alongside with high levels of unemployment. Some countries (especially Russia) are also confronted with a decline of life-expectancy and a remarkable rise of suicide rates and criminality. Feelings of insecurity about the future are growing in the hearts of many people; even to such an extent that these feelings can no longer be seen or explained as the unavoidable consequence of more personal economic and political liberty. More than two thirds of the Polish farmers (1.4 million of a total of 2 millions) live under the threat of losing their livelihood, especially at the moment when Poland joins the European Union.

Churches are supposed to live among the people and near to the people. So they should be among the first to listen to their experiences. And if these experiences point in the direction of sin and injustice, than churches should also not be ashamed to speak openly in terms of accountability and responsibility: What is concretely done wrong to ordinary people "to men, women and children", and by whom is it done?

Three major impulses

From a historical point of view the break-down of the communistic block was needed as an act of resistance against an atheist ideology and its entire system of violence. But no doubt it also caused a deep shock in the economies and societies of Central and Eastern Europe. The consequences of that are still visible today, for instance in lacking forms of cooperation and in the absence of appropriate legal and social institutions. But at the same time it looks increasingly incorrect to seek the origin of all the big problems of today in what happened more than a decade ago. Three impulses can be seen as the deeper causes or reasons for what shakes now the very foundations of economy and society: Firstly there is the impulse of the concrete way in which, after the political break-down, the problem of 'transformation' was often handled. Sometimes so-called neo-liberal 'shock concepts' were used which destroyed ...