SENTINEL WATCH April 13, 2009 Issue

WHAT CAN'T RECEDE IN A RECESSION?

TONY LOBL

A GLOBAL RECESSION —a downward trend in national gross domestic product, employment figures, and trade—is underway. Some countries in Eastern Europe have recorded as much as four quarters of continual economic decline.

One thing that seems to be increasingly prominent in Europe is fear. Not only fear of lost jobs and lost homes, but fear of possible consequences from the financial crisis, such as a potential for resurgent nationalism and protectionism, leading to a possible repeat of the conditions that led to Europe's Nazi terror following the Great Depression. There are also fears of decades-long business and social effects of a deep recession.

Ongoing recession and gloomy consequences don't need to be resigned to, however. Recession, which can also be defined as the general belief that good can recede, is not a God-ordained reality. Christian Science explains God's nature as dependable divine Principle, the infinite and eternal source of all good. That doesn't allow any wiggle room for goodness to recede. If good were to recede, its infinite source would have to fluctuate or diminish, and decline would be in store for every individual, family, community, and country.