Sentinel Watch August 15, 2011 Issue

Prayer alert for the Eurozone

Elizabeth Mata

The term, PIIGS, referring to the group of financially weak Eurozone countries of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain, may have seemed innocuous when it was first coined a number of years ago. But now the acronym has taken on larger negative and stereotypical proportions as the economic turmoil in these countries continues. 

The word stereotype has its roots in two Greek words meaning “fixed form” and connotes something imprinted in thought. Stereotyping peoples and nations—or fixing them in thought—as inferior, less hardworking and productive, or irreparably corrupt doesn’t benefit anyone. It is a limited perspective based on a human view, which can never take in the full scope of our—and anyone else’s—true spiritual identity. 

Prayer that is filled with the conviction of man’s goodness supports governments’ and citizens’ efforts to solve long-entrenched problems.