A thoughtful reader emailed me about Lewis’ The Big Short and asked, “so what is Veritas doing that might address this problem?”

Good question. Here I my answer:

Veritas Academy is connecting students to the past and with people and ideas that will, we pray, immunize them against some of this obviously, radical, fallacious thinking. We are assisting their parents and using all our influence to encourage them to live biblically faithful lives. This financial crisis was really caused by radically unbiblical economics at its best. It was gigantic risks being taken with other people’s money with neither side of the deal understanding what was being sold and what was being purchased. These deals were being made by people with radically unbiblical assumptions like—the housing market always goes up—and by some people who were doctoring numbers and conveying confidence to regulating and ratings agencies who were asleep at the switch. This deep-seated humanistic way of living life and working the system—and pushing losses off on others—is the antithesis of a classical Christian education. The passages in Proverbs on “surety” and on “weights and measures” are touchstones for this truth. Also, we are training kids to smell false solutions. Sadly, the worst part of this problem might not be the problem. It might be the solution! So far this “solution” (called stick the tax payer with the bill) has been unbiblical government involvement at its best. Our reaction should be giving a biblical classical Christian education to our young people within the context of a covenantal (not “reformed” per se, but looking to live faithfully with Christ over many generations) community. If we can do this, we can begin to educate a generation that will not walk down the same foolish paths that we are now wearing a groove in.