The current financial meltdown in the US, of the kind that poses real threat not only to the American economy but also to that of the whole world, certainly has spiritual and moral causes.

We have to be clear about this. Social and economic problems have roots that go beyond the merely social and economic. The latter are just symptoms.

This point has to be said to remind everyone that to solve these raging problems, we have to look into the real culprits. It's a sickness of the soul that causes these economic crises, not just some bad economic or technical judgments.

To be blunt about it, the trouble stems from some serious spiritual malady that's now showing itself in many and multiplying forms. There's greed, vanity and pride, insincerity and deception, etc., that make up the lifeblood of the vicious cycle of consumerism, materialism and hedonism.

People are spending more than they earn, they are averse to saving and are hooked to imprudent if not impulse buying, not anymore of consumables, but of much heavier items like houses and other pieces of real estate.

Banks just want to create money even if the portfolios are based more on air than on substance. They have been rediscounting financial instruments under incredibly questionable conditions. So what do you expect? Cracks will soon appear, and collapse becomes imminent.

They are throwing caution and restraint to the winds, deep-sixing due study and planning, while giving instant, almost mindless responses to what can amount to caprices. They have grown complacent, have reached the limits of safety and are falling into a kind of mass madness.

A cartoonist captured the whole situation with a caption that the US economy is running on stupidity. That may be a stretch-it's a caricature, of course-but it conveys a lot of truth about the turmoil.

The underlying spiritual and moral anomaly has broken away from the confines of the personal and even class dimensions. It has spread like cancer, its ground zero first affecting people's character, then their mentality and their culture.

This particular crisis has gone beyond Wall Street and is now affecting Main Street in the US. Let's hope the bailout rescue plan works and contains its spread. The prospects are horrifying, in spite of huge efforts to soften their impact.

This is not the time to talk only of economics. We have to talk about spiritual values and virtues, of faith and morals, in a more serious way. No use staying in the denial stage. We have to explode the myth that talking religion and spiritual warfare is not politically correct in this case.

The Christian concept of poverty has to be more systematically drilled into everyone. Its aspect of responsible stewardship, its requirements of social justice and solidarity, transparency and accountability have to be appreciated better.

It seems that the American landscape is increasingly allergic to these concepts. That is the problem and the daunting challenge that has to be faced. There's a certain dulling of conscience of a growing portion of the population that needs urgent and drastic conversion.

This disturbing development is writ large in the current electoral campaign where issues go beyond the purely economic and political, and have gone deep into the field of faith and morals.

It's amazing how those who are against Christian faith and morals in the US appear to be growing. They are less of a minority now, and are not anymore in the fringes. They seem to be more and more into the mainstream.

Those for abortion and who are openly atheistic and agnostic are getting more strident in their views. For example, they fault the candidate Sarah Palin for praying, for not aborting her handicapped baby, for allowing her unwed teen-aged daughter to have her baby instead of aborting him.

For sure, there's a lot of good elements still in that great country, but I'm afraid a lot of things are changing in a frightening way. Analysts may describe the parties as conservative and liberal, centrist or left-leaning. I feel that at bottom, the divide is created in the deeper recesses of people's faith and consciences.

The US financial crisis now is just but a tip of the monstrous iceberg now drifting dangerously in the American waters and in that of the world. We need to do something about it.

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Fr. Roy Cimagala is the Chaplain of Center for Industrial Technology and Enterprise (CITE) in Talamban, Cebu City. You can email him at:Email: roycimagala@boholchronicle.com