Two Sides to the Same Coin?
On the surface, it looked likely to score as the biggest non-event of 2002. After an interminable pregnancy, January 1st saw the birth of the euro in notes and coins. Big deal, some said. The euro, after all, has been traded in virtual form ever since another cold new year's morning in 1999. The champagne corks popped then, too - but nothing much seemed to change.
This year's froth, however, concealed a remarkable event. Not just because this was the biggest currency swap in history. Nor because of the logistics involved in introducing 144bn worth of euros to 300m people. Nor even because in the north of Finland reindeer skins can now be bought and sold in the same currency as jars of olive oil on Greek islands.
Of monumental importance is the fact that 12 nations, many with highly nationalistic histories, voluntarily cashed in the most potent physical symbol of their identities for the sake of a common currency. The psychological ramifications are profound. Such is the strength of the association between currency and national identity that the 12 participating countries will, in effect, form a newly minted community.
The power of this association did not elude Jesus. He asked to see a Roman coin - Europe's closest precedent to the euro - after the Pharisees, wishing to see him arrested, posed a trick question about whether Jews should pay taxes in support of the empire. After asking whose head and inscription was on it, he gave his famous reply: 'Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.' The psychology of currency worked: 'They were amazed and went away.'
But one implication of Jesus' remark is that if the Jews were to enjoy the benefits of being part of the empire, exemplified in their use of Roman currency, they should accept the taxation required to maintain it. Currency, then, is not simply a matter of psychology, nor of identity, nor even of economics, but of politics. The launch of the euro has inevitable political consequences; and Britain will not be exempt from them.
Our task as Christians is surely to use our political privileges and responsibilities to ensure that the common currency works for the common good. It's time to start checking the change.
Peter Heslam
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