If I could have nine lives, I would want to spend one of them writing columns about interesting people I meet along the way. I have found that most people are far too modest about themselves. Folk underestimate how fascinating their lives are and have been. Writing this perky ”post it note” brings me lots of responses from fascinating folk and adds to my long list of friends. Take Warren Jacobs, for example. A few weeks ago I commented in a column about the current financial crisis. It prompted an email from Dr. Jacobs who lives in Cornelius, NC. Over lunch, a few days later, I got to know this interesting guy who, in his retirement, has come to live near his daughter and grandchildren. He’s a tall, fit-looking man with a quick smile and firm handshake. And a passion—he calls it a “mission.” He reminds me of an Old Testament prophet, driven to deliver an interpretation of current events and warning of things to come.

     Warren was born and raised in rural Louisiana in the 1940’s. His was a medical family—a dentist father and physician uncle. As he puts it, “As was the custom, my family chose me to be the doctor and my brother was chosen to study law. Reluctantly I accepted my Jewish mandate to enter medicine.” He fell in love with a Baptist girl and they married. After graduating the LSU Medical School, he was off to Miami Beach, Florida where he practiced geriatric medicine. Eventually he discovered that his real passion was financial investments, stock and bond markets. So he retired from medicine and became a broker. After a few years he retired again so he could RV the United States. Thirty-seven thousand miles later he became a registered financial advisor. He urgently wants to get out his message about the financial crisis to anyone who will listen. “I have some simple advice to anyone worried about the current stock decline. History says we have much farther to fall.” Warren says, “We are going into an economic twilight zone.” Therefore, he urges folk to move from stocks to safe, FDIC guaranteed CD’s and money market funds or short-term US Treasury bonds. He says, “It was not the stock market crash that caused the Depression: it was the Depression that caused the stock market crash.”

     Beyond his concerns for individual’s financial situations, Warren caught my attention with his concern for churches, charities and non-profit organizations which have endowments containing stocks. I know that many such institutions have endowments designed to support missions and/or maintenance of facilities. During my years in ministry, I have helped establish and direct nonprofit, religious and church foundations and endowments. In my experience, trustees of these endowments tend to be conservative and very careful with the money donors give to their causes. Still, this is a time to think deeply about such things.

     Because his is a decidedly minority point of view, I asked Warren Jacobs if he considers himself a contrarian or maverick. His response was emphatic, “I am not a contrarian. As a student of history, my position is that anyone telling you the stock market will NOT crash is a contrarian who ignores history.” Well folks, you can see the passion I find in Warren Jacobs. He says he is eager to share his insights into these matters with individuals and groups who wish to hear them. His email address is: WAJ12634@aol.com. In any case, this is a time to think deeply, say our prayers and be as generous as possible to the institutions that aid the suffering and the poor. It is reassuring to note that, in America, it was during the Great Depression that giving to churches, as a percentage of family income, was highest. Tough times seem to help us focus on the things we value most.

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