So What's This All About?

In case you didn't know, I'm in the multi-year-long process of posting a Christian devotional at the TAWG Blog. The TAWG Blog is, and always will be, mostly apolitical. For the most part, Bible-believing Christians will find little to disagree with there. But I also firmly believe that God's word can--and should--inform everything in life, and this should include politics and popular culture. How should we vote? How should we respond to hot topics such as abortion, capital punishment, taxes, and other issues? Which party, if either, is closer to the Biblical ideal? Tony Campolo and Ron Sider, Evangelicals whose political leanings are on the Left, have made the case in several of their writings that God wants his followers to vote politically on the Left more than on the Right. At times, some of them have gone so far as to equate voting on the Left with obedience to Christ, either subtly or not-so-subtly contending that the converse is true as well: If you vote Republican, you're sinning against the Savior.
I don't agree. I think that to the degree they actually resort to the Bible, they're misinterpreting it. With a whole bunch of caveats, I think politically conservative positions are a lot more compatible with the Scriptures than the Leftist positions.
Just to clarify, I would never accuse people who disagree with me--especially siblings in Christ--of what they accuse me of. I don't judge my own heart, much less anyone else's, and I don't equate political disagreement with theological fidelity to God. I have no reason to doubt their love for the Lord and "for the least of these," but I believe that they're sincerely wrong.
So there are two main purposes for this blog. One is to make a case for my political beliefs based on Scripture. The other is a bit more vague, basically to work out my political beliefs and figure out what's based on Scripture and what's based on my own biases. I certainly don't have all the answers. Some of this stuff I'm still figuring out. And I'm certainly open to correction. As long as you make your case civilly and based on Scripture, feel free to make a comment, and I promise I'll post it and consider your arguments thoughtfully and prayerfully. Who knows? Maybe we'll learn a little something from each other.
May God bless our common striving together towards both the "little t" truth and "Big T" Truth. Our watchword here is a line from C. S. Lewis's The Last Battle: "Further up and further in!"

P.S. -- Below on the left is "Topics I've Covered" which lists everything I've posted topically. It's come to my attention that some people would like to see everything just listed for them. If that's you, you can get it here. Thanks to my friend Stephen Young for the tip!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Wealth And Poverty: The Whys and Wherefores

            I know, I know, really creative title, huh? Well, I already used up my good titles on this subject when I talked about poverty and wealth and money back in the study on Proverbs on the TAWG Blog. Speaking of which, I’m going to be stealing a bunch of material from those postings over the next few days.
            As I mentioned in the TAWG, the Bible lists several reasons why people are poorer than they normally would be. Of course, “poverty” typically is used as a relative term. In many countries, “poverty” means you don’t have enough to eat or are barely at sustenance level. “Poverty” in America typically means you only have one TV set and only have one working car and don’t have all the channels on cable that you’d like.
            The Bible—getting back to my point—lists several reasons why people are poor. There’s government oppression, at either the national or local level, there’s deprivation due to physical handicaps (e.g., a man born blind), and there’s poverty due to the main provider of a family (the husband/father) being missing or dead. Amos spoke frequently about rich people who “oppressed” the poor by cheating them or bribing judges to get favoritism in court.
            But there are other reasons as well which the Bible—in particular Proverbs—addresses and we should as well. It could be because of laziness or lack of ambition. It could be because you make foolish financial decisions, like impulse buying or investing in “get rich quick” schemes. It could be because of addiction to alcohol or drugs or gambling. It could be because—like most Americans—you’re in “unsecured” debt and are living beyond your means. If you read my TAWG posting above, you’ll see that Solomon addressed all these much more than the issues listed in the paragraph before (which we have no control over).
            Now, am I saying that there is absolutely no oppression of the poor in America? That there are no instances in which a poor man is taken advantage of by processes in which he has absolutely no control? That there are no instances in which a physically “challenged” person gets no help and is left on his own? That there are no instances in which the rich and powerful get away with stealing from the poor because they can afford better lawyers? That there are absolutely no examples we could find of a government conspiracy to deny the poor their rights before the law? That there are absolutely no instances in which a person is held back from advancing in life because of racism?
            Of course not. I’m not a fool or a demagogue. I’d never claim that. Of course, this country has around 330 million people spread across a continent, so of course there's not too much we wouldn't be able to find, assuming we looked long and hard enough. The book of Proverbs, which has a lot to say about personal decisions which lead to poverty, recognizes that there's such a thing as government oppression and injustice against the poor. 
            But I would submit that under a free-market system (commonly known as capitalism) and under a representative democracy such as ours, it happens a lot less frequently than under any other system known to humanity. I also thoroughly believe that any notions of messing with our free-market/rep. dem. system, either with big changes or small ones, should be viewed with extreme skepticism. To the degree that we move away from this system (a free market with representative democracy), we’re trading something good for something worse.
            My friend, as a corollary I’d submit that the vast majority of people who are “poor” in this country (remembering that poor is a relative term) are poor because of personal dysfunctional behaviors, referring to either the poor person’s behaviors or to his/her parents’, such as those listed by Solomon above. Most people on the street are not there just because of bad circumstances that happened to them like a meteor that fell out of the sky. They’re on the street because they’re A) Addicted to a substance, B) Mentally ill, or C) A combination of the two.
            Now, does that mean that if people are poor because of faults of their own (or because of bad behavior by their parents) that we don’t care about them and shouldn’t help them? Absolutely not! Following the example of how our Savior treats us, we’re certainly going to try to help those whose lives are messed up, even if it’s 100% their own fault.
            But how best to help them? By handing them money? Providing for their physical need while ignoring the root causes?
            Is that showing love for someone? Or is it just alleviating guilt? 

No comments:

Post a Comment