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!

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Wealth And Poverty: How NOT to help the poor

           Today’s posting title is the best I could come up with. The reason it's titled the way it is is because what you won’t find here is a detailed plan on how to help the less-fortunate. As C. S. Lewis pointed out, God’s word gives us general principles and then expects us (led by the Spirit) to figure out how to apply them in specific situations. As a corollary to this posting, I highly recommend you read my TAWG blog entry that parallels this topic.
            First and foremost—and I’ll probably be repeating this in the days ahead—there is one foundational passage which should inform and direct all our dealings with other people. This passage is Gen. 1:26-27. Whenever the question is “How should I treat this person?” no matter who that person is, however you answer it must be in the context of this overwhelming truth: Every person is created in God’s image/likeness. We’re all “stamped” with his image. The image is marred and scarred and deformed by sin, but it’s still there. We can debate exactly how this manifests itself in human creativity, personality, etc., but for now we need to understand that the fact that every person is created in God’s image needs to affect how we treat them. For example, James told us that how we speak to/about other people should be affected by this truth.
            How does this affect issues of wealth and poverty? Well, I’d submit that it has to do with human dignity. Of all the creatures listed in Genesis one and two, we’re the only ones noted as created in his image. I love dogs, my wife loves cats (I tolerate them), and we might all be moved by the “cuteness” of this animal or that animal. But no matter how smart they are or how human-like their actions might be, they’re not made in God’s image.
            To me, one of the main application of this truth, hinted at in James re: speech, is that every human being is to be accorded a certain amount of dignity. Please forgive the following illustration, but it really speaks to my point. If you see a person who--for whatever reason—acts like an animal or a pet, doesn’t that bother you or make you uncomfortable? Isn’t there something inside you that responds to the intrinsic “wrongness” about it? Because you know—even if you haven’t thought about it—that a human being should not act like an animal: eating from a bowl on the floor, speaking only in barks or meows, walking around on all fours.
            But my friend, this truth is denied by how we tend to treat the poor. Let me go a little further down this illustration “trail.” My dogs in my home are not really expected to earn their keep. Some dogs do, but their place in our home is not dependent on them bringing in income to offset the (considerable) expenses on feeding them, keeping them healthy, etc. Every morning I ask my dog in a teasing voice “Are you hungry?” and she runs to her bowl (if she isn’t already there) and taps it repeatedly. It’s really cute—for a dog.
            I feed her, take care of her medical expenses, provide toys and attention, and all she has to do is obey me. The fact that she acts adorably (and thus entertains me) is a bonus, but not necessary for her to live with us. I don’t ask or expect anything more from her.
            So when you see a homeless person on the street and hand him money, aren’t you treating him like a stray dog? When you see someone in physical need and don’t ask anything from them to help themselves to get out of their situation, isn’t that treating them like a pet?
            I’d like to think that I know Scripture pretty well. To my knowledge, the pattern of just giving a handout to an individual in need is never smiled upon in Scripture. The fact is there: You see plenty of instances of beggars in narrative portions, such as in the Gospels and Acts. The book of Acts and Paul’s letters certainly authorize financial aid to churches whose members are in need. I’ll address these counter-arguments in the next posting, but suffice to say the financial aid to churches and church members came with a lot of caveats.
            In my TAWG Blog posting cited above, the main passage for that day is Lev. 19:9-10. God told landowners not to glean during harvest time. I touched on this point, but it bears repeating and expansion: God told wealthy people to be generous in their giving to the poor, but he told the poor to go out and collect the food themselves. Thus they retained some of their dignity as people created in God’s image.
            Part of the fact that we’re created in his image is that we’re workers. God worked at the beginning of creation, and when he placed our first parents in the Garden, he put them to work as well. Work—especially creative work—reflects this image of our Creator. Anything other than a person working to earn the bread he eats is less than God’s ideal. A person might be unable to work or produce something for others, e.g. those with a debilitating illness. But if he’s unwilling to work, then Paul has some words for him.
            “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” If you’re unwilling to work, the Body of Christ--by the words of Paul the Apostle--is forbidden to feed you .
            You want to know a fantasy of mine? In my fantasy, I’m a reporter at a news conference in which a Leftist politician calls for more government spending on “Entitlements.” He quotes Jesus’ words something to the effect of how we’re supposed to take care of the “least of these” or how we’re our “brother’s keeper” (yes, I’ve heard the President say those words).**  Leave aside for a moment that Leftists tend to scream when they feel that someone is “imposing their religion” on someone, e.g., try to restrict abortion because we believe that life begins at conception. They’re perfectly happy to try to “impose religion” when it means we spend more money on “helping the poor” or if they’re “advocates for peace.”  
Sorry, getting back on track with my fantasy. The politician just quoted the Bible (taking the verse entirely out of context) trying to use it to justify more spending on government welfare programs, and I raise my hand. He calls on me, and I ask “Mr. President/Senator/Congressman, since you believe that Scripture tells us to hand money to the poor, how do you deal with 2 Thessalonians 3:10?” I wait for a moment while he gives me the deer-in-the-headlights look. “2 Thessalonians 3:10? It tells us that if someone isn’t willing to work, we shouldn’t feed them. It’s in the New Testament, the same place in the Bible that you quoted a minute ago. Mr. President/Senator/Congressman, if you’ve never read that verse, are you familiar at all with the writings of Paul? The Apostle? Christians the world over think he’s pretty authoritative, just as much as the writers of the Gospel that you just quoted. Mr. President/Senator/Congressman, are you going to answer my question?”
Well, I can dream, can’t I?
            On a much lighter note, here are a couple of videos of my dog around feeding time. Yes, she taps her bowl.



** This really drives me crazy. Talk about pulling a verse kicking and screaming out of context. This phrase comes from the words of Cain when God asked him where his (murdered) brother was: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The Hebrew denotes a “keeper” in the sense of someone taking care of an animal, like a zoo keeper. No, I am not my brother’s “keeper,” and he shouldn’t want me to be. My brother is not an animal that needs to be fed and cared for like a dog. He’s a person. Using the very phrase shows contempt for the image of God every person has. 

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