Caring for the Poor is Government's Biblical Role
From Sojourners, Click HERE for the link
by Jim Wallis 08-30-2012
There is hardly a more
controversial political battle in America today than that around the role of
government. The ideological sides have lined up, and the arguments rage about
the size of government: how big, how small should it be? Some famously have said
government should be shrunk so small that it "could be drowned in a
bathtub."
But I want to suggest
that what size the government should be is the wrong question. A more useful
discussion would be about the purposes of government and whether ours is fulfilling
them. So let's look at what the Bible says.
The words of Paul in the
13th chapter of Romans are perhaps the most extensive teaching in the New
Testament about the role and purposes of government. Paul says those purposes
are twofold: to restrain evil by punishing evildoers and to serve peace and
orderly conduct by rewarding good behavior. Civil authority is designed to be
"God's servant for your good" (13:4). Today we might say "the
common good" is to be the focus and goal of government.
So the purpose of
government, according to Paul, is to protect and promote. Protect from the evil
and promote the good, and we are even instructed to pay taxes for those
purposes. So to disparage government per se —to see government as the
central problem in society — is simply not a biblical position.
First, government is
supposed to protect its people. That certainly means protecting its citizens'
safety and security. Crime and violence will always be real in this world, and
that's why we have the police, who are meant to keep our streets,
neighborhoods, and homes safe.
Governments also need to
protect their people judicially, and make sure our legal and court systems are
procedurally just and fair. The biblical prophets regularly rail against
corrupt court decisions and systems, in which the wealthy and powerful
manipulate the legal processes for their own benefit and put the poor into
greater debt or distress. The prophet Amos speaks directly to the courts (and
government) when he says, "Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the
courts" (Amos 5:15 NIV).
But along with
protecting, what should governments promote? The prophets hold kings, rulers,
judges, and even employers accountable to the demands of justice and fairness,
therefore promoting those values.
And the Scriptures say
that governmental authority is to protect the poor in particular. The biblical
prophets are consistent and adamant in their condemnation of injustice to the
poor, and frequently follow their statements by requiring the king (the
government) to act justly. That prophetic expectation did not apply only to the
kings of Israel but was also extended to the kings of neighboring lands and
peoples.
Jeremiah, speaking of
King Josiah, said, "He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so
all went well."
Psalm 72 begins with a
prayer for kings or political leaders: "Give the king your justice, O God,
and your righteousness to a king's son. May he judge your people with
righteousness, and your poor with justice. May the mountains yield prosperity for
the people, and the hills, in righteousness. May he defend the cause of the
poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the
oppressor."
There is a powerful
vision here for promoting the common good — a vision of "righteous"
prosperity for all the people, with special attention to the poor and to
"deliverance" for the most vulnerable and needy, and even a concern
for the land.
Evangelical theologian
Ron Sider says:
The biblical
understanding of justice clearly includes both procedural and distributive
aspects. That the procedures must be fair is clear in the several texts that
demand unbiased courts (Exodus 23:2-8; Leviticus 19:15; Deuteronomy 1:17;
10:17-19). That distributive justice (i.e., fair outcomes) is also a central
part of justice is evident not just from the hundreds of texts about God's
concern for the poor ... but also in the meaning of the key Hebrew words for
justice (mishpat and tsedaqah).
Time and again the
prophets use mishpat and tsedaqah to
refer to fair economic outcomes. Immediately after denouncing Israel and Judah
for the absence of justice, the prophet Isaiah condemns the way rich and
powerful landowners have acquired all the land by pushing out small farmers
(Isaiah 5:7-9). It is important to note that even though in this text the
prophet does not say the powerful acted illegally, he nevertheless denounces
the unfair outcome.
Notice that Sider says
"fair outcomes" and not "equal outcomes." The political
right's continuing accusation against all who would hold governments
accountable for justice is that we are really aiming for equal outcomes from
public policy. But that simply is not true.
Indeed, the historical
attempts by many Marxist governments to create equal outcomes have dramatically
shown the great dangers of how the concentration of power in a few government
hands has led to totalitarian results. The theological reason for that is the
presence and power of sin, and the inability of such fallible human creatures
to create social utopias on earth.
Yet the biblical
prophets do hold their rulers, courts, and judges, and landowners and employers
accountable to the values of fairness, justice, and even mercy. The theological
reasons for that are, in fact, the same: the reality of evil and sin in the
concentration of power — both political and economic — and the need to hold
that power accountable to justice, especially in the protection of the poor. So
fair outcomes, and not equal ones, are the goal of governments.
Governments should
provide a check on powerful people, institutions, and interests in the society
that, if left unchecked, might run over their fellow citizens, the economy, and
certainly the poor.
If government is
rendered unable to "punish the evil" and "reward the good"
when it comes to the behavior of huge corporations and banks, for example,
exactly who else is going to do that? And coming to a better moral balance in
achieving fiscal responsibility, while protecting the poor, should be a
bipartisan effort.
The radically
anti-government ideology of the current right wing Tea Party ideology is simply
contrary to a more biblical view of government, the need for checks and
balances, the sinfulness of too much concentrated power in either the
government or the market, the responsibilities we have for our neighbor and the
God-ordained purposes of government — in addition to the churches — in serving
the common good and, in particular, to protect the poor.
Jim Wallis is the author of Rediscovering Values: A Guide for Economic and Moral
Recovery, and CEO of Sojourners. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
posted by Dan at 10:28 AM
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