One of
the major themes of President Obama’s State of the Union Address last night was
the inequality between the rich and the poor. It made the main headline in
today’s Washington Post. The president noted that something is wrong when
Warren Buffett pays fewer taxes than his secretary. If you want to read a good
article on the inequality and the issue, here’s
a NY Times editorial by Paul Krugman.
I’m glad
the president saw fit to bring inequality into focus last night.
As a
Christian, I believe the problem is not that some people are wealthy. What the
bible seems opposed to is not that some people would be wealthy, but that some
people would be wealthy while others live in poverty. Scripture says:
“If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you” Lev. 25
Leviticus
isn’t an isolated case. All of the prophets address this theme in one way or
another. (Amos 2:7, Jer. 7:5, Ez 16:49 – that’s just a drop in the bucket. We
could read these verses for hours – literally0.
My
reading of the scriptures is that God does not have a problem with people having
wealth, even lots of money. The problem is when people forget why they have lots of money. What is
expected of those who have significant financial resources? What is expect is
that they will work hard, and use significant portions of their wealth, to make
sure everyone has enough.
The
situation the scripture envisions is that some are wealthy because God has
chosen them to care for those who are poor. If we are wealthy, our wealth is
not meant for our own pleasure, but to make sure everyone in our society has
enough.
I think
the question we have to ask ourselves is: Do we believe God has created the
earth with enough? Did God make it all so that there is enough for everyone… food,
resources, opportunity? I believe the
answer is yes. But the truth is that everyone doesn’t have enough in our
society. Poverty is concentrated along racial lines. Opportunity
for work is not the same for upper and lower classes. Our entire economy,
including the tax code, is skewed to take care of the wealthy. Even that would be
okay, if the wealthy took it upon themselves to care for the poor.
In the
end I don't really care what the government does with the tax code. They should
make it more just, but if we’re waiting on our current crop of politicians in Washington
6 comments:
The church was doing a good job of helping the poor and needy until the Govt took over. Now there are so many regulations and red tape it seems that it is all but impossible. People are so dependant on govt now for everything and we are finding out that the Govt can not afford to continue to do so. Money from taxpayers that is supposed to help poor and needy goes to pay huge union demanded pensions, abortion providers and interest on borrowed money. God will not bless this nation if we continue in this kind of nonsense.
I'm not sure the church was every really doing a good job of taking care of the poor and needy. What era are you referring to in which the church was doing a good job of this?
Nevertheless, good say about our dependence upon government...
Tim, there shouldn't be any surprise that today's American people have become dependent on a variety of government services. If some service or function becomes familiar, expected, very quickly people begin to assume that it's just the way things are. Pretty soon, it's the way things always were. And not long after that, we lose all memory of how things were before this program or service came into being.
For instance, trade unions. Does anyone remember - not in living memory, probably - what conditions were like in the workplace before trade unions were put into place? Does anyone remember what working conditions were like before workplace safety standards were enacted, or environmental regulations, or fair labor practices? There was a reason for these "encroachments" of government into labor relations. That reason was that the workers were being systematically exploited by the people who ran the companies that had hired them. The same thing is happening in China to this day, but the unrest - because of this flagrant exploitation - is beginning to get attention. Consumer protection laws came into being because food was unsafe, products were dangerous, and there was a popular movement to improve that situation. Our government does not put laws into effect for no reason - someone, in some representative's constituency, is getting screwed over, and they make enough noise to get heard. And action is taken. Of course, it also means that big corporate interests, with large budgets, will lobby those same representatives and give lots of money to election campaigns. This is the messy way that our system works. So - it's not perfect. What else is new?
The President did a sort of political prophetic utterance last night. He in effect convicted Congress of not doing what they need to do to carry out the Nation's business. How effective that prophesying will be is up in the air. I'm not holding my breath expecting to hear "Kumbayah" being sung in the halls of Congress anytime soon, sad to say.
The problem is defining what "Enough" is. I believe there are people in this world who don't have "Enough" but they do NOT live in America! The poorest of the poor in our country have plenty of opportunity to help themselves. The problem is they are not responsible with what God has blessed them with, if they have little they want more, so they take loans from banks so they can buy more. Then when they can't make their payments because they were stupid they look for the Government or the rich to bail them out! "Enough" making excuses for stupid people in this country! Everyone has the opportunity to have "Enough", but when they have "Enough" they just want MORE!!!
I'm sorry Anonymous - but that is a ridiculous thing to say. You've obviously never spent time at 23rd and Linwood in KCMO, or in any of the areas of concentrated generational poverty around the country. People living there have no opportunity. We are talking about complete and total social breakdown. Your characterization of them as "stupid" is absurd.
I pray that your heart will be softened sometime, and that you never feel the desperate feeling of poverty.
Tim,
Is anyone providing good answers to the question why in this country poverty rates have been fairly consistent for the last 50 years. It's baffling to me that we have the ability to feed the world but chose to feed only a portion of it. We've literally spent a trillion dollars on transfer payment to assist the poor yet with horrible results.
I truly don't think that our political system has the will to tackle this problem seriously. Restructuring a tax code is laughable if one thinks that will have any impact on poverty in America.
I'm a believer that budgets are moral documents. We have large revenue stream headed to Washington every year but our politicians lack the courage to make moral choices. It's very frustrating. I really thought President Obama had capital to spent in this area but he has proven to be just another pol unfortunately. No different than the rest.
One other thing and its a small point. Not to bag on you but referencing Krugman is like referencing Olbermann or Limbaugh. He's the worst of the worst.
Scott
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