![\"Gleaning.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/03\/Gleaning-thumb-275x245-12163.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span>I\u2019m amazed at the comments being made by some evangelicals, in this case the son of Jerry Falwell, that \u201ccharity\u201d is purely voluntary and individual, and that charity is not designed by God or by Jesus to be something done by the government. What is happening is that some conservatives are now equating libertarian principles with the Bible and with the biblical world. Libertarian care for the poor is utopian. I quote from Falwell, not because he\u2019s alone, but because he represents a growing trend. Here is a clip from CNN.com<\/b><\/a>:<\/p>\nBut a prominent evangelical leader says he, too, is suspicious of churches that preach economic and social justice.<\/i><\/p>\n
Jerry Falwell Jr., president of Liberty University, a Christian college in Virginia, says Jesus wasn\u2019t interested in politics. He says that those pastors who preach economic and social justice \u201care trying to twist the gospel to say the gospel supported socialism.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
Jesus taught that we should give to the poor and support widows, but he never said that we should elect a government that would take money from our neighbor\u2019s hand and give it to the poor,\u201d Falwell says.<\/i><\/p>\n
Falwell says that Jesus believed that individuals, not governments, should help the poor.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cIf we all did as Jesus did when he helped the poor, we wouldn\u2019t need the government,\u201d says Falwell, the son of the late evangelical leader, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So, let\u2019s consider some basic texts in the Law, which means this: according to our understanding of Scripture, this is God speaking and this is God\u2019s will and this is God\u2019s will for Israel and this is God\u2019s will for a people that was still following that will at the time of Jesus and at the time of the Apostle Paul. Since they never said, \u201cThis stuff is verboten, we can assume they thought this sort of law was viable for their world.\u201d That Jesus didn\u2019t speak about electing a government is beside the point; he didn\u2019t have that option. He did live in a world governed by a Torah that let the government have laws that mandated care for the poor. He lived in a world that didn\u2019t just leave it up to individuals. Sure, there was lots of private charity. That too, on top of laws.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nAnd we ought not to construct our Christian principles on what Jesus didn\u2019t say.\n<\/div>\nAre you seeing an increasing connection of libertarianism with the Bible? Do you think the Bible is anti-government mandated care for the poor? Do you see a radical voluntarism as the biblical model for caring for the poor?<\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n
<\/div>\nOne more point before we get to a simple case for government-mandated charity: I\u2019m not saying whatever the government wants, the government can have. Our government is getting too greedy, and it is getting its hands into too many pockets, and the government needs to be much more fiscally responsible, but the solution is not to equate libertarian radicalism with what the Bible says and pretend the Bible is teaching our political theory. Least of all, I\u2019m not saying let\u2019s trust the government to take care of all the problems, but the government can protect the poor from the lack of generosity by many who fail to respond to the needs (Michael Kruse pointed out to me that this is \u201csubsidiarity\u201d.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\nI want to increase the church\u2019s role in alleviating poverty and working out justice, but libertarian radicalism is not the answer. I\u2019m all for more locally-shaped charity. It appears to me the the solution is two-fold: let\u2019s be Biblical and let\u2019s practice justice in the best way possible, which in our fallen world combines individual compassion and governmental support.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nSo here\u2019s a set of texts that show that the Bible mandated charity and didn\u2019t leave it up entirely to individuals to make the decision.<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFirst, the law of gleaning mandated \u2014 a command from God \u2014 that farmers leave a portion of their crops unharvested for the poor. (Think Ruth; without this law perhaps she doesn\u2019t survive.) Sure, they had to choose to do this but it was mandated law not simply voluntary practice. Leviticus 19:<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n\n19:9<\/span>\u00a0\u201c\u2018When you gather in the harvest of your land, you must not completely harvest the corner of your field, and you must not gather up the gleanings of your harvest.\u00a019:10<\/span>\u00a0You must not pick your vineyard bare, and you must not gather up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You must leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the\u00a0Lord<\/span>\u00a0your God.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/p>\nYes, by all means, again and again, we don\u2019t just transport laws from ancient Israel into our world, but one thing can\u2019t be denied: God mandated charity for the poor as a law, and this wasn\u2019t just voluntary. It was law. It was God-mandated and governmentally-instituted and, probably, privately-enacted.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\nSecond, what of the Year of Jubilee in Lev 25? What can we make of this, if not the mandated return of property in order to prevent excessive accumulation? This is clearly a governmentally-shaped economic-sharing law.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n\n\n25:8<\/span>\u00a0\u201c\u2018You must count off seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, and the days of the seven weeks of years will amount to forty-nine years.\u00a025:9<\/span>\u00a0You must sound loud horn blasts \u2013 in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, on the Day of Atonement \u2013 you must sound the horn in your entire land.\u00a025:10<\/span>\u00a0So you must consecrate the fiftieth year, and you must proclaim a release in the land for all its inhabitants. That year will be your jubilee; each one of you must return to his property and each one of you must return to his clan.\u00a025:11<\/span>\u00a0That fiftieth year will be your jubilee; you must not sow the land, harvest its aftergrowth, or pick the grapes of its unpruned vines.\u00a025:12<\/span>\u00a0Because that year is a jubilee, it will be holy to you \u2013 you may eat its produce from the field.<\/p>\n
Release of Landed Property<\/div>\n25:13<\/span>\u00a0\u201c\u2018In this year of jubilee you must each return to your property.\u00a025:14<\/span>\u00a0If you make a sale to your fellow citizen or buy from your fellow citizen, no one is to wrong his brother.\u00a025:15<\/span>\u00a0You may buy it from your fellow citizen according to the number of years since the last jubilee; he may sell it to you according to the years of produce that are left.\u00a025:16<\/span>\u00a0The more years there are, the more you may make its purchase price, and the fewer years there are, the less you must make its purchase price, because he is only selling to you a number of years of produce.\u00a025:17<\/span>\u00a0No one is to oppress his fellow citizen, but you must fear your God, because I am the\u00a0Lord<\/span>your God.\u00a025:18<\/span>\u00a0You must obey my statutes and my regulations; you must be sure to keep them so that you may live securely in the land.<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
And, it ought to be observed that most biblical scholars think Jesus evoked Jubilee in his first sermon in Luke 4:18-19. We are dealing here with mandated economic restriction and mandated care for the poor and a society mandated by a concern for economic injustices.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n\n\n4:16<\/span>\u00a0Now Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read,\u00a04:17<\/span>and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,<\/p>\n
4:18<\/span>\u00a0\u201cThe Spirit of the Lord is upon me,<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
because he has anointed<\/i><\/b>\u00a0me to proclaim good news<\/i><\/b>\u00a0to the poor<\/b>.<\/i><\/p>\n
He has sent me<\/i><\/b>\u00a0to proclaim release<\/i><\/b>\u00a0to the captives<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
and the regaining of sight<\/i><\/b>\u00a0to the blind,<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
to set free<\/i><\/b>\u00a0those who are oppressed,<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
4:19<\/span>\u00a0to proclaim the year<\/i><\/b>\u00a0of the Lord<\/i><\/b>\u2018s favor<\/b>.<\/i>\u201c<\/p>\n
<\/p><\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Third, there is law in Israel\u2019s books called tithing that involved mandated and obligatory and governmentally-sponsored care for the poor. Read it, it\u2019s right here from Deuteronomy 14:28-29, and it\u2019s law and that means it\u2019s against the law not to participate. This one is individually-given and then evidently distributed by the villages.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n\n14:28<\/span>\u00a0At the end of every three years you must bring all the tithe of your produce, in that very year, and you must store it up in your villages.\u00a014:29<\/span>\u00a0Then the Levites (because they have no allotment or inheritance with you), the resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows of your villages may come and eat their fill so that the\u00a0Lord<\/span>\u00a0your God may bless you in all the work you do.<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\nFourth, the apostle Paul, in a time much trickier than what any North American or European is facing, mandated that the Christians pay taxes to Rome. Godless, rapacious, idolatrous Rome. Let Rome collect taxes; let Rome distribute the money as Rome sees fit. That\u2019s what was happening when Paul said this. From Romans 13<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/div>\n\n13:5<\/span>\u00a0Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of the wrath of the authorities but also because of your conscience.\u00a013:6<\/span>\u00a0For this reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God\u2019s servants devoted to governing.\u00a013:7<\/span>\u00a0Pay everyone what is owed: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
<\/span><\/div>\nFinally, what do you think Paul means here in 2 Cor 8:13-15, if he does not mean mandatory (and voluntary) charity for others and that, someday, it will come back to you \u2014 a kind \u201csocial security\u201d in Paul\u2019s day? [The word \u201cequality\u201d is a radical idea of economic fellowship and mutual responsibility.] Perhaps, you will say, \u201cthis is for Christians with Christians.\u201d Probably so, but isn\u2019t it mandatory care for the poor? Wouldn\u2019t it be Christian to expand that principle into culture?<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n\n8:13<\/span>\u00a0For I do not say this so there would be relief for others and suffering for you, but as a matter of equality.\u00a08:14<\/span>\u00a0At the present time, your abundance will meet their need, so that one day their abundance may also meet your need, and thus there may be equality,\u00a08:15<\/span>\u00a0as it is written: \u201cThe one who gathered<\/i><\/b>\u00a0much did not have too much<\/b>,\u00a0and the one who gathered<\/b><\/i>\u00a0little did not have too little<\/i><\/b>.\u201d<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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