Month: March 2020

God’s Economics

‘Speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice’ – Proverbs 31:9

A couple of weeks ago, a friend forwarded an article by an Evangelical author who posited that it was the duty of every Christian to support Donald Trump because, among other things, he is the only thing standing in the way of the United States becoming a ‘Socialist Country.’  He argued that all Democrats are Socialists and had to be stopped at all costs.

It’s hardly a new argument.  I’ve listened to it most of my life.  A Democrat (or wayward Republican) proposes a program to help the poor, and suddenly Karl Marx is at the door. 

(Never mind the vast difference between Marxism and the various degrees of Socialism; it’s all the same to those who ring such alarm bells.  I once had such a person nearly shout at me, ‘Haven’t you read Animal Farm?’ only to be reduced to incoherent rambling when I explained that Orwell was warning against communism, and was himself, in fact, a Socialist). 

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, it seemed likely that Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist, was destined to become the Democrats standard bearer against Trump in the 2020 General Election. Trump and his minions were practically salivating, so thrilled were they at the prospect of pitting their right-wing extremism against the great bugbear of Socialism. Things have changed dramatically since then, with former Vice-President Joe Biden (not a Socialist) mounting a tremendous political comeback, but that hasn’t changed anything.   It remains the plan of conservatives to play the ‘S’ card in 2020. Indeed, the recently completed Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) repeatedly billed the upcoming contest as ‘America v. Socialism.’   In other words, it won’t matter who the Democrats nominate, because, as the evangelical author noted above says, all Democrats are Socialists. Anyone who wants to even marginally level the playing field between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ is.

But even if that were true (it isn’t, but let’s just run with it for argument’s sake), would the election of a socialist, or even a socialist-leaning Democrat, be so wrong?  Is it really the duty of every Christian to oppose socialism – in all its forms and gradations? 

It’s not my intention to describe all of socialism’s forms in this post.  I’d certainly oppose National Socialism for instance (which is one reason I speak out against Trump; too many parallels there).  Nor is it to defend Bernie Sanders’ brand. It is simply to question why providing for the poor in the manner Sanders and others propose would be considered by so many Christians to be morally wrong?    

So indulge me for a moment in a thought experiment.  Let’s say that a new world has just been discovered.  It has ample resources and abundant land.  As we enter this new land, a decision is made by our leaders.  Every household will be given an equal portion of land.  Every family will then work their land, utilize its resources, and live off its bounty.  They will also be free to sell their land if they desire, or, if they run into problems while working it.  This will, of course, result in others having more land than they.  But that’s OK, because it is to be expected that some will manage land more productively than others, and so, we will allow this (free market economics).  However, in order to prevent any one household or group of households from acquiring too much land over time, we will impose a rule: every few decades, the system will reset.  All land that was purchased will revert to the original owners (or their descendants) free of charge.

The rationale for the rule is this: we want to allow those with greater gifts and expertise to make the most productive use of the land (hence they can buy it and use it for decades at a stretch).  But we do not want to allow any one household or group of households to get so far ahead that we create a permanent upper and lower class.  We want to provide for learning curves and fresh starts.  And so we will not allow a scenario where the rich forever get richer while the poor forever get poorer.  We will restart the game from time to time. 

In between restarts, we will have other rules.  For example, we will offer assistance programs to ensure that everyone, especially the vulnerable (those who have suffered loss through natural disasters, death of a spouse or parents, etc.), has sufficient resources to live.  We will do this by requiring those with the resources, aka the rich, to make a portion of what they possess available to those who have fallen behind. 

Additionally, given that those who fall behind might incur debts as they go about the business of daily living, and might even make contracts that obligate them to serve the rich, we will make further rules that will require debt forgiveness and the termination of such contracts every several years.  This will provide further protection for the poor and will prevent their exploitation at the hands of the rich.

Basically, every several years, everyone gets a mini-fresh start, and in the longer term, a brand-new start.  And all along the way, everyone will be able to participate as dignified members of the new society.  No one will be left behind. 

Is that Socialism? 

I know many Christians who would answer yes.  Equal distribution of land. Limits on wealth accumulation.  Forced sharing with the poor.  Debt forgiveness.  Returning property to the people who couldn’t handle it in the first place, property that had been lawfully acquired with hard earned cash – and worked for decades – for free!   Good God, if any politician proposed such a system today, he or she would be branded a Socialist for the rest of his or her life. 

But here’s the thing (and some of you know this already).  I didn’t make that system up. 

God did. 

When the Israelites came into the Promised Land, this is exactly what he told his people to do.  He divided the land (Joshua 18 and Numbers 26).  He imposed a fifty year give back program called the Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25; Deuteronomy 15).  He instituted a Sabbatical year that forgave debts and set indentured servants and slaves free every seven years (Deuteronomy 15:1-6; 12-18).  He instituted laws on tithing and gleaning to help the poor and vulnerable (Deuteronomy 14:28-29; 26:12-15; Leviticus 27:30-32; Numbers 18:21-32).  Heck, he even imposed environmental restrictions on the use of land to prevent people from depleting its resources (Exodus 23:10-11; Leviticus 25:2-7). 

Sounds like God’s a bit of a Socialist. 

Before you flip out, you should know that I’m not actually labeling God a Socialist.  I am, however, saying that leveling the playing field and making provision for the poor are ideals God cares about very much.  Jesus himself gave away free health care.  He created a food program that fed thousands (Luke 9:10-17).  He shared a common purse that was used to help the poor (John 13:29).  And he created a community of brothers and sisters who shared resources to such an extent that there were no needy persons among them (Acts 4:34). 

And if all that is true, and it is, then is it really the duty of every Christian to oppose policies aimed to achieve the same things? 

Of course not. 

Look, I’m no economic expert. I’m just a theologian. But as such I know that in the Old Testament and through Jesus, God commands us to care for the poor.  Call the plans and programs to do so ‘Socialist’ if you want.  But don’t tell me that I’m doing wrong if I am in favor of them. 

Because it isn’t my Christian duty to oppose policies that help the poor.

It is my Christian duty to support them. 

That’s God’s economics.

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

Thank you to Ronald J. Sider, my Professor and Mentor from seminary, for his seminal work, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, from which I gleaned the Bible passages quoted above. 

We Are Not as Strong as We Think We Are

‘And with these hells and our heavens so few inches apart, we must be awfully small, and not as strong as we think we are’ – Rich Mullins

I was just a kid when Mount St. Helens, located in Washington State, erupted with the force of a 24-megaton blast, 1600 times the power of the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.  So much ash and dust were thrown into the atmosphere that for days it floated above my head in Brick NJ.  Yes, it had traveled all the way across the country. 

My Dad waxed theological.  He thought the eruption was God’s way of telling us proud and boastful humans that we weren’t as powerful as we thought we were.  ‘Oh, you have nuclear bombs, huh?  Well look what I can do.’  I wasn’t so sure that was what God was trying to say, but I had to admit my Dad had a point.  At the very least, the eruption was a reminder that we are not the most powerful force on the planet, let alone the universe. 

In recent days, as the reality of a pandemic hits the United States, I have been thinking about my Dad’s comment.  It’s not that I think God is inflicting us with the corona virus to show us who is boss, or worse, that he has sent it to us as some sort of divine punishment. But it strikes me that there is a message here not very different from my Dad’s view of the Mount St. Helens eruption. 

I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia.  Suburban people, whether we realize it or not, have it pretty good.  Oh sure, we have our struggles and problems, but our lives are, for the most part, extremely comfortable when compared with the lives of many in the world.  In fact, many of us act as if we have it all figured out.  We work hard to build carefully manicured lives.  We strive for perfect homes and perfect lawns.  We build safe communities for our families.  We seek material success and financial security.  Most of us have decent health insurance and safety nets in case something goes wrong.  Sometimes, such a life leads to complacency, the idea that it will go on forever.  We feel indestructible, as if nothing could ever disturb our well-crafted lives.  We become self-sufficient, dependent upon no one, and darn proud of it. 

In such environments, God is often forgotten.  I mean, who needs God when you have all that?  Even Christians, who should know better, fall into the trap.  We go to church on Sunday but then take care of everything else on our own throughout the week.  We begin to believe the lie of our self-sufficiency.  We become like Bart Simpson, who once offered this simple grace: ‘Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves, so thanks for nothing.’  When you are comfortable and well cared for, when you have proudly provided for your family and become the captain of your own life, when everything is coming up roses, when you have planned well for the future, and when it seems as if you have nothing to worry about, you tend to get a bit lax with your faith. 

Until catastrophe hits. 

It can hit in any number of ways, and when it does, everything changes.  Right now, the catastrophe is a pandemic.  We stand at the precipice of something most of us have never experienced, and we are acting accordingly.  Suddenly, our well-manicured lives have been upended, and we don’t know what to do.  We race to stores in a desperate attempt to obtain what we need, only to find the shelves bare.  We have confronted the limits of our self-sufficiency; that some things are beyond our control.  We see the gap between our nightmares and dreams, our hells and our heavens, narrowing.  We see that despite all our efforts, we cannot save ourselves from the worst that could happen. 

We thought we were so strong, but now know the truth: we are not as strong as we think we are. 

And that’s a good thing. 

If there is a silver lining in the corona virus scare, or any scare for that matter, it might be that.  That we might realize our finiteness. That we might see that we are mere creatures, dependent upon our Creator. That we might realize that our self-sufficiency is a delusion, and that we are, in fact, hopelessly dependent upon the One who is so much stronger than we. 

No friends, we are not as strong as we think we are. 

But there is One with the strength we need. 

I pray that in the days ahead, we all find our rest in Him.

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Pastor Brent

Sympathy for Qaddafi

‘God doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed.  He wants everyone to come to repentance’ – Peter, aka The Rock, in 2 Peter 3:9

I remember the day I saw the video.  Muammar Qaddafi, the man responsible for countless acts of terrorism, had been found hiding in a culvert by revolutionaries seeking to end his reign in Libya.  The video depicted an old man in the hands of his enemies, being led through the streets and pelted by rocks.  The crowd mocked him as he was led away to his death.  He appeared bewildered and begged for mercy.  The rocks continued to fly.  So did the fists.  The crowd was having a good time watching their enemy suffer.  Thankfully the network cut the video before the most brutal part.  In the end, Qaddafi was shot several times while pleading for his life. 

The video affected me in an unexpected way.  I had been trained from my High School days to see this man as the enemy – a brutal thug who needed to be brought to his knees.  Here he was, being brought to his knees.  Justice was being served.  Qaddafi was getting what he so richly deserved. 

But I didn’t feel any of that.  Instead, as I watched Qaddafi beg for his life and saw the profound sadness in his eyes, the bewilderment he felt as he realized his life had come to this, I found myself feeling sorry for him.  I even found myself praying for him.  Specifically, I found myself praying that God had used those final moments to draw Qaddafi to Himself, that he might realize the futility of his former ways, repent of all he had done, and fall into the arms of Jesus. 

I could hardly believe it.  Why was I feeling sorry for a guy like Qaddafi?  What in the world was wrong with me?  So much of the world was rejoicing.  Celebrating the notion that he would rot in hell.  And there I was, yes, this is true, with tears in my eyes, praying for his salvation. 

Seriously, what was wrong with me?

But then I remembered Good Times. 

For those of you too young to remember, Good Times was a 1970s comedy loosely based on the play, A Raisin in the Sun.  It chronicled the lives of the Evans family – an African American family living in the projects on the south side of Chicago.  The most famous character was the eldest son, J.J. Evans, whose signature, ‘Dy-no-mite!’ was all the rage for a time.  Other characters included J.J.’s siblings, Thelma and Michael, their parents, James and Florida, and of course, their nosy next-door neighbor Wilona. 

One episode had a profound impact upon me. It revolved around J.J. falling in with the wrong crowd.  He had taken up with a street gang, whose leader was a dude called ‘Mad Dog.’  I remember his first introduction to the family.  After meeting Thelma, he laughed and said, ‘Thelma?  What kind of mother would give birth to a daughter and name her Thelma?’  Thelma shot back, ‘the same kind of mother who would give birth to a boy and name him ‘Mad Dog!’  The long and the short of the story is that the Evans family tries to keep J.J. from further involvement with Mad Dog’s gang, and when J.J. attempts to break away, Mad Dog shoots him.  Fortunately, J.J. pulls through. Mad Dog, however, is left to pay the piper in a court of law.

J.J.’s father, James, Sr., goes to the courthouse for Mad Dog’s sentencing hearing to make sure the punishment is as severe as it should be.  He tells his wife Florida that if the judge doesn’t do his job, he will take care of the matter himself.  As the hearing unfolds, it looks like it just might come to that.  The judge is told there is no room in the jail, so Mad Dog escapes with probation.  James Evans Sr. is livid.  The man who shot his own son is getting away scot-free.  Mad Dog walks out of the courtroom, cocky as ever, followed by his mother, and then James, loaded for bear.  Just as he is about to turn the corner and confront the man who shot his son, he hears Mad Dog arguing with his mother, and in the course of listening to the argument, he learns a thing or two about Mad Dog’s past. 

Mad Dog had a pretty rough life.  Among other things, he had been abandoned by his father.  He and his mom argue some more, and the mother walks away.  She informs her son that she is washing her hands of him forever. Mad Dog shouts, ‘Fine!  Leave me just like everyone else!  See if I care!’  That’s when Mad Dog notices that James is standing around the corner.  He runs over to him and says, with tears in his eyes, ‘You want to hit me, go ahead and hit me!’  James suddenly can’t do it; ‘I don’t want to hit you son,’ is all he can say.  Mad Dog gets angrier, ‘Go on man, hit me, everyone else does!’  James again refuses, ‘No son, I won’t hit you.’  Mad Dog shouts, ‘Stop it!  Why are you calling me son?  Don’t call me Son!  What’s the matter with you!  What’s the matter with all of you!’  And then, tearfully, Mad Dog walks away. 

Florida comes around the corner.  She’s heard everything.  She goes to James and holds him.  James breaks down.  ‘I had him Florida,’ he says, ‘he even asked me to hit him, and I couldn’t do it.  What’s wrong with me?  Tell me, what kind of a father feels sorry for the man who shot his own son?’ 

I’ll never forget Florida’s response, ‘the right kind James – the right kind.’ 

Even as a kid that brought tears to my eyes.  It does even now.  It taught me something about mercy, understanding, and forgiveness.  It taught me about the kind of love that leads us to feel sorry for our enemies.  That episode, and especially that line – ‘the right kind James – the right kind,’ has had a profound impact on the way I think and act, at least in my better moments, down to this day. 

And so, I suppose that maybe, the reason I felt sorry for Qaddafi had a lot to do with James Evans.  Blame it on Good Times. 

Or maybe, blame it on God. 

Because you see, God loves and understands people the way James Evans does.  He loves and understands all the Mad Dogs of the world.  He understands why they are the way they are.  Even Qaddafi.  In fact, from the very foundations of eternity, he saw Qaddafi, and a whole slew of others like him who might make you want to turn violent yourself and said, ‘I love these guys.  I love them so much that I have decided to die for them that they might be restored.’

And if God thinks that way, shouldn’t we?

Which is why, to this day, whenever I think of Qaddafi’s last moments, I still feel sorry for him.  And I hope that somehow, God in his infinite and matchless grace found a way to reach him.  Even if it was at the very threshold of eternity.  I hope that something happened between the two of them that led to Qaddafi’s repentance, and that someday, at the ‘universal restoration of all things’ (Acts 3:21), when everything is restored to the way God intends it to be, Qaddafi will be there, renewed by Jesus, living as the man God intended him to be. 

And if that bothers you, well, what can I say?  Take it up with James Evans. 

Or better still, take it up with the God who desires everyone to come to repentance. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

Note: the image featured above is a portion of an early work of art from the catacombs. The full image imagines the scene from the Last Judgment as described in Matthew 25: 31-46. The portion shown here depicts Jesus rescuing a goat.