Politics and Poverty

As followers of Christ, we should want the word of God to inform our political views, and when we try to do that, one of the first things we are faced with is that there is no political party who gets it all right. Last time we looked at some things the Bible doesn't say. This time, let's look at what it does say and wrestle a bit with how we apply that in our world.

Why are people poor? Many in our society believe that people are poor because they've been oppressed. What do the scriptures say? "Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare" (Prov 20:13).

And many others in our society applaud that and say, "Yes, they're poor because they're lazy!" To which the scriptures say, "An unplowed field produces food for the poor, but injustice sweeps it away" (Prov 13:23).

So the scriptures say that sometimes people are poor because they're lazy, and sometimes they're poor because of injustice. They can become poor because they're drunks (Prov 23:21) or hedonists who do not save (Prov 21:17). In an agrarian society, people could become poor because of things that were totally out of their control like a bad harvest (eg, Gen 42:1-2), whether it was due to a lack of rain or simply less than ideal soil. And the scriptures never tell us to figure out how people became poor. They simply say things like:

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done. (Prov 19:17)

Whoever mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker. (Prov 17:5)

Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed. (Psalm 82:3)

Being kind to the poor, helping them, doesn't seem to be optional. But how do we help the poor? Does the Bible tell us that? Yes. Yes it does.

The first command regarding the poor in the Mosaic Law is, "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy… charge him no interest” (Ex 22:25). The next is this: “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest ... Leave them for the poor and the alien” (Lev 19:9-10). These and other biblical commands regarding charity show two interesting features. First, we see a preference toward helping the poor take care of themselves rather than just receiving charity. Second, the commands in scripture are aimed at the individual. Yes, these commands were given to a community, but each individual was responsible for carrying them out, and he was answerable to God alone for his failure to do so. And political conservatives say, "Ah ha!"

There is a preference toward helping the poor take care of themselves, but there's also the acknowledgment that sometimes that's not enough, so God's people also were told to give directly to the poor. The needy were given the OT tithe every three years (Deut 14:28-29), and Jesus told his followers, “Give to the one who asks you” (Matt 5:42). And yet the Bible also says, “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thess 3:10, emphasis added) and says you should care for your family rather than allow them to be a burden on the community (1Tim 5:16). So it's somewhat more complicated than "give the poor money" or "don't give the poor money".

The commands about caring for the poor are given to the individual. At no point is any government ever commanded to gather up money and give it to the poor. And yet, nations are judged corporately regarding how they treat the poor (eg, Amos 2:6-7). Once again, it's not as simple as we'd like it to be.

So how do we best help the poor become self-sufficient? How much money should we give to whom? And when? And how? These are things the scriptures don't tell us. We all have to struggle with that using the wisdom the Lord has given us.

And we need to be charitable to believers who come to different conclusions than we do. How dare a person who believes in government funded transfer payments castigate someone who literally gives interest-free loans to the poor they know? "But I don't know if they do that." No, you don't. Keep that in mind.

The Bible really does have a lot to say about how we should view and treat the poor. And no political party gets it all right. In a democratic society, Christian voters have the freedom and the responsibility to urge leaders to do right and vote for those who, in that voter's personal opinion, offer better approaches. And after that vote, when a party is in power, we have the freedom and the responsibility to call them out when they do wrong. Use your voice. Exercise that freedom which so many Christians throughout history and even today do not have. Because one day our society may be judged based on how it has treated the poor. Because one day we may be judged based on how we have used the privileges of a democratic society.


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