Where Does the Bible Teach That Political Opposition to the Welfare State Is Immoral?
Jim Wallis is part of the media's attempt to convince people that any refusal by the House to capitulate to the Senate's "clean" continuing resolution to fund the federal government the Senate's way is analogous to an act of political terrorism. The House must capitulate to Obama and the Senate.
Really? Why? I mean other than politics, why?
The Constitution gives the House the sole right to introduce spending legislation. It does not say that the House cannot do this any way it wants.
Wallis complains:
One of the most depressing things I heard on the first day of the government shutdown was that it was a record fundraising day for both parties. Washington, D.C., is no longer about governing; it is just about winning and losing.
Politics is about winning and losing. It always has been. It is about gaining power. It is about who benefits from this power, and who loses. Politics is almost entirely a zero-sum game. The gains of the winners come at the expense of the losers. When Lenin asked "Who? Whom?" he had it right.
This has been true since about 1789 -- before there was Washington, D.C.
But the people who will lose the most during a government shutdown -- and then an impending United States government default on paying its debts -- are those who live day to day on their wages, those at the lower end of the nation's economy, and the poorest and most vulnerable who are always hurt the most in a crisis like this.
Who says there will be a shutdown? There will be furloughed federal workers. There is no indication that there will be reductions of the welfare programs for the poor. There should be, but there won't be. The federal government will continue to threaten Americans with fines or jail if they do not turn over their money to the federal government, so that -- after lots of overhead expenses for welfare agency employees -- the federal government can make welfare dependents out of millions of poor people.
And what happens to those people is the focus of the faith community; that is our job in politics -- to talk about what happens to them. Faith leaders have been meeting to discuss what we must do in response to this political crisis brought on by absolute political dysfunction.
It is the faith community: faith in the redemptive power of confiscated wealth and political support for certain voting blocs.
The government shutdown seems to have gotten the attention of the nation. And if this ends in a default on our debt, the potentially catastrophic crashing of the economy will certainly wake us up. The only positive I see in this crisis is that the right issues -- the moral issues -- might finally get our attention.
Debt maintenance is 6% of the federal budget. If the government defaults, it will pay a little more next year in interest payments. So what?
President Obama will send a memo to the Secretary of the Treasury and tell him to pay all interest on the debt. What could Speaker Boehner do about it? Organize impeachment proceedings? Would the Senate convict? No.
The debt is held by foreign central banks, who inflate their currencies, buy U.S. debt, and hold down the value of their currencies. They don't care about the rate of T-bill interest, which is a tenth of a percent. They buy T-bills to subsidize their export industries by depreciating their currencies, not to earn interest. That will not stop because of a temporary suspension of interest payments.
Let me make myself clear on the politics here: Debates over fiscal matters -- budgets, taxes, and spending -- are supposed to take place within the political process, in negotiations, compromises, and conferences between the Senate, House, and White House, and settled by elections.
Everything on Capitol Hill is "within the political process." So, what is he talking about? He is demonizing those who think that there should be a delay of ObamaCare for a year.
We can't use government shutdowns and debt repayments as bargaining chips in these debates.
Really? Why not? Is there something in the Constitution that says this? No.
Most political leaders I know, both Republicans and Democrats, believe in government and governing. They may differ over how big or small or limited, but they are not hostile to government itself.
That's why they are political leaders. They were elected to serve in civil government. They believe in exercising power. Big surprise!
The issues here are deeper than politics now; they are moral and, I would argue, theological.
Yes, they are. The judge Samuel warned against a king.
And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants (I Samuel 8:14-17).
The federal government takes 20%, not 10%.
The Bible speaks clearly about the role of government, and that is what is really being challenged here.
Yes, it does. It says that U.S. taxes are tyrannical. It taxes some people at 40%. Ten percent is tyrannical.
It's time for those people of faith who want to shut down the government to read their Bibles.
Yes, they should, beginning with Jim Wallis. Physician, heal thyself.
Because pressuring the nation to shut down the government, instead of keeping debate within the political process, is contrary not only to our best political traditions, but also to what our scriptures say.
Which scriptures? Surely not I Samuel 8.
And underlying this current crisis, there is a clear hostility to government itself, government per se, from a group of political extremists that I believe is unbiblical. It is a minority of our elected officials who are demonstrating their anti-government ideology. But that extreme minority has captured their party and the political process, and has driven the nation into dangerous crisis based upon fear.
They have not captured it yet. But when the debts of the federal government at last produce the Great Default, most of the U.S. government will be discarded.
Of course, the poor victims who have become dependent on the government will be ruined. That is what happens to those who trust in false gods. And this really is taught in the Bible.
This kind of crisis should cause people of faith to fast and pray and read their Bibles. And whether or not you are a person of faith, you might find it interesting to see what the Bible says about the mess we are now in.
Yes, it does. We must begin with this: "Thou shalt not steal." We must not begin with this: "Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote."
There are two ways the political extremists are being unbiblical. First, to be hostile to the role of government is unbiblical, according to the scriptures.
Which role of government?
Second, because of their hostility to government, many of those who are promoting this crisis are also hostile to the poor, who are supposed to be protected by the government. They blame the poor for their poverty instead of asking how government can protect the most vulnerable and even help lift them out of poverty.
Nowhere in the Bible is there a command for the state to collect money from one group and give it to another group, unless as restitution: compensation for criminal theft.
The facts and the faces of those who suffer first and worst from these crises must be lifted up -- and that is the role of the faith community. Already, thousands of children are losing their Head Start programs, mothers with children are losing WIC support (the Women, Infants, and Children program), and many of those most dependent on their paychecks are now losing them.
This is the welfare state. The Bible does not teach such a view of civil government. This is why Wallis never quotes a verse that teaches that the state can lawfully extract wealth from one group and give it to another group.
Here is what the Bible teaches.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour (Leviticus 19:15).
We have waited 35 years for Jim Wallis to explain this verse.
Instead, he invokes the power of the state to discriminate against taxpayers, all in the name of Jesus. "You see this badge, boy? You see thus gun? Well, the faith community sent me. Go get your wallet. You are going to do the right thing, you hear?"