"Is it not immoral," the authors of this literature ask, "for Americans to enjoy so much when others have so little? Look at all the energy we consume with our air conditioners, big cars, and high style of living! Aren't we taking an unfair share of the earth's limited resources?"
Within the last few years a number of Christian writers have also taken up the banner of the LDC's. One such writer, for instance, charges America and other Western nations with unfair trade practices. Not only does the West supposedly erect trade barriers to keep out manufactured goods from the LDC's ~ thus keeping them as suppliers of raw materials -- but we refuse to pay them "fair prices" for the raw materials we do buy. Finally, it is claimed, we charge "excessively high prices" for the manufactured goods we sell.
The Christian critics, and the secular-oriented activists from whom our Christian brethren get their theme, have suggested various plans of action:
1. Live the simple life, they say. Sell your large home. Move to a smaller one, an old house that you can fix up. Sell your car. Use a bicycle or walk. Live in a Christian commune where costs and appliances can be shared.
2. Take affirmative action: Give political support to increase foreign aid (except military aid) and funds given to world relief organizations like the United Nations. Support private secular and Christian relief groups. Boycott and apply political pressure on large corporations whose policies take "unfair advantage" of the poor in LDC's. Strive for political and economic reform in countries whose "militaristic regimes", abuse and grind down the poor. [One Christian writer, for instance, mentioned (on the same page!) the countries of Chile, South Korea, Cambodia, and South Vietnam. Chile and South Korea were charged with having military regimes that torture and grossly maltreat their citizens. But nothing was said about the mass genocide and inhuman subjugation imposed by the bloodthirsty communist regimes in Cambodia and South Vietnam! This discriminatory and shocking obtuseness to blatant moral evil of the grossest sort only serves to make knowledgeable people question the critic's orientation and motives.]
What is the proper attitude for serious-minded Christians to take concerning poverty and starvation in the LDC'S? And what can Christians constructively do to alleviate and cure the problem?
I think it is necessary to dismiss the guilt feelings conjured up by these critics. No doubt some of our Christian critics are honestly motivated, but they seriously err in at least two respects:
1. They have accepted the fallacious assumption held by humanism-oriented secular critics that the world is endowed with virtually infinite quantities of time, but only a finite amount of natural resources, and that these resources are being quickly and irretrievably "used up" by the more advanced nations. Inherent in this assumption is a non-biblical view of the sovereignty of God. Secular critics, in their denial of a purposive and sovereign Creator, are blind (Rom. 1:21) to the fact that God has blessed the earth with untold riches. All that is necessary to release this vast storehouse of riches is for men to be free, so they can fulfill their economic mandate to "replenish the earth and subdue it" (Gen 1:28).
The "scarcity of resources" fear is but a figment of humanistic man's imagination. It is the result of his rebellious, God-denying world-and-life view. The problem of poverty (scarcity of resources) can be solved by following God's admonition, spoken through His servant Moses, "Let my people go, that they may serve me!" (Ex. 8:1). Let us not forget that the obstacle to the God-serving freedom of which Moses spoke was a civil tyrant, Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt. And the problem today, some 3,400 years later, remains the same. Men will prosper economically when the civil authority or every nation is relegated to its biblical role -- not of being a central planner and developer of "national programs" designed to build Utopian societies -- but of simply maintaining law and order so men can freely engage in mutually benefiting economic exchange. The inescapable fact is that most civil governments in LDC's are busily erecting centrally controlled economies and following policies which deny freedom to the masses. Thus, man's natural impulse to produce economically is thwarted instead of being stimulated.
2. The other respect in which Christian critics of "the good life" err is that God means for His people to enjoy abundant economic blessings if they but follow His word: "And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold" (Gen. 13:1). "And David made him houses in the city of David. . ." II Chr. 15:1). (See also Deut. 28:1-14), Are we to believe that God's blessings should be eschewed as long as people in other nations are in want?
Voluntary sharing, i.e., charity in the name of Christ, is indeed called for, and Christians everywhere should be called on to supply the need of those stricken with poverty. But the main objective is not the relief of poverty, as such, but to bring honor and glory to Christ Jesus our Lord. Nowhere does the Bible ever hint that the relief of poverty should be handled in the sphere of civil government. Thus, charitable work cannot and should not be handled by tax generated funds -- and especially not by God-denying institutions like the U.N. Christians should indeed extend a loving hand of help, but the hand of help must be accompanied by an arm of instruction that points the way of righteousness so that the causes of poverty can be eliminated. The problem of the LDC's is basically spiritual.
The people of all nations, believing or apostate, are called upon to bow to the rule of the one true God: "Fear before him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved" (I Chr. 16:30), Note the promise included in the above mandate. The Lord has created a world of cause and effect. The people who believingly submit to the rules that God has instituted (in short, the Law and the Prophets] will prosper. Those who don't will be cursed spiritually, politically, and economically (See Deut. 28:15-48l.
At one time the American colonies were what could be called a developing nation. They started at a much lower economic level than present LDC's. How did they fight poverty and hunger? Our forefathers did it by adhering to God's Law. They established social institutions that conformed to God's Word to protect life, liberty, and property. This created a potentially profitable economic climate that attracted risk capital from Europe. Interest rates and earned profits on foreign capital were high, but the left-over domestic fruits were even greater. In general, the LDC's of today are following perverse policies which undermine private ownership, profit incentives, and the dignity of the individual. (The latter is exemplified in land policies which tend to dispossess and cut the masses off from economic access to land.)
What, then, is the answer? If American Christians voluntarily elect to "lead the simple life" as a means of personal penance, this will do no harm. (Neither will it reduce "poverty and hunger overseas.) The biblical answer to economic development is to preach the whole Gospel of Christ and to teach heathen nations to forsake their ungodly ways by conforming their personal lives and social institutions to God's Word. This calls for Christian missionaries whose gospel preaching will change lifestyles and social institutions. Food unaccompanied by the Gospel and a call to repentance will only allow existing God-denying lifestyles and institutions to continue. (Take India, for example, which is blessed with millions of acres of unused arable land and millions of cattle which could be eaten.) Men everywhere must turn to the one true God. Then, and only then, will the root problem of hunger and poverty be attacked. We live in a God-created world of cause and effect. Men cannot escape from having to live out the economic and social consequences of their theology.
For because ye did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order.- I Chr. 15:13
(For further reading, see Prof. P.T. Bauer's book, Dissent on Development, Harvard University Press, 1972.)
Biblical Economics Today Vol. 2, No. 2 (April/May 1979)
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