"What Would Jesus Steal?" -- The Bible vs. Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Economics (and Senator Obama's)
May 10, 2008
The controversy over Rev. Jeremiah Wright's statements has not died down. The focus of media attention is his "God damn America" sermon. But that's not the main conclusion of his theology. The main conclusion of his theology is his call for gigantic reparations payments to African-Americans by the Federal government. This would be the largest government welfare project since Medicare. For details on his position and his church's position, click here:
The idea of tax-funded reparations to African Americans assumes that the government of the United States, which defeated the government of the Confederacy in 1865, is somehow morally and legally responsible for the economic practices of 20% of the families in the South in 1865 and earlier. This is a very strange concept of restitution. It is surely not a biblical concept, which argues that specific victims must be compensated for crimes by those individuals who committed the crimes. On this point, download my free book Victim's Rights (1990).
There is something else. The U.S. Constitution prohibits ex post facto laws (Article 1, Section 8). When a practice is not a crime, it is illegal under the Constitution to prosecute someone for having indulged in the practice on the basis of a law that was passed after the act took place.
Rev. Wright is an advocate of what is known as black theology. Black theology is a variant of the radical movement known as liberation theology, which is an extreme version of the social gospel. Rev. Wright is open about his advocacy of black theology-liberation theology.
Liberation theology was originally an extension of Marxism. It appeared first in Latin American circles within the Catholic Church, a point made by Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) in a 1984 essay. It was popular in leftist circles in the 1970's and 1980's until the Communists in the USSR did the unforgivable thing in 1991: they stabbed liberation theologians in the back by abdicating when their economic policies finally bankrupted the country. Within a few months, books on liberation theology were found bookstores around America in the "books for a buck" bins. The movement had become old fashioned -- another hopeless fad of liberals in the pulpit.
Rev. Wright did not get the memo.
These theological and political liberals have rewritten the Bible's commandment, "Thou Shalt Not Steal," to read: "Thou Shalt Not Steal, Except by Majority Vote."
They all preach the same message: coercive wealth redistribution by the State in the name of Jesus. They recommend robbing Peter to pay Paul -- minus 50% for government handling -- and call it social justice. They ask the same question: "What would Jesus steal?" They all give the same answer: "A lot."
To justify their recommended policy of high taxation and government handouts, they selectively quote the Old Testament prophets. They refuse to mention the fact that the prophets called for a restoration of biblical civil justice, which rested on this fundamental precept:
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour (Leviticus 19:15).
This principle undercuts the welfare state, which imposes different rates of taxation on different groups. The Bible demands equality before the law. "One law shall be to him that is homeborn, and unto the stranger that sojourneth among you" (Exodus 12:49). The welfare state denies this.
These theologians never refer to Leviticus 19:15 and Exodus 12:49, for obvious reasons. They want the government to extract money from higher income groups in order to hand out money to their constituents. They teach that the prophets taught this -- the opposite of what the prophets taught. This should warn us that these people are either dishonest or are incapable of reading the plain texts of the Bible.
Senator Obama has not called for reparations, but he has attended (and donated large sums of money to) a church for two decades whose pastor -- Rev. Wright -- did call for reparations, as have other leaders in the congregation. He was prepared to accept such teachings. His mentor, whom he acknowledges (first name only) in his autobiography, Dreams from My Father, was Frank Davis. Davis was a Communist, though not a liberation theologian. On Davis, click here:
Obama may not have invoked the Old Testament prophets in his call for the State to take money from the rich and give it to the poor. But his pastor has, and he stayed in that man's church for two decades. He donated $23,000 to the church in 2007 (out of his $4.2 million income). That's good enough -- meaning bad enough -- for me.
It does no good to refute one liberation theologian after another. They just keep coming. What has been needed is a book that undermines their central theme: "The Old Testament prophets preached doctrines favorable to the welfare state."
I have just completed my book on the economic teachings of the Old Testament's prophets. I have dealt with every verse in which they referred to economics. If you want to know what's wrong with Rev. Wright's theology, begin here. I have posted it in manuscript form. You can download it for free. If you find any typographical, grammatical, or spelling errors, let me know.
If, after reading it, you want more information on this misuse of the Bible, click here:
These people are getting away with exegetical murder. Pastors who recognize that Rev. Wright and his theological peers have played fast and loose with the Bible need to preach the truth on these issues. Remaining prudently silent is not a moral option in a world where the enemies of the gospel are trying to get the state to stick a gun in the bellies of tens of millions of Americans and say, "Fork over your money. You owe it to us. The Bible says so." The Bible doesn't say so. We are dealing with the politics of guilt, not the politics of liberation.
To pastors, I say: "Chapter and verse. Preach chapter and verse. It's time."
To laymen, I say: "Ask your pastor to preach on this. It's time."