February, 2009
Greetings,
It is Monday, Feb. 2nd right now, and I am behind on getting the February Leadership email out to you. The main reason I am behind on this is because I was at a Vineyard USA Board meeting all last week. I am trying to catch up from that right now!
Anyway, for this leadership email, I have decided to send you an article from my good friend Rich Nathan (Sr. Pastor at Vineyard Church of Columbus) entitled "Who is Responsible for Helping the Poor?"
There are 3 main reasons I am sending this to you for this edition of my leadership email:
1. I am behind on getting this out to you already
2. I am very depressed about the Cardinals gut-wrenching loss yesterday in the Super Bowl
3. Rich's article is a very good article that we all need to read
Hopefully, I will be out of my depression over the Cardinals loss by this weekend! Enjoy Rich's article. See you this weekend!
Love,
Brian
Who Is Responsible For Helping The Poor?
by Rich Nathan
According to economists we are currently going through the worst economic crisis since WWII. Half a million people lost their jobs just in December 2008. Many are predicting that the national unemployment rate will be in double-digits by the end of 2009. American auto makers, once our largest industry, are facing bankruptcy. Millions of people have lost their homes through foreclosure. Millions more are unable to secure the credit they need to make payroll or to do business. The poverty rate in the United States is steadily rising while state and city governments are cutting back on essential services. Vineyard Columbus' food pantry served 40% more people in November 2008 than the previous year.
Who is responsible for helping the poor? The foundation for all care for the poor is God himself Throughout the Bible, God reveals Himself as having a special concern for the poor. The Bible repeatedly says that God works to lift up the poor and the oppressed. In the Exodus account we repeatedly read that God intervened because He hated to see the oppression experienced by His people (Ex. 3:7-8; 6:5-7, etc.). Psalm 140:12 reads I know that the Lord secures justice for the poor and upholds the cause of the needy In fact, God so identifies with the poor that caring for them is likened to helping God He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord (Proverbs 19:17). On the other hand, the person who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker (Proverbs 14:31).
As a general rule, though, God does not meet the needs of the poor directly from heaven. While He provided manna from heaven for the Israelites during their wilderness journey, that seems to be a once in history occurrence. The main way God provides for the poor is by partnering together with the human race to meet people's needs. Of course, individuals are held primarily responsible for meeting their own needs. Proverbs 13:4 says A sluggard's appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied And the Apostle Paul is quite clear when he told the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "Anyone who is unwilling to work shall not eat."
But what if the problem is not that a person will not work, but rather cannot work because of a disability, or because in a declining economy they cannot find work (or perhaps their work is part-time, or pays too little to meet their basic needs)? Who is responsible, if the poor are unable (as opposed to unwilling), to meet their own needs?
A few years ago the US Catholic Bishops published a pastoral reflection titled,
A Catholic Commitment to Overcome Poverty and to Respect the Dignity of All God's Children. The Catholic Bishops spoke about the responsibility to care for the poor as being like a four-legged table; and that each person in society deserved "a place at the table." The four legs of the table are: 1) What families can do; 2) What the church can do; 3) What the business community can do; and, 4) What the government can do to overcome poverty. The four-legged table accurately reflects biblical teaching regarding the various institutions responsible for helping the poor.
People's families are responsible The first institution that individuals ought to go to, if they cannot meet their own needs, is their own families. Over and over in scripture God assigns to the family the responsibility to care for its own members. In Leviticus 25 (the Bible's great text on economic justice), the first responsibility to help belongs to the poor person's next of kin (Lev. 25:25, 35). Similarly, 1 Timothy 5:16 demands that a Christian widow's relatives should be her first means of support. If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.
But what if a person's family is unable or unwilling to help them?
God's people are responsible God not only cares for the poor, but He commands His people to share His care for the poor. Over and over in the Bible God commands His people to provide for widows, orphans, and foreigners (in other words, the most marginalized people in society). God tells His people that if there is a poor person in their midst, they should not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted toward your brother. Rather, be open-handed and freely lend him whatever he needs (Deut. 15:7-8). Jesus told His disciples that when they throw parties they should especially invite the poor and the disabled (Luke 14:12-14). And God says that he does not want us to worship him, no matter how fervent we are or how much we fast or how loudly we sing, if we do not give to the poor (see Isaiah 58:6-7; Amos 5:21-24; 1 John 3:17).
Businesses are responsible to help the poor Amos takes business leaders and merchants to task for their business practices which made people poor. Listen to Amos' words in Amos 8:4-6 Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, "When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?" skimping on the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat.
At the time Amos wrote Israel was experiencing a "golden age." It was nearly as prosperous as during the time of King Solomon. But business leaders kept much of the wealth for themselves and did not share it with their workers or with the poor. Amos accused business leaders of dishonesty. They used crooked weights and measures. The ephah, which was a dry measure slightly larger than a half bushel, was reduced by lining the basket. The shekel, which was a metal weight, was enlarged, so it took more gold or silver to balance it on the scales. The balance itself was bent in favor of the sellers so that poor buyers had to pay more to get less. And finally, wheat that was sold in shrunken quantities had filler in it - "the sweepings" from the threshing floor.
Manipulating the market to gain unfair advantages is an offense against God. As the Roman Catholic Bishops put it, "The private sector must not only be an engine of growth and productivity, but a reflection of our values and priorities, a contributor to the common good." In other words profit is not the ultimate goal of business Profit is the means by which (those who are Christian) business persons serve a greater goal, namely the good of their employees and the greater good of society.
The government is responsible Christians are rightly concerned about the growth of government with respect to the general welfare of our society. Our concern is not only because of bureaucracy and inefficiency and waste (although these are serious problems). We must be careful that government doesn't entirely take over the responsibility that every other institution in society has for the poor. Government (like every other institution) is fallen. We've had terrible examples in the last century of what happens when government gets too large and becomes totalitarian.
Still, the Bible rejects the Libertarian and Conservative claims that the government has no proper role in caring for the poor. According to scripture, the government's responsibility goes beyond simply "restraining evil" (through police, the court system, and the provision for the national defense). While it is true that the government was instituted to be the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrong-doer (Romans 13:4), government also has a positive role according to the Apostle Paul to be God's servant for your good . Government can, of course, provide the environment to enable other institutions in the community such as, the family, the church, non-profits, and businesses, to carry out their responsibilities to care for the economically dependent. But, the government is the fourth leg of the table in providing for the poor.
The role of government in this respect is seen in the Bible's portrayal of the ideal ruler. Psalm 72 (which is considered a royal Psalm) gives the following purpose for the ruler May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor This task is identified as his work of "justice" (Psalm 72:1-3). Whether it was the king or the village elders (Amos 5:12, 15) government had the responsibility to provide for the economically disadvantaged (Jeremiah 22:15-16).
Christians may legitimately argue about what the proper mix of these four institutions ought to be. My personal view is that help ought to be carried out at the lowest level and most personal way possible. Some will argue for a smaller government; some for a larger government. But some things can only be carried out by government (for example, non-discrimination laws, environmental laws, minimum wage laws, social security, etc.). No other institution can assemble the money and organization necessary to do these things. In this current economic crisis, if people are going to have a "place at the table," and not have the table fall over, all four institutions: the family, the church, private businesses, and government, must work together to provide for the poor in our country.
