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Occasionally I hear a complaint about my columns. It goes like this. Lowell, I can grant you that the Bible urges churches
and individuals to be generous in their response to our neighbors' well being, but that's a religious issue not a political
one. Where does it say that the government should take responsibility for people's welfare?
Actually, it starts with the Exodus and goes through Jesus.
God's call to Moses sounds a bit like the voice of a labor organizer. "I have observed the misery of my people...;
I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters." (Ex. 3:7) So, God tells Moses to go straight to the government
and speak in the name of God on behalf of the workers. How does the government respond? With increased unfair labor practices,
telling brick-makers to gather their own straw but maintain the same productivity. It was workers' suffering under unjust
labor and wages that prompted God's call to Moses. Through Moses, God addressed the demands of justice to the powers of government
and the economy. It's not an isolated Biblical theme.
One of the problems that prompted the Exodus was that there arose in Egypt a Pharaoh who did not remember Joseph. In
those earlier days, Joseph exercised political authority for good. He created a centralized governmental administration of
food and essentials that saved the ancestors of Israel during a time of drought. Thanks to the effective planned governmental
oversight led by Joseph, Egypt was the only land with food in the Middle East. During the Katrina catastrophe, I wished we
had a Joseph running Homeland Security or FEMA.
Throughout Israel's history it was the role of the prophets to address the authorities of government and business in the
name of the Lord. The prophets demanded justice from the powerful. In the name of God they gave voice to advocacy for the
weak and the poor. They especially defended the most vulnerable -- "widows, orphans, and aliens," or as one translator
puts it, "single moms and illegal immigrants."
The prophet Nathan challenged King David when he used his power to steal from Uriah, a foreigner. Elijah confronted Ahab
and Jezebel when they legally confiscated Naboth's vineyard through their abuse of the judicial system. Elisha initiated
a political coup through Jehu, a political revolution directed at the urban elite and powerful merchant class that had consolidated
power under Ahab.
The great eighth century prophets spoke to a wealthy and powerful nation with strong international trade and close connections
with the mercantile economy of Phoenica. Amos, Hosea, and Micah condemned the unjust gap of wealth between rich and poor.
The prophets exposed a system that favored the property rights of the powerful at the expense of the common worker. They
called the false loyalties of international commerce "harlotry." And Isaiah advised the Jerusalem government to
trust God rather than their military alliances. "Beat your swords into plowshares," said more than one prophet.
When Jeremiah's scribe Baruch read oracles like "They do not judge with justice the cause of the orphan, to make
it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy," King Jehoiakim threw his scrolls into the fire. Jeremiah
spent much of his life threatened as an enemy of the state. A later prophet speaking in the name of Isaiah described what
the reign of a good monarch would look like. It would be a government of peace, like a good shepherd feeding the flock.
Jesus picked up on so many of these themes, announcing the Kingdom of God, an alternative rule to the kingdom of Caesar
and Pilate. He spoke good news to the poor. He called for the coming of a kingdom with daily bread and the forgiveness of
debts. One of his parables gave a full day's wage to everyone, even the person who came to work at the last hour. When asked
who his neighbor was, he told a story that said anyone in need is our neighbor, and our responsibility. He connected the
fate of a rich man with the poor beggar on the street. He fed the multitudes and he healed the ill. His agenda, his Kingdom
was too threatening to the established authorities. He was legally executed as an enemy of the state. It was a political
killing.
That's the Biblical agenda of God, and it has always had a political consequence. You might even hear some of that heritage
echoed in our founders' words in the preamble of our own Constitution -- "We the People of the United States, in Order
to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the
general Welfare..." Welfare is a good word. Speaking justice to the government is a Biblical activity.
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