From: dlhpfm!dlh@ncoast.org (daniel lance herrick)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: "Christian politics"??
Date: 1 Sep 92 07:51:12 GMT
Organization: dlh Performance Marketing

After my tirade, our moderator writes:

> [If you're going to use the OT as your reference for government -- and
> that probably makes sense since it's the primary place where we have
> governments under God's control -- I would refer you to the prophets'
> continual demands for taking care of widows, orphans, and other
> powerless people.  Now there may be some question as to whether the
> current welfare system is quite what the prophets had in mind.  But
> that's an issue of implementation.  It is not theft for the government
> to use taxes (in the OT it would be called tithes, but they were not
> voluntary) to make provisions for the needy.  Again, I am not
> necessarily defending specific programs as they currently exist.  I am
> saying that there is Biblical precedence for using government to aid
> people.  --clh]

I mentioned Amos 3:6 in my long comments that I excised above.  The
prophecy of Amos seems particularly relevant to the United States in
the latter part of the twentieth century.  I'm going to scan the book
and quote things that seem to me to fit this discussion.  I'll stick my
comments in curly braces.

For the record, prophecy is not telling the future, it is proclaiming
the eminent sanctions for obedience or disobedience.  Here we'll stick
to the disobedience part.

2:6 ...because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a
pair of shoes;

2:7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and
turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father will go in
unto the same maid, to profane my holy name:

{the important part of this adultery is that it profanes his name.}

2:8 And they lay themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every
altar...

{This is a direct reference to Exodus 22:26-27 which says that if you
take your neighbor's raiment as pledge you shall return it every night
so he will have it to sleep in.  Doing it by every altar is significant
because there was only one altar to Jehovah, "every" must be a
reference to the multitude of altars to other gods.  Putting this
detail adjacent to v.7 suggests, inconclusively, that they are using
the pledged garment as a couch for their adultery.}

2:8 (continued) and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house
of their god.

{Our unlawful legal system now takes the property of the accused
without worrying about convicting them in a court of law, a more
heinous perversion of justice than Amos here accuses Israel of.}

3:8 The lion hath roared, who will not fear?  the Lord God hath spoken,
who can but prophesy?

3:10 For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up
violence and robbery in their palaces.

{The prophet is not wasting time with the common people, he is going
right to the center of things, where they "store up" malfeasance in
their "palaces"; you know, like 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the Capital
Building, and the Ivory Palace where the Supreme Court meets.}

3:11 ...An adversary...shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy
palaces shall be spoiled.

3:15 ...and thy houses of ivory shall perish...

{Back in the early sixties I took a college course on government that
used a text about the Supreme Court titled "The Ivory Palace", just an
amusing detail, I don't claim any special significance except the
juxtoposition catches my eye.}

4:1 Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of
Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy...

{the next few verses are about (1) the Lord scorning their sacrifices
and (2) how he has chastened them for their oppression of the poor and
needy - "cleanness of teeth, "want of bread", "withheld rain",
"blasting and mildew", "the palmerworm devoured", "pestilence [as in]
Egypt", "young men slain with sword".  Verses 6, 8, 9, 10, 11 all say
that in the face of this chastening, "yet have ye not returned unto me,
saith the Lord".}

{and one of the sacrifices he scorns is}

4:4 ...bring...your tithes after three years:

{The significance of this is that there was a tithe proclaimed to be
paid only in the third and sixth years.  Deuteronomy 26:12 "When thou
hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third
year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto the Levite,
the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat within
thy gates, and be filled;".  This tithe is to given directly to the
needy, in addition to leaving the corners of the field for gleaning, and
other provisions.  The Lord scorns this sacrifice because of the
hypocrisy of paying it out of wealth stolen from the poor.}

4:12 Therefore...prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.

{I just checked Strong's, "prepare to meet thy God" occurs only here.}

5:11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, and ye take
from him burdens of wheat:....

{I left out what he is going to do to them.}

5:12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they
afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in
the gate from their right.

{In the gate is where the civil magistrate hears disputes and decides
between the claimants according to the law.  Except the decisions seem
to go against the poor.  Moses said that decisions were to be just,
without special regard for the rich or the poor.}

{Skipping descriptions of the judgment that will come on them,
declaration that their worship is odious.}

8:4 Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of
the land to fail,

8:5 ...that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the
shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?

{Dishonest weights and measures oppress the poor.  The center of the
judgment that the Lord will visit upon Israel for its sins is notable:  }

8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a
famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but
of hearing the words of the Lord:

8:12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to
the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and
shall not find it.

End of the pass through Amos.

What is the point.  There are many charges laid against Israel (I
skipped the circle of other nations that begins the prophecy), above I
have selected only the ones that involve the poor, the helpless.  These
charges tie quite closely to the specific relief laws in the law.

The prophet talks about various ways they have perverted justice,
finding various ways to steal from the poor. There is a decidedly
twentieth century ring to his words.  (I still steam when I remember
watching Coleman Young declare that Poletown in Hamtramck belongs to
`the people' and `the people' are going to take it and give it to
General Motors to build a Cadillac plant.  That particular unlawful
legal injustice against some of the poor of our land is almost ten
years gone, now.  The Psalmist declared that "The earth is the Lord's",
Coleman Young said it belongs to Detroit.  Do you think there might be
some connection between these ethics and the current prosperity of
General Motors Corporation?)

The prophet calls Israel (this means the northern kingdom, conquered
and dispersed by Assyria in 722 B.C.) to account for specific
infractions against the law, particularly for using the legal system to
unlawfully withhold justice from the poor and helpless.  The law says
there is to be one law for the mighty and the helpless, for the citizen
and the stranger.  

Charles, you said above, "Now there may be some question as to whether
the current welfare system is quite what the prophets had in mind."  I
submit that the current welfare system of the United States is exactly
the sort of thing Amos had in mind, the sort of thing that he accused
Israel of practicing, the sort of thing that he said God would judge
them for.

One of the notable things about the details of the provision in the law
for the poor and the helpless, for the stranger that is within thy
gates, is that it brings direct contact between the benefactor and the
target of his benevolence.  The tithe you mentioned, Deuteronomy 26:12,
is "given ... unto the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the
widow", it is not given unto someone in Jerusalem so they can send part
of it back to Carmel to take care of the widows there.  You are right
when you declare that the tithe is not optional, but you are wrong when
you suggest that God makes the civil magistrate responsible for
mediating its transmission to those who benefit from it.

My previous posting was about making a transition from what we have
toward a Godly society.  In your response you spoke of the prophets and
one feature of our current society that I label ungodly, so this
posting is about what one prophet said on that subject.  The prophecy
was charges of the breaking of specific laws.  This article is already
overlong and I shall not say more about the details of the provision in
the law for the care of the poor and the helpless.

I am frightened by the famine of the hearing of the words of the Lord
in my land.  I am making some feeble effort to proclaim those words.

dan

P.S. A quibble with your language, Charles:  The prophet does not make
"demands for taking care of widows," etc, he charges the ones against
whome he brings his prophecy with failing to take care of them.  The
law provides specific statutory and case law specifying the care of the
poor and the helpless.