Poverty plagues...
Illustration
Object:
Poverty plagues America. The U.S. Census Bureau reported at the end of 2012 that 16% of Americans were in poverty. And it is estimated that nearly half the people on the globe are in that condition. The idea that the church should do something about this is a controversial topic, and most Americans (54% as per a 2012 Gallup poll) would not look favorably on the idea that the church should work for change in our economic structures. And yet the church has historically seen economics as part of its agenda. The early African theologian of the first Christian centuries Clement of Alexandria lamented poverty:
God... made all things for all. All things therefore are common, and not for the rich to appropriate an undue share.
(Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 268)
And Martin Luther made a similar, even more specific proposal:
There are pious people who would like to work and to support themselves, with their wife and children, but who can never prosper and must occasionally get into debt and difficulty. For the benefit of such people every city should have its common treasure and alms, and it should have church officials to determine who those people are and how they live.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 21, p. 118)
Such proposals are not in violation with the intentions of America's Founders. Thomas Jefferson is on record as advocating redistribution of wealth:
Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right... If for the encouragement of industry we allow it [the land] to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be provided to those excused from appropriation.
(Writings, pp. 841-842)
James Madison echoes similar sentiments:
[T]he great objection should be to combat the evil [of faction] by withholding unnecessary opportunities from a few... By the silent operation laws, which without violating the rights of property reduce extreme wealth toward a state of mediocrity, raise extreme indigence toward a state of comfort.
(Papers, Vol. 14, p. 197)
God... made all things for all. All things therefore are common, and not for the rich to appropriate an undue share.
(Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2, p. 268)
And Martin Luther made a similar, even more specific proposal:
There are pious people who would like to work and to support themselves, with their wife and children, but who can never prosper and must occasionally get into debt and difficulty. For the benefit of such people every city should have its common treasure and alms, and it should have church officials to determine who those people are and how they live.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 21, p. 118)
Such proposals are not in violation with the intentions of America's Founders. Thomas Jefferson is on record as advocating redistribution of wealth:
Whenever there are in any country uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right... If for the encouragement of industry we allow it [the land] to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be provided to those excused from appropriation.
(Writings, pp. 841-842)
James Madison echoes similar sentiments:
[T]he great objection should be to combat the evil [of faction] by withholding unnecessary opportunities from a few... By the silent operation laws, which without violating the rights of property reduce extreme wealth toward a state of mediocrity, raise extreme indigence toward a state of comfort.
(Papers, Vol. 14, p. 197)
