The situation in Amos' context...
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The situation in Amos' context was like our own: Free market capitalism exploits the poor, while the rich get richer (Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation, esp. pp. 11ff). Most recent U.S. Census Bureau data bears out the truth of this observation, as nearly 33% of all working families live near poverty, and the top 20% of Americans received 48% of all income, while the bottom 20% of Americans received less than 5% of the total national income! What can the church do about such economic realities? John Calvin offers sound advice:
"Will not the Lord say, 'Why have you allowed so many needy to die of hunger? Surely you had gold with which to minister sustenance. Why were so many prisoners carried off and not ransomed?...' Whatever, then, the church had was for the support of the needy" (Institutes of the Christian Religion [Westminster Press edition], p. 398).
Yale University Law School professor Stephen Carter offers corresponding advice regarding the contribution religious perspectives offer to political and economic life. In his view they provide a lesson in the importance of means (how you arrive at a political outcome or economic success). That is, faith teaches that means are as important as ends, that how you got there is as important as where you got (The Culture of Disbelief, p. 273).
"Will not the Lord say, 'Why have you allowed so many needy to die of hunger? Surely you had gold with which to minister sustenance. Why were so many prisoners carried off and not ransomed?...' Whatever, then, the church had was for the support of the needy" (Institutes of the Christian Religion [Westminster Press edition], p. 398).
Yale University Law School professor Stephen Carter offers corresponding advice regarding the contribution religious perspectives offer to political and economic life. In his view they provide a lesson in the importance of means (how you arrive at a political outcome or economic success). That is, faith teaches that means are as important as ends, that how you got there is as important as where you got (The Culture of Disbelief, p. 273).
