The
message of so many cartoons, like the December 6, 2013’s “The Mighty Pen,” feed into blatant
falsehoods about liberals. It suggests,
first of all that liberal public policies are more Christ-like because they
“care about the poor.” If liberals cared
about the poor, they would give more of their personal income to help
them. Every study shows that as a
percentage of income conservatives contribute 3 times as much to charitable
causes. Liberals want to take our money
to contribute to their causes, but they are shamefully reluctant to contribute
their own. A classic example: Joe Biden
gives 1.3 per cent of his income to charity; Mitt Romney gives 29 per cent.
The
cartoon also uses the image of Christ on the cross to suggest that socialism is
Biblical. The truth is that capitalism
is Biblical. It is true that love of money is condemned, but over and
over again the gathering of wealth is applauded. Jesus himself praised the servant who
profitably invested his money and called the one who didn’t profit wicked and
lazy. Hundreds of passages in the Bible
reflect capitalist principles like Proverbs 13:4: “The sluggard craves and gets
nothing, while the diligent are richly supplied.”
Capitalism
is a founding principle in the Bible, especially as it relates to property
rights. In Genesis: ”Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.“ In Exodus:
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house … nor any thing that is thy
neighbour's.” Economic justice is best
achieved when each person is accountable for his own actions.
As I
sit at my computer writing this I can hear James Sefcak: “Pure capitalism produces greedy monopolies
that bleed the poor.” But James, it’s the government that creates the
monopolies. The problem is caused by the
government’s getting in bed with capital and forcing competition out of the
market place, the government deciding which entrepreneurs should succeed. Left
to itself, the free market neutralizes greed, balancing selfish desires with
the needs of those with whom they wish to do business. Capitalism reaps
benefits. Government greed leads to
debauchery.
The
story of the Tower of Babel is a clear statement about God’s attitude toward
big government. In order to prevent the
clans from gathering together under one government, God confused the languages
of the people and caused them to scatter across the earth. That story, as well
as many more throughout the Bible, support economic freedom for another reason,
recognizing the strengths as well the weaknesses of human nature and the limits
of human knowledge. No one can know
enough to know how to manage complex societies and economies, and those who
think they do always, always, become tyrants. Families and clans that gather in smaller
groups tend to rely on one another and their faith in God, and they
prosper.
But
we don’t need to look at the Bible for answers regarding economic truths; the
evidence is historical, empirical, indisputable, the freer the people the
healthier the culture. The classic
example is the Roman republic. Governed by
their much lauded virtues, manliness, piety, and reverence, the country
flourished. Their representative
democracy, like ours, was designed to be inefficient, incapable of interfering
in domestic affairs. But the natural
order of things is for hard fought freedoms to yield and governments to
grow. They promise us beautiful things,
perpetual peace, a fuller life, abundance for all, “by robbing selected Peter
to pay for collective Paul.” So the
Roman Republic became an empire and imploded.
Rudyard
Kipling said it well: “As it will be in
the future, it was at the birth of Man. There are only four things certain
since Social Progress began. That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow
returns to her Mire, and the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to
the Fire.”
Not
this time. This time we learn the lessons
of Peter 2:16 and “Live as free men.”
December 13, 2013
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