Capitalists care more for the poor than socialists

 

According to modern socialists, only they care about the poor. Capitalism exploits them. The opposite is the truth. How can the two sides have such different views of reality? 

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explains in his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. Haidt, like most professors in the humanities and social sciences, is a socialist. Haidt shows that compassion, and only compassion, drives socialists. While capitalists value compassion, they temper it with concerns for justice and truth. 

Pastors and theologians should care about economics

 The recent death of Alasdair MacIntyre reminded me of the extreme contempt philosophers and theologians have for the science of economics. MacIntyre was a philosopher and convert to Catholicism who wrote several books that have influenced theologians and pastors to embrace socialism. Yet, MacIntyre, like Karl Barth and most theologians and pastors, never read a book on economics. He accepted the lies of the drunken atheist Marx as economic gospel. 

There are several reasons Christians should be familiar with the science of economics. Christian theologians gave birth to the science. I wrote about that here, so I won't go into the details in this post. 

The Pope and Capitalism

Pope Francis died recently. His legacy will be debated for years. I want to focus on his hatred of capitalism and how Catholic Christians should respond. 

It has been widely reported that the Pope called capitalism the "dung of the devil." That's not exactly what he said. Here is the section of a speech in which he used the phrase:

"The earth, entire peoples and individual persons are being brutally punished. And behind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called “the dung of the devil.” An unfettered pursuit of money rules. The service of the common good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home."

The Bible Teaches Neither Capitalism or Socialism?

The Bible doesn't command either capitalism or socialism, say some. So we must choose a third way, something in between, the best of both worlds. Right? Most theologians straddle the fence like that. 

An old article by Craig L. Blomberg, Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary,  prompted this blog because it seems Blomberg's points speak for many theologians today. His article, "Neither Capitalism nor Socialism: A Biblical Theology of Economics," gives seven (a Biblical number) reasons for his ambivalence. 

The Samaritan's Dilemma and universal basic income

 In Luke chapter ten, Jesus responded to the question, who is my neighbor, with the story of the Good Samaritan. The story condemns a priest and Levite for refusing to help the wounded man while praising the Samaritan, whom Jews despised, for providing medical help and paying for him to stay at an inn while he recovered. 

The parable ends well. But the economist and Nobel Laureate James Buchanan wanted to know the rest of the story. He asked, what if the victim refused to leave the inn? What if he decided to stay at the inn forever and let the Samaritan support him? After all, the Samaritan had given the inn keeper money to pay for the victim's room and board and told the inn keeper that if that amount didn't pay all of the expenses, the Samaritan would repay him when he passed by the next time. 

Jesus said nothing about that possibility because in his day there was no need to fear people would give too much to the poor. They didn't give enough. And the leaders stole what little the poor had left. Jesus didn't exaggerate when he said the high priest had turned the temple into a den of thieves. 

Still, Christians in the early church began to face the problem of charity abuse. When Peter had the church in Acts chose deacons, it was supporting mostly widows. In 2 Thessalonians 3, Paul warned that the church should refuse to feed idle men who could work. And Paul left strict instructions for the church on how to care for widows. “But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God” (1 Timothy 5:4). Apparently, widows and lazy men had been abusing the church's generosity.

USAID violates Biblical principles of government

Some Christian organizations lament the death of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Should they? What Biblical principles might apply? 

Let's assume the agency only kept poor children from starving, as the left claims, and ignore the charges of abuse and waste brought against it by Republicans. In the last article, I wrote about how tariffs will hurt the poor. So, shouldn't I support USAID? No. 

Sell everything and give to the poor

Jesus told the rich young ruler in Mark 10 to sell everything he had and give it to the poor. In Luke 12, he encouraged his disciples to sell their things and give to the poor. In Mark 12, Jesus told his disciples that the poor widow who tossed two copper coins into the temple treasury had given more that all the rich people because she gave everything she had, appearing to commend the widow and align with the teaching that we should give everything we have to the poor.