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. 

During the Reformation, Catholic theologians at the University of Salamanca distilled Biblical principles of government from natural law with Biblical support. First, they determined that the only role of government is to punish criminals. God had given all humanity that charge in the book of Genesis with the covenant with Noah: "Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind," Genesis 9:6.

People formed government to carry out their God given job to punish criminals because they understood that people who specialize in something become the best at it. So, the state has the authority to collect taxes to finance that limited role, but any taxes above that amount would be theft. Taking care of the poor was the church's job, not that of the state. 

Oliver O'Donovan wrote that Paul suggested something similar in Romans 13:4, 6. "For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer..... This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing."

Many commentators on the passage stop at "for your good," and insist that government should work for the common good. But Paul notes that the good the authorities do is to punish criminals, nothing more. 

Some will respond, "What about the Torah laws requiring Israelites to give to the poor, forgive debts and leave gleanings in their fields for the poor?" Those are moral laws that the government, the judges, did not enforce. The courts in ancient Israel enforced only the civil laws involving murder, violence, theft, fraud or kidnapping, in other words conflicts between people. They left to God the enforcement of moral and religious law. In fact, every passage in the Bible that encourages giving to the poor see it as a voluntary act of love for God and obedience, never coerced. 

Others will argue that the government in a democracy is us, the people. We just choose to use the government as our means of giving. But it's not true that the government is us. Government is an institution with a God-given job to punish criminals. That requires the use of force. Taxation is force. No one can refuse to pay taxes they owe without the state punishing them severely. The state has the power of life and death. 

Besides, the wealthiest 20% pay 80% of the taxes. When the majority orders the wealthy to pay for their charity through taxation, they force the wealthy to do their charitable work. The wealthy may have been willing to give to charity anyway, in which case we don't need the state forcing them through taxation. If they aren't willing, the government is stealing from them on the orders of the majority. 

Another reason to avoid using the violence of taxation to force the rich to pay for charity is the sinful nature of people. The atheist David Hume was wiser than most Christians when he wrote that we should consider politicians to be knaves (dishonest) and give them the appropriate power. We should at least listen to some of the criticisms by Republicans of the spending of USAID. Much of is was reprehensible. Any time the government gets out of its God given lane of punishing criminals, it becomes corrupt and fraudulent. 

What about the children about to die because of the defunding of USAID? Of course, that's a gross exaggeration by the socialist media. USAID isn't the only source of funds for the poor. But some people might suffer. In that case, Christians should send their money to the many Christian organizations who feed the poor overseas. That's the Biblical model for helping the poor. 

Better still, promote capitalism. Charity has never lifted anyone out of poverty; it merely keeps them alive in poverty. Socialism has impoverished every nation that has tried it. Meanwhile, shrinking socialism and freer markets have lifted over 500 million people from starvation in the last generation alone. Capitalism made the West the richest people in history.