Re: Money is a tool. A Message to Redistributionists

At 3/9/2006 07:57 AM, Chris Barden wrote:
>Pim,
>
> A corporate view of charity commits the same error [confusing
>corporate blessing with expectation of individual blessing and
>calls to corporate behavior and calls to individual behavior].
>Are we individually storing up treasures in heaven when we leave caring
>for the poor to the government? Caring for the poor is our
>responsibility -- yours and mine and everyone else, and we could all
>do a better job of it. I am not aware of Jesus saying anything else
>on the matter.
>Chris
Undoubtedly we have responsibilities first as individuals. Jesus was
gathering a community of people who would live differently than the world
around them. We cannot leave care for the poor to the state. But part of
that responsibility does include advocating for just policies from powerful
institutions, whether states or corporations or foundations or
individuals. We don't expect the state to become the church, but we do
witness regarding just treatment of the "widows and orphans."

I find the absence of discussion of citizenship interesting here. There
are long traditions in many Christian churches of emphasizing Christians'
duties as citizens and conversely noting the duties of states. These
usually rely heavily on Chapter 13 of Paul's letter to the Romans, and
often appear in discussions of Christians' duties in war time. The appeal
to such arguments in discussions of military action and the general absence
of them in discussions of public/corporate or state concern for the poor
seems to result from very selective use of the arguments. -- After all,
the Roman Empire of Paul's day distributed bread and entertainment
precisely to maintain the very civil order that Paul seems so concerned
with throughout his letters, but particularly in Romans 13.
Peace,
Randy Gabrielse
Received on Thu Mar 9 10:29:06 2006