Re: Re: Money is a tool. A Message to Redistributionists

Pim et al,

One response from [some] governments (including Canada) has been to forgive the debt of a number of third world countries. In some respects, this is a Jubilee-type action. Of course, there is nothing that prevents each and everyone of us to forgive a debtor of our choice every seven years. In practice, and on a national scale, this could get interesting, especially considering the incredible amount of credit card and real estate debt that most North Americans carry. Maybe there are more debtors than lenders in a given jurisdiction. I understand that much of the current US debt is held by China and, maybe, one could convince the Chinese to accept the Jubilee concept?

I wonder if economists have ever run a "Jubilee model" through their computers to see how it would all work out.

Chuck Vandergraaf
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> From: Pim van Meurs <pimvanmeurs@yahoo.com>
> Date: 2006/03/09 Thu AM 12:01:14 CST
> To: asa@calvin.edu
> Subject: Re: Money is a tool. A Message to Redistributionists
>
> Interesting response, but missing the point again. My comment is one of wonder why Christians seem to be unwilling to implement some biblical teachings while adhering to others. Do we as Christians get to chose what part of the Bible we like or dislike? Is that your attitude towards the Bible or am I missing something?
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> I am not sure where you got your idea about imposing my religious conscience on others, I am merely asking about how others interpret the Jubilee and why it seems to be totally ignored.
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> Perhaps it's time for Janice to read more carefully before responding? But at least we seem to agree that imposing religious belief onto others is the wrong approach.
> The real question for me however is how Christians deal with the concept of the Jubilee and why it seems to have been mostly ignored? But perhaps my reading of the bible is too literal :-)
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> Janice Matchett <janmatch@earthlink.net> wrote: At 11:58 PM 3/8/2006, Pim van Meurs wrote:
> How sad. The wealth gap is real and I wonder why Christians seem to be unwilling to apply the concept of Jubilee to rectify these inequities.
> @ I suggest that you get together with a bunch of other legalistic-minded professing Christians and put that idea into practice among yourselves.
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> But don't think that anyone is going to allow you to obtain enough power and control to impose your religious conscience on the rest of us. -- which, like Pat Robertson, et.al., you would do in a heartbeat if you had the chance.
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> ~ Janice
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> So why do you love it Janice since I find few redeeming Christian aspects in the message, other than perhaps 'apologetics'
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> Janice Matchett <janmatch@earthlink.net> wrote:
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> I love it. ~ Janice
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> "Money is a tool. And wealth, accumulation of money, is a bunch of tools. Now when one person, a carpenter for instance, has a bunch of tools, we don't say to him, "You have too many tools. You should give some of your saws and drills and chisels to the guy who is cooking the omelets." We don't try to close the tool gap."
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Received on Thu Mar 9 10:34:04 2006