Compassionate Government
6 min read
33 In all that has happened to us, you have remained righteous; you have acted faithfully, while we acted wickedly. 34 Our kings, our leaders, our priests and our ancestors did not follow your law; they did not pay attention to your commands or the statutes you warned them to keep.
— Nehemiah 9:33-34
I think it is safe to say that most countries in this world are grounded on Judeo-Christian principles. Many people would object to that statement because most cultures did not arise from Judeo-Christian roots. But if we believe the Old Testament, which I certainly do, biblical origins of humanity would explain why practically every culture is grounded in Judeo-Christian principles, even if they did not arise out of Judeo-Christian roots.
When a country starts to systemically ignore the plight of the poor and the marginalized, that country is on a decline. Not only do such countries ignore the plight of the poor and marginalized, they actually systemically favor the rich and the privileged.
It seems to me that US is on the decline, even when it doesn’t have to be. Greed has won the day, but it doesn’t have to be like that. Maybe I sound like a bleeding-heart liberal, and maybe I was a long time ago. But today, my “compassion” for the poor is grounded in God’s compassion for the poor and marginalized. And I say “compassion” in quotes, because I cannot honestly say that I do that much, if anything, about the plight of the poor and marginalized.
Like most people, I feel quite powerless to do anything about it. But maybe that sense of powerlessness is a self-imposed powerlessness.
This world has made it quite easy for those who have some resources to invest their money and become moderately well-off. If the same number of people who invest in the stock market invested the same amount in helping the poor and marginalized, I wonder what kind of difference that could make.
In theory, the benefit to the society at large would eventually make its way back to the investor. But that is a long game. Everyone today wants quick profits.
Of course, every once in a while, the stock market collapses under the weight of all the greed. The governments have learned to come to the rescue—not so much to rescue people but to rescue the system of wealth production.
Maybe my ranting seems totally unrelated to the text and to the Bible as a whole. But it’s really not. Not when you really read the Bible.
And of course, I’m not an economist. And yet, in faith I believe that if the world took God’s economy seriously, we’d live in a much more prosperous world.
Father, the world seems to have many answers for building wealth. Yet the word seems to have no answers for helping the poor. Lord, even as we go forth to seek and to save the lost, let us not lose sight of Your compassion for the weak and marginalized. In Jesus’s name. Amen.