How to Make the Bible Work for You by Filling in the Blank
Personally, I don't actually believe that the Bible teaches us to hold to a certain set of political/economical principles. However, I recently read an article that proposes that the Bible teaches Capitalism (click here for article).
The Bible is a political weapon. A weapon that is most effective against people who aren't familiar with it. Aryeh Spero took a slice at you today. He told us that the BIBLE was "comfortable with speculation in economic markets." Whaaaa?!! I checked, and indeed, if you flip to your Bible's concordance you can find an entire section on "arbitrage". If you hit "archangel" you've gone too far.
But for real, what I like about this article is that it actually employs scriptures. What I don't like is how it twists them...or makes them up in some cases. I'm also not a fan of the weird conclusions and generalizations in the article. But it's effective. This article has been posted, blogged, retweeted all day, because this is CLEARLY biblical truth. Or is it? The following are my issues (feel free to rebut):
Scriptures taken out of Context*
"The Bible's proclamation that 'Six days shall ye work' is its recognition that on a day-to-day basis work is the engine that brings about man's inner state of personal responsibility."
If you go to that scripture, it's not the six days of work that bring about an inner state of personal responsibility, but it is the rest that is meant to showcase an outward sense of public responsibility:
“You shall sow your land for six years and gather in its yield, 1but on the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the needy of your people may eat; and whatever they leave the beast of the field may eat. You are to do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. “Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest. Genesis 23:10-12
Feed the hungry, stop animal cruelty. What God Teaches Us About Supporting PETA.
Aryeh Spero just gave you verse 12 for a reason. I wonder what it is...
Homework: There are others. Can you find them?! It's like a crossword puzzle for biblical truth!
Strange Conclusions
"Capitalism, as manifest through investment and reasoned speculation, helps facilitate our partnership with God..."
Yes!! Forget living your faith. Forget loving your neighbor. Forget James 1:27 about what is pure religion before God. Capitalism (aka "the way, the truth, and the life") per this article, is a way into relationship with God. I never knew!
Silly me, I thought I had partnership with God not because of what I'd done, but because what Christ had done in me ( Philippians 1:5-6). I'm so stupid!
Gross, GROSS, Misrepresentation of Facts
Per, Aryeh Spero, Joseph (one of the HEROES of faith in the Bible) is an idiot who "'exchanged all the land of Egypt for pharaoh and the land became pharaoh's.' The result was that Egyptians became indentured to the ruler and state, and Joseph's descendants ended up enslaved to the state."
I don't even have time to cover this. But please read Genesis 47:13 - 27. Joseph was a genius, and by God's leading made the Egyptians totally dependent on him, and won favor for his people. We do him a disservice by blaming him for Israel's enslavement (which was prophesied generations before Joe even lived - Genesis 15:13).
He just turned the story of Joseph into a cautionary tale against socialism as if Capitalism > Prophecy?
July Flame's Conclusion
One can mold the Bible to any view. If I wanted to, I could write a whole article about What the Bible Teaches Us About Socialism. My keynote scripture would be Acts 2:44-45:
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Or how about What the Bible Teaches Us About Paying our Taxes. I would use Matthew 22: 17-21:
Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “...Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”“Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
It's very difficult to mix the wisdom of man (i.e. capitalism, liberalism, conservatism, whateverism) with the wisdom of God (perfection) because one is tainted and one is pure. But you can make the tainted seem pure if you attribute it to God. All you have to do is fill in the blank.
*It's possible that these interpretations are Talmudic in nature, and thus legit in Jewish theology. However, as Christians we should keep to the good book. Just sayin'.
**This was updated on 2/1/12 from a version posted on 1/31/12 late late at night. Adjusted for foolishness and inaccuracy. Apologies to any and all who read the first version. You'd been had.
I was definitely one to retweet that article. And I appreciate your thoughtful response. I should have examined this more thoroughly before giving my full ringing endorsement and I am going to look at this some more... I have been trying to summarize thoughts on this and I can't do it in a blog comment post... but here are some topics that I'm going to be thinking about in response:
ReplyDelete1. There is a distinction to be made between how we are to act as believers placed under the authority of a government, and our involvement in shaping a government that relies on the opinions of its people. The former is required and defined by Scripture. The latter is open to interpretation and only required of those God calls to be involved.
2. If a country is built on Judeo-Christian values, and we assume that Judeo-Christian values are the closest to reality / truth, wouldn't said country be the most successful?
3. I don't know why this guy left out the parable of the talents... Matthew 25:14-30
4. While I don't think capitalism is by any means God's form of government, I do believe it to be morally superior to many types of government that suppress religion (Communism is a great example). That said, point #1 still applies and Joseph and Daniel are great examples of righteous men thriving under secular kings.
I wish I had more time to really think / write this out. I think it's a great topic that you probably just want to go away, given your feelings on politics :)
Krissy,
ReplyDeleteI'm not a socialist, however, I just became a fan of yours. I was so digusted by the article that I wanted to respond myself. However, I was relieved to see sensible minds had already responded. I believe there is a place for capitalism, however, there is a great sense of responsibility to your fellow man that often (as this article seemed to validate) gets lost in translation. We will always have needy, elderly, feeble, disenfranchised, mentally ill and/or historically disadvantaged people. I will focus on the latter because the former all just need help period and few would argue that they do. My issue with pure capitalism in the US is that America should be the land of opportunity but often it isn't for everyone. As an African American who has benefitted from a strong family which emphasized education, achievement, church and culture, I know what it is like to both face racism (both overt and covert) and to overcome it. We just had too much strength, cohesiveness and balance for me to succumb to the subtle words of discouragement from teachers, neighbors, politicians, media, fellow students and later employers for me to stop believing in myself or my abilities. I was determined to be the best that I could be and that limit was something only I could establish. Many of my counterparts are broken, betrayed and belittled through generations of negativity, persecution, and lies. After desgregation, there were still many who BELIEVED that blacks weren't good enough, smart enough, talented enough to fully participate in society, become leaders, educators, full contributors and that has taken a mental toll on many. When you are only a couple of generations removed from slavery and you're perhaps the first in you ENTIRE family to even consider college, it is easy to believe what others say about you. That is largely why today, many African Americans are drawn to sports, entertainment or crime rather than education and higher achivement. Those things are easier to do without math, science, history or other things that they have been convinced they cannot succeed in. I say it because I experienced it (that negativity) growing up and I've watched it break down some of my friends. I think the government's investment in our people's healthcare, education and jobs is the way to leverage the best of what AMERICA has to offer and it gives people the fighting chance that they deserve. The result will be a bigger, broader base of talented people in our country to make a better, more competitive global nation overall. Allowing those with a huge head-start and fewer obstacles to continue to build on an already huge wealth gap will only lead to anarchy, additional "Occupy" movements and dissention. It also will put the flame out on much of the untapped talent in our midst.
Wealthy capitalists don't try to figure out how to create more jobs for the sake of their fellow man. They are in it to make money and will sell out their neighbor(e.g. by outsourcing jobs to the lowest global bidder) to do it. God bless you for your insightful words...