The Living, Liberal Bible: Why Conservatism and Christianity simply don’t mix.

I have heard many supposed cogent arguments in support of conservatism over the years. Lower taxes, less government, a spirit of entrepreneurship, greater freedom and liberty, etc… I can certainly understand where this comes from. Deep within the American experience there lies the mythos of a rugged individualism that is unique to Western society. We can debate not only the merits of that mythos but also its historical accuracy till Kingdom come and still not have a resolution. But what I cannot wrap my head around is how so many Christians continue to hold onto these “virtues.” Because when I read my Bible, what comes straight at me has little to do with accumulation of wealth, or personal liberty, or greater freedom. The central theme, if anything, is about giving to the poor, personal sacrifice and being a slave to, of all people, Christ! And Christ was hardly an accumulator of wealth. His life was a testament to the ultimate sacrifice: that of his own life for our salvation. And it is clear that he expected nothing less from his followers.

Pick a verse:

Luke 3:11: “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”

Luke 16:13: “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Matthew 6:19-21: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

And one of my personal favorites, 2 Corinthians 8:13-15: “Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.’”

You can go through the Bible all you want in search of the spirit of Adam Smith, and you will not find him. What you will find, if you are honest and have an ear to hear, an eye to see, and/or a heart for Jesus is that the very things that make up the essence of a capitalistic society are intrinsically inimical to the Christian walk. This isn’t debatable. It’s just a fact. Scripture maybe used contextually, but its core tenants are not open to interpretation or dispute.

Even the classic parable of the Ten Talents, long a staple for many conservative Christians to prove that God intends for us to be prosperous and rewarded for our wise investments, is often misquoted and misunderstood. Yes, it is important to invest wisely, but what is it we are to invest in? The parable, upon closer examination, could just as easily be about our God-given abilities and having trust that as we step out in faith we will be rewarded. To the ardent follower, this can be risky. Bucking over 200 years of established thinking can rub certain people the wrong way. But the opposite carries its share of risks too.

“The master took his one talent away from him and gave it to the man who had ten talents, and the one talent man was punished because he had not properly used the talent he had been given.”

Clearly there are penalties for not using the talents (gifts) we are given. In the Gospel of Mark there is a particular reference that is analogous to the above parable.

Mark 11:1-3: As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

Mark’s Gospel is, for lack of a better term, the shorthand Gospel. Meaning it is the shortest and most concise of the four Gospels. And because it is short, Mark deliberately chooses his words carefully. Why then does he specifically mention that the colt has never been ridden? Why is it intrinsic to the story? Or for that matter that the Lord needs it? Wouldn’t it be obvious that Jesus needs it? Otherwise why would he be taking it? Unless Mark is trying to remind us, like the aforementioned parable, that those things we do not use God will take back from us.

Hmmm. So it is clear that we are given certain gifts that the Lord intends for us to utilize in the building of His kingdom. And those who ignore them or, out of fear and or greed, let them go to waste, earn God’s wrath. And if we are indeed his agents on Earth we are called to do those things that he himself did while on this Earth: show mercy to the sinner, tend to the poor, feed the hungry, cure the sick, house the homeless, and encourage those who are discouraged. This is our calling in a nutshell.

And yet millions of American evangelicals hold onto a world-view that contradicts the very core of their faith. Worse, the very things they seem to grasp onto – namely issues dealing with homosexuality, sexual purity and abortion – are completely blown out of proportion and made to look more important than they are. Not that living a virtuous life and wanting an end to abortion are not important issues, but there are many more things that constitute a virtuous and Godly life than the quality of one’s sexual purity or one’s stance on unwanted pregnancies. It is quite possible to be completely faithful to one’s spouse, oppose abortion, and yet still betray the very essence of the Christian walk.

Now to be sure, God does desire us to be free from lust and wants us to be advocates for the unborn, but I suspect that the reason so many evangelicals are drawn to these stances is that it gives them a reason to examine other people’s behavior and not their own. Sexual deviance is always the other guy’s problem, just as the woman who seeks an abortion becomes the moral failing of someone else’s upbringing; but pride, arrogance, gluttony and avarice are vices we as a nation have never dared examine. And for good reason. Who cares to come face to face with such a staggering conclusion? Who wishes to wake up and realize that the very system they have come to acknowledge as symbolic of everything that is good and pure and Godly, is in fact none of the above?

Now before I go any further, let’s be clear. There is nothing wrong with money in and of itself. As Christians we are called to be good stewards and be responsible providers for our families. We could no more neglect our duties at home than we could disown our own faith. The two are joined at the hip. And clearly there are limits as to how much we can give those in need and still be responsible providers at home. When Jesus commands those of us who have two tunics to “share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same” he clearly intends for us to hold onto the other tunic and for us not to starve.

It is what we do with those resources that we do not need to sustain ourselves that define us as a people before God. And as of right now, I feel we are failing that test. America, the richest nation on Earth, a nation deeply steeped in the Judeo / Christian tradition is facing a moral dilemma that threatens to tear it apart, not to mention earn the wrath of God.

For a nation so blessed, we still have intense poverty in many urban areas. In some northern cities some families have to choose between freezing to death in the dead of winter or having enough food to eat. Childhood illiteracy within these areas approaches that of third-world countries. Even with the latest healthcare bill signed into law, tens of millions will have to wait as long as four years before they can gain access to basic medical treatment, all the while running the risk of getting sick and perhaps dying prematurely.

It is clear that the churches and synagogues are ill-equipped to handle the needs of the poor in their local communities, and while private charity has certainly helped, it too is insufficient to meet such a Herculean challenge. The only agency even remotely able to address many of these problems – the government – has been under attack by many fundamentalists who see it as an over-reaching behemoth, sucking the life out of our precious freedoms. Charges of socialism and government takeovers fill the ether and stir the passions of many a believer to such heights that is it any wonder we are gripped by fear, especially when such fear is unwarranted and completely over the top.

Not that the government hasn’t had its share of scandals and hypocrisies. Many of the criticisms thrown at it have their basis in some truth. It is terribly inefficient, has been corrupted – one could almost say bought – by outside influences that have no interest in seeing a flourishing democracy survive. But when all is said and done, it is still our best hope for giving those without the relief they so desperately need. Without it, most of our so-called freedoms would not exist. Like it or not, the federal government has often stopped the encroachment of corporate domination that ironically threatens the very freedoms we take for granted, and historically has prevented many oligopolies from taking root. Witness the early 1900s when the Trusts were broken up. Without government regulation, such as it is, we would be a vastly different country than we are today. Many of the landmark decisions handed down by the Supreme Court helped paved the way to end discrimination in our nation and bring about many of the reforms we now take for granted. Yes government has always had a role to play; to ignore that truth is to ignore common sense.

But to many believers most, if not all, of this is superfluous. They righteously hold onto their Bibles and defy all “doubters” to find any scriptural references that specifically call for churches and the government to partner up to help the oppressed. Perhaps Psalms 72:1-4 slipped by them.

“Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness. He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice. The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness. He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor.”

Or perhaps Proverbs 31:4-9,

“It is not for kings, O Lemuel— not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their rights. Give beer to those who are perishing, wine to those who are in anguish; let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”

Or perhaps Isaiah 1:17 and 23,

“Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”

“Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them.”

Or perhaps Isaiah 10:1-3,

“Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?”

Or perhaps Jeremiah 22:14-16,

“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his countrymen work for nothing, not paying them for their labor. He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red.

“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.

“He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the LORD.

Or finally Isaiah 32:1-8,

“See, a king will reign in righteousness and rulers will rule with justice. Each man will be like a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm, like streams of water in the desert and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

“Then the eyes of those who see will no longer be closed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. The mind of the rash will know and understand, and the stammering tongue will be fluent and clear.

“No longer will the fool be called noble nor the scoundrel be highly respected. For the fool speaks folly, his mind is busy with evil: He practices ungodliness and spreads error concerning the LORD; the hungry he leaves empty and from the thirsty he withholds water.

“The scoundrel's methods are wicked, he makes up evil schemes to destroy the poor with lies, even when the plea of the needy is just. But the noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands.”

I could go on, but by now I think you get the drift. God does not distinguish between the private citizen and the established government, so why should we? If the words “We the people” mean anything it is that this government and this nation belong to us. That means that as a nation – as a government – of the people, by the people and for the people we have a moral obligation to look out for those who are less fortunate. This is not an option; it is a requirement. One that we dare not ignore any longer.

Over the last few years I have heard many conservative preachers rant and rave about the moral decay of the United States. They have spoken at great length about a promiscuous society that has lost its moral compass, and warned repeatedly that unless America repents of its sinful ways, a day of reckoning will be at hand. For once I agree with them. But I submit that our greatest sin has been a closed heart and a callous attitude. Our unwillingness to look within our own hearts and find the mercy that Jesus himself bestowed upon us, now more than anything else defines our fallen condition. We know what we are commanded to do; the only decision before us is whether or not we will obey it.

Like the parable of the talents, we are endowed with certain gifts. If we use them wisely, He will increase them so that our lives will glorify Him. And conversely, if we misuse or ignore them we will certainly earn our just deserts.  True freedom comes with a price. Christ felt his freedom a worthy price to pay for our eternal salvation.  What excuse have we to shun his example?