Tuesday, October 6. 2020
The Bible has a lot to say about "the poor"- 110 times in the ESV (and uses the word "poor" 170 times in the ESV)
Often in the current discussion about Race, verses in the Bible about Poverty and the Poor are used. Let us be clear. In the Bible, the main cause of poverty (defined as destitution not due to ones fault) is oppression by rich, powerful or unscrupulous people. Such oppression is evil and condemned in the Bible. Poverty is also caused by death, war or natural disaster. None of this has to do with skin color. These verses are not about race or systemic racism as such. There are many passages instructing us to care for all the poor, whatever their color. We miss all this very important Biblical teaching and the response it calls for when we substitute for Poverty the problem of "Racism".
Tuesday, October 6. 2020
Lately, I have been reading a chapter a day from the Book of Jeremiah. God was using the Prophet to announce the coming, horrible disaster that would destroy Israel and Judah. Why? Both nations were awash in idolatry. Altars to foreign gods were everywhere. God saw this as spiritual adultery because the people continued to profess their loyalty to Him while they worshiped their idols at the same time!
I hear and read about Racism and "systemic racism" a lot, every day. In evangelical magazines and blogs, Pastors are urged to use the Bible and preach about it. Churches are urged to protest and fight against it. But here is the thing- there is nothing about Racism or systemic racism as such in the Bible. But there are pages after pages about idolatry, the worship of false idols. It is overwhelming, the most serious sin in the Bible. God hates idols! Now that is something we must preach about and seek to overcome! When we do that, I think we shall be confronting the problem of Racism. Many Christians are idolators, the same as the ancient Hebrews. Many of us worship God and simultaneously we worship Money, the Stock Market or the Economy or Technology or Sports or, these days, most of all we worship the Government and its power or we worship our Nation itself [the list goes on]. Jeremiah would preach the same message today as he did centuries ago. The same destiny awaits America as it did for Israel and Judah if we do not heed that message!
Tuesday, May 2. 2017
Selected Biblical Labor Laws
1Tim 5:18 “The laborer deserves his wages.”
James 5:1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. 3 Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. 5 You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; 4 Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Lev 19:13 "'Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. "'Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker..
Deut 24:14 Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. 15 Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
Deut 25:4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. cf 1 Cor.9:9
Jer 22:13 "Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.
Mal 3:5 "So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.
SUMMARY of all Biblical Labor Laws
- Workers must be treated well and fairly ...and must be paid fully and promptly [i.e.- as per contract]
- Workers must fulfill employers expectations
- No harsh or unsafe working condition; rest periods: one day a week and holidays
- Workers may decide to change employers
- All commands re personal morality apply
- Productivity is expected--profit-making is expected, BUT
- Not at expense of the workers- no exploitation
- No jeopardizing resources
- Private property rights/ownership must be honored
- No peonage or slavery
- No usury
- Profits and products must be made available to the destitute
- The Government and Courts are to enforce these Laws: Justice
Tuesday, May 2. 2017
The State should have minimal but essential involvement in our marriages, families, education, churches and commerce and culture. The Biblical basis for this is known as "Sphere Sovereignty".
The following material outlines the basic God-given structures, or systems of influence, of Society. They are grounded in the creational ordinances found in the Book of Genesis. This is an important theoretical and idealistic concept basic to Neo-Calvinism. Each of these Spheres has specific functions and norms or boundaries. They are permanent forms even though the actual members of them at any specific time and place may vary.
Marriage and Family
Individual men and women are meant to live together as husband and wife, as “one flesh”, i.e.- in a committed, covenant relationship. Ideally, they are to be "fruitful", i.e.- have children (if possible) and live together as an inter-generational family, i.e.- as the basic “Covenant Community”. It is absolutely integral to God's Plan for Society. When a son marries, he and his wife begin another family, but these new family units together are intended to be an extended part of the original family, always responsible for each other. That includes the responsibilities of worship, work and providing an education for the children and practical welfare for members of the Family going through tough times.
In practice, the family that most closely follows this Biblical Model is the rural farm family. The challenge now, of course, is how to follow this Model in our modern urban, non-agricultural Society. It can be done, as demonstrated in cities with ethnic enclaves where "the old ways" are still practiced.
Church
Ideally, Christian Families in a local area are to assemble, worship and share their lives with other Families (and minister to even others) as a wider Community of Faith (aka "a church").
Civic Associations
The primary function of the basic Sphere of Marriage and Family is to act as God’s agent in His world, obeying God’s command to our original Parents to reproduce and go forth to care for the Natural Environment (Creation) and continue God’s work of cultivating it for the common good of all. This is called the Cultural Mandate, another important neo-Calvinist concept. To this end, other Spheres will naturally arise. To cultivate is to develop culture. As culture and the necessary organization and technology that it requires develops, the result is a Civilization. There will be voluntary Associations for research & development, work, production and distribution of goods and services (Business and Commerce). Associations will also arise for Education, Communication, the Arts and Recreation. These are all extensions of the Creational Ordinances. None of these Spheres are the responsibility of Civil Government nor are they autonomous. They must cooperate with each other and function according to the laws of God, accountable to Him.
The essential preface to this entire discussion is knowledge of the Torah. The Law of God is the absolute Foundation upon which to build social policy and the benchmark or yard stick by which to measure all the options that necessarily arise on these Topics.
Civil Government is also a Creational ordinance.
Each Creational social system has its own authority known as "Sphere Sovereignty", but none of them are absolute or autonomous. Marriage-Family (including Education), Church and Community Civic Associations (including Commerce) are meant to cooperate but must not interfere with each other’s responsibilities.
Because all the individuals involved in the Spheres are sinners, there will be injustice. As systems, the Spheres will malfunction or fail in their respective responsibilities. The main function of Civil Government is to respect the Sphere Sovereignty, but control or stop transgressions within or between Spheres, wherever they may occur under established Law and Constitutional Order. In this regard Civil Government is good and to be supported. However, Civil Government is not to usurp or curtail the responsibilities of the other Spheres. It has a tendency to do exactly that and so it too must be restrained. The concern is not with the size of Government, but with Civil Government becoming abusive with its authority or becoming intrusive in the affairs of the Spheres.
An additional related concept applies here: "Subsidiarity". Government should not do for people what they can or ought to do for themselves. And larger organizations must not replace or override what can be done by smaller or subsidiary organizations. Local is best. Less is more.
Friday, October 21. 2016
New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice July 12, 2016
"Robert P. Jones, CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), challenges us to grasp the profound political and cultural consequences of a new reality that America is no longer a majority white Christian nation.
For most of our nation's history, White Christian America (WCA) the cultural and political edifice built primarily by white Protestant Christians set the tone for our national policy and shaped American ideals. But especially since the 1990s, WCA has steadily lost influence, following declines within both its mainline and evangelical branches. Today, America is no longer demographically or culturally a majority white Christian nation.
Drawing on more than four decades of polling data, The End of White Christian America explains and analyzes the waning vitality of WCA. Jones argues that the visceral nature of today's most heated issues the vociferous arguments around same-sex marriage and religious liberty, the rise of the Tea Party following the election of our first black president, and stark disagreements between black and white Americans over the fairness of the criminal justice system can only be understood against the backdrop of white Christians anxieties as America's racial and religious topography shifts around them.
In 2016 and beyond, the descendants of WCA will lack the political power they once had to set the terms of the nation's debate over values and morals and to determine election outcomes. Looking ahead, Jones forecasts the ways that they might adjust to find their place in the new America and the consequences for us all if they don't."
Friday, July 29. 2016
"Much has changed since the 1700s, and the change seems to have accelerated since the 1980s. I would point to three key factors in the corruption of the term ‘evangelical.’"
READ THE REST OF THIS INSIGHTFUL ARTICLE HERE-
https://blogs.thegospelcoalition.org/evangelical-history/2016/07/15/how-politics-and-polls-killed-the-term-evangelical/
Friday, July 29. 2016
Racial and ethnic minorities have a steep uphill battle in America —this the conclusion of many studies and polls. Well, most minorities. It appears that Asian Americans, both men and women, outpace all other ethnic and racial groups— including whites —in terms of income and education.
"A century ago, most Asian Americans were low-skilled, low-wage laborers crowded into ethnic enclaves and targets of official discrimination. Today, they are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States. And they are the most likely of any major racial or ethnic group in America to live in mixed neighborhoods and to marry across racial lines".
So says a Pew Research Center study from three years ago I just ran across. This despite vicious prejudice and laws against them (from the Chinese Exclusionary Act of 1875 to Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, among others). According to a previous Pew study, their success seems to have something to do with their emphasis on education, stable family life, and strong work ethic. [emphasis added]
Source: The Galli Report CT 7-29-16
Wednesday, July 13. 2016
Much of the debate over "Racism in America" is influenced by two factors often overlooked or ignored:
1. The use of stories and personal or hearsay/third party experiences versus a data and factual evidentiary approach to an event or subject. For all the value in "having a conversation", people on each of these sides of the discussion talk pass each other.
2. In may opinion, "Race", ie- ethnicity or "color" is not the major root of the divide The debate should really be about social and economic status and the reasons for that.
3. A third major factor is the changing demographics in this Country which are very well explained in this article-
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/07/the-eclipse-of-white-christian-america/490724/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-071216
Sunday, July 3. 2016
In other posts tried to explain the sometimes necessity for "rational discrimination' based on behavior (empirical evidence) of the group in question. My concern here is the application of rational discrimination to area such employment or college admissions. When must people, any people, be treated as a group and when must they be treated as individuals?
As a general principle (James 3:9-10), Scripture teaches us to accept and respect and treat fairly each person as a person, when it is at all possible to do so. [There are times when transactions are impersonal or when crowds are involved.] Gender, age and "race" are included in who a person is. However, behavior of the group to which a person belongs is another matter. It is not essential to a being a person.
Discrimination, in the sense of rejecting or ostracizing any person solely on the basis of something essential to that person being a person, is unscriptural: to refuse to hire or promote someone because they are White males or Asian women is wrong.
Sunday, July 3. 2016
Discrimination based on Group Behavior is another matter. Many times we are treated according to how the group we are in is treated. If the group is known for making trouble and, therefore, are not welcome in a restaurant, we must distance ourselves from that group. If we do not, we will be discriminated against, not for who we are as a person, but because of the behavior of the group. If there is empirical evidence that White males, as a group, have been oppressive to women, it would be reasonable if a White male applicant for a job in a woman-led business with female employees were to be discriminated against and preference were given to others, because of his membership in a group.
He obviously could feel that this was very unfair to him. He wants to be considered on his own merits alone. It would be absolutely wrong for the female management to reject him because of his gender and “race”. Doubly wrong, if he personally was not guilty of oppressing women.
If a particular African-American were rejected for a mortgage because, statistically, African-Americans as a group or from a certain geographic area, over a period of time, had a record of defaulting on mortgage loans, that would be rational [not racial] discrimination- but nevertheless unfair. The applicant must be given a chance based on his own credit history alone.
This logic leads to the rejection of all types of discrimination based on "race", gender and age- including "affirmative action".
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