FOX Lies!! Barack Obama Pastor Wright

[ReformedDave]

Originally Posted by ChristopherHall

What I found in my studies is that in Biblical Israel we see several methods of insuring social justice in regards to the poor.

1. There were laws entitling the poor to the right to glean from the harvest of land owners. (edges and dropped harvest).

2. There were three tithes in the OT. One was the poor tithe and it was used to stock the storehouse and then was distributed throughout the land to provide for the poor.

3. There were laws governing the land that required that it never be sold perpetually but that it would periodically, as prescribed in the law, return back to its original owner’s family line. Also a clan’s redeemer was entitled by law to buy back any sold property. This was designed to ensure that wealth not be aggregated into the hands of the few and thereby creating a permanent class of poor people.

This was the economy established by God for ancient Israel to protect the poor and vulnerable and to demonstrate God’s perspective regarding social and economic justice. This isn’t free market capitalism as most describe it today. This is more of an economic system based on community property with bartered stewardship. Also the social aspects of the gleaning and the poor tithe display a more social welfare or distributist philosophy.

If one searches the Scriptures regarding the poor and oppression most will see that oppression of the poor and needy are featured so prominently in Scripture it’s strange why more preachers never preach about it. Prophets rebuked the wealthy and magistrates of Israel for neglecting their social obligations to provide “justice” for the poor and the needy. The wealthy in Israel were rebuked for denying the poor their right to glean and the officials were rebuked for siding with the wealthy on the matter (the books of Amos and Malachi are good examples among many). The only sin mentioned more than oppression of the needy is pagan idolatry. The sin of oppressing the poor is mentioned more than adultery and homosexuality combined, yet in today’s world it seems that we’re so fixated on these sins that we ignore social injustice, relegating it to an issue to be addressed voluntarily as convinience presents itself.

This in mind, when it comes to economics, I feel the Democratic Party with it’s policies that are targeted at relieving the middle and lower classes of our society far more biblical as an economic approach. Others appear to be seeing this too. The more I speak to some deeply religious Democrats and read the latest books on conservatism put out by leading Christian ministers, the more I’m seeing a more “Liberal Dominionism” (for lack of a better term) focused on social justice and stewardship evolving. It may be that in another generation the Republicans will shift into becoming godless libertarians while the Democrats will become a more religious party focused on social justice. This might be the natural order of things. After all, when one survey’s the political landscape of Europe most Christian parties are left leaning on issues of economics. Britain’s poor tax and social welfare system was crafted by early evangelicals, in addition Canada’s universal health insurance system was launched by a Baptist minister become politician.

I think modern Conservatism in America is on the edge of loosing it’s monopoly on religion.

I heard Daniel Schorr state that about every 20-24 years there is a massive shift from left to right and then it will go the other way. I think he might be correct.