Spiritual Hiccups - Riches, Taxes, and Jubilee

As I write this the news media are reporting a possible deal between Democrats and Republicans that would extend the about-to-expire tax cuts for all income levels in exchange for extending unemployment benefits to the millions with none left who still cannot find jobs.  I don't usually get "political" in these posts, but I confess that I am befuddled by conservatives' insistence that tax cuts must include all income groups, even those making millions.  Considering how many of these conservatives wear their Christian faith on their sleeves, want the 10 Commandments displayed, and the Bible revered, I wonder if they read the same Bible that I do.

The Bible doesn't have a lot good to say about those with wealth.  Today's verses from Isaiah are just a small sample of the prophets railing against the rich getting richer while the poor suffer.  "Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field, until  there is room for no one but you, and you are left to live alone in  the midst of the land!"  Isaiah is condemning the wealthy who buy up land from people who are in financial difficulty, gradually controlling more and more. 

And the laws that came with those 10 Commandments had provision for undoing this.  Every 50th year land was supposed to revert to those families who had sold it during times of hardship.  It is uncertain how well this Jubilee Year law was obeyed, however.  Those with wealth are generally pretty good at hanging on to it.

One of the more disturbing economic statistics of our day is the growing disparity between rich and poor.  The gap between what a working person makes and what a CEO makes has increased exponentially in the past 50 years.  And despite Jesus saying, "Blessed are you who are poor," and "Woe to you who are rich," most of us want to hang on to as much of our riches as we can.

I saw another pastor post something online the other day suggesting how we should simple allow the tax cuts to expire, even for those of us making pastors' salaries.  The nine or ten dollars a week we would lose would be money well spent to keep from burdening our children with a national debt, as well as insuring that crucial services are maintained.  But based on the responses I saw to his post, not many of his parishioners agreed with him. 

No where in the gospels does Jesus encourage accumulating possession or worrying about money, and he regularly calls people to give away what they have.  Yet we in this "Christian nation" pursue money and things like no nation on earth.  Our entire economy is based on people becoming "consumers," on them buying more and more.

I'm not suggesting any particular solutions or policies.  I'm not at all certain how one would implement an economy that was at all in keeping with Scripture without causing huge economic upheaval.  But it does seem to me that we who are Christians should, at the very least, examine the ways in which our basic economic assumptions run counter to the basic witness of Scripture.

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