The Occupiers are pulling out all the stops to support their failing cause. When Leftists start appealing to the Bible, you know they’re in trouble. How many times have we heard that “religion and politics don’t mix,” “you can’t impose your morality on others,” or “there’s a separation of church and state”? These conservative prohibitions do not apply to liberals. Here’s one sign that claims Jesus would be protesting with them:
Obama is Not a Brown-Skinned Anti-War Socialist Who Gives Away Free Healthcare. . . You’re Thinking of Jesus.
My first response is simple: Call me when President Obama starts personally healing people. I would also like to see him turn water into wine and transform a few fish and bread into a feast that can feed 5000. If Obama could do that, then we wouldn’t need anybody to be taxed. In a word, there’s no comparison. Jesus didn’t take money from some people to give it to other people.
Jesus didn’t call for a tax on the rich, although He did personally confront a rich man to give his money away (Matt. 19:16–30; Mark 10:17–31; Luke 18:18–30). He never made this a requirement for every rich person and He did not call on Caesar or Herod to implement a tax on the rich to pay for healthcare.
Joseph of Arimathea was rich (Matt. 27:57). Jesus was buried in his tomb. Joseph was not compelled to give up his tomb. He did it voluntarily. Charity is not defined by compulsion. Governments can’t be charitable because they don’t have any money to give.
We know that God doubled Job’s riches: “And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord increased all that Job had twofold” (Job 42:10). The “love of money is the root of all evils,” but money itself is not (1 Tim. 6:10). A poor person, an Occupier, the unemployed can love money even though they don’t have any.
There is no forced governmental altruism mandated in the Bible. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) uses his own money to care for the robbery victim left for dead. This story cannot be used as a directive for social spending by governments. Jesus never calls on the State to act in an altruistic way. The State can’t be altruistic since it has nothing of its own to give. The eighth commandment applies to civil governors in the same way that it applies to self-governors. Neither is permitted to steal to help others.
You can’t be altruistic with other people’s money. Taking money from one group of people so you can give it to other people is not altruism, even if a majority of people vote for a program that does it. It’s theft. Theft by “majority rule” is still theft.
Civil governments are the biggest hindrance in helping the poor, and it’s not because they don’t tax enough and redistribute wealth. High taxes and control of the money supply enable civil governments to control people and their property. A ten percent tax is a sign of tyranny (1 Sam. 8:15), and yet the Occupiers believe in higher taxes on the rich to help the poor.
It was a taxing policy by Rome that forced Mary and Joseph to leave their stable home environment, Joseph’s job, and spend money they probably did not have in order to register for a government taxing program (Luke 2:1–7). Wealth redistribution policies, with all their good intentions, have the effect of hurting the poor and making them dependent on civil government.