The prophets of Hebrew Scripture were especially concerned about vast income disparities between the rich and the poor. Our modern economy is intentionally constructed to capitalize off the poor in order to line the pockets of the rich. Nothing has illustrated this more than the effects of the pandemic itself. The nation's richest billionaires have made billions and billions more, while working class people across the country are now struggling with an eviction crisis and can barely pay the bills.
In the short term, it is unlikely our government will restructure taxation to put more of the burden of addressing social issues on those earning the billions. But we can nevertheless call on individuals getting rich during the pandemic to do more to aid those who are struggling.
So let's be clear. If your company is making a lot of money now during the pandemic, and you anticipate cashing in this year while your neighbors struggle, it is your moral duty, articulated in all the prophets, to make use of those additional funds to help your neighbor who can't even put food on the table and keep a roof over his head.
Let's look at some examples from the prophets. Consider Amos 8:4-6:
"Hear this, you that trample on the needy,
"and bring to ruin the poor of the land,
"saying, 'When will the new moon be over
"so that we may sell grain;
"and the Sabbath,
"so that we may offer wheat for sale?'
"We will make the ephah small and the shekel great,
"and practice deceit with false balances,
"buying the poor for silver
"and the needy for a pair of sandals,
"and selling the sweepings of the wheat."
I can't help but think of a passage like this when I buy chicken in the grocery store, now so much more expensive than three months ago, yet I know the executives at the poultry companies are going to make a killing.
Or consider Isaiah 3:14:
"The Lord enters into judgment
"with the elders and princes of his people:
"It is you who have devoured the vineyard;
"the spoil of the poor is in your houses."
The spoil of the poor is in your houses. That $10,000 bicycle you could afford to purchase at the beginning of quarantine? You earned that while some of your workers were quarantined and not receiving any pay, even though they had been exposed to the virus.
This is injustice according to Scripture: the powerful treat poor people -- who are the majority of those in their own community -- as a source of wealth and unpaid labor. They use a mix of coercion, dishonesty, legal technicalities and even violence (exposure to the virus).
In the meantime, justice means the opposite: Those with power behaving honestly, generously and respectfully to the poor -- which right now, during a pandemic, means giving a lot of your ill-gotten wealth away to those in need.
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August 29, 2020 at 05:20PM
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Clint Schnekloth: Rich should give back to poor - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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