Who would Jesus starve?
This is an article by Julie Ingersoll at Relion Dispatches
On Wallbuilders Live yesterday, David Barton and company tackled the question posed by the “religious left” in the budget debate: “What would Jesus cut?”
“The role of the government is not to exercise mercy, but to exercise justice. It is improper for government to take care of the poor. That is up to us, as individuals,” they said.
This view is taken directly from Rushdoony, in which God has ordained three spheres of government and delegated limited authority to each: the family, the church, and the civil government (I have written more about that here). Each sphere has specific biblical responsibilities, and any action on issues outside those responsibilities is “tyrannical.”
In addition to Rushdoony, Gary North, David Chilton, George Grant, and others have written on biblical law and poverty. One of the more accessible places to find their view is in George Grant’s volume in Gary North’s Biblical Blueprint series entitled Bringing in the Sheaves.
Grant explicitly links poverty with sin and disobedience to biblical law. The solution to poverty is to bring the poor under the authority of “Godly” institutions that can foster “obedience.” The “poor” are divided into those who are “denied the opportunity to work and those who refuse the opportunity to work.” And those who “will not work shall not eat.” But Grant develops even more stringent requirements:Even more than these (hard work and diligence), though, obedience is required. Submission to the standards of the Kingdom is required… The eighth basic principle in the biblical blueprint for welfare is that only those who are either in God’s covenant or are dependent on God’s covenant may receive charity. The work of charity begins in the company of the faithful, but it then extends to-the four corners of the earth, to all who will submit to God’s Word.