The latest tax reform bill has led to an intense debate over whether it would help or hurt the poor. Tax reform on the whole raises critical issues about whether the government should redistribute income and promote equality in the primary place.
Jews and Christians look to the Bible for guidance about these questions. And while the Bible is evident about aiding the poor, it doesn’t provide easy answers about taxing the wealthy. But even so, over the centuries biblical principles have provided an understanding on the way to help the needy.
The Hebrew Bible and the poor
The Hebrew Bible has extensive regulations that require the rich to put aside for the poor a portion of the crops that they grow.
The Bible’s Book of Leviticus states that the needy have a right to the “leftovers” of the harvest. Farmers are also prohibited from reaping the corners of their fields in order that the poor can access and use for their very own food the crops grown there.
Darren Larson, CC BY-NC-ND
In Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Bible, there’s the requirement that each three years, 10 percent of an individual’s produce ought to be given to “foreigners, the fatherless and widows.”
Helping the poor is a way of “paying rent” to God, who is known to truly own all property and who provides the rain and sun needed to grow crops. In fact, every seventh 12 months, through the sabbatical 12 months, all debts are forgiven and all the pieces that grows within the land is made available freely to all people. Then, in the nice jubilee, celebrated every 50 years, property returns to its original owner. This signifies that, within the biblical model, nobody can permanently hold onto something that finally belongs to God.
Christians and taxes
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus says, “whatever you probably did for one among the least of those brothers and sisters of mine, you probably did for me.” Jesus thus joins respect for the poor with respect for God. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus also states “Give back to Caesar what’s Caesar’s,” which is commonly interpreted as requiring Christians to pay taxes.
Throughout Christian history, taxation has been considered an important government responsibility.
The Protestant reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin drew upon Psalm 72 to argue that a “righteous” government helps the poor.
In Sixteenth-century England, “poor laws” were passed to help “the deserving poor and unemployed.” The “deserving poor” were children, the old and the sick. By contrast, the “undeserving poor” were beggars and criminals they usually were often put in prison. These laws also shaped early American approaches to social welfare.
The common good
Over the last two centuries, latest economic realities have raised latest challenges in applying biblical principles to economic life. Approaches not foreseen in biblical times emerged in an attempt to answer latest situations.
Elvert Barnes, CC BY
In the nineteenth century, organizations just like the Salvation Army believed that Christians should exit of the churches and into the streets to take care of the destitute. During this era, the United States also saw the rise of the social gospel movement that emphasized biblical ideals of justice and equality. Poverty was considered a social problem that required a comprehensive social – and governmental – response.
The concept that government has a crucial role to play in human flourishing was made by Pope Leo XIII in his 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum. In it, the pope argued that governments should promote “the common good.” Catholicism defines the “common good” because the “conditions which permit people, either as groups or as individuals, to succeed in their success more fully and more easily.”
While human success shouldn’t be nearly material comfort, the Catholic Church has at all times maintained that residents must have access to food, housing and health care. As the Catholic Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church makes clear, taxation is mandatory because government should “harmonize” society in a just way.
And in relation to taxes, nobody should pay roughly than they’re able. As Pope John XXIII wrote in 1961, taxation must “be proportioned to the capability of the people contributing.”
In other words, believing that helping the poor is just a person or private responsibility ignores the scope and complexity of the world we live in.
Mercy, not the market
Human life has change into more interconnected. In today’s globalized economy, decisions made within the heartland of China impact the American Midwest. But even with this deepening interdependence, by some measures, inequality has risen worldwide. In the United States alone, the highest 1 percent possess an increasingly larger share of national income.
Fibonacci Blue, CC BY
When it involves helping the poor in these current times, some argue that cutting taxes on individuals and corporations will stimulate economic growth and create jobs – called the “trickle-down effect,” during which money flows from those at the highest of the social pyramid right down to lower levels.
Pope Francis, nonetheless, argues that “trickle-down” economics places a “crude and naive trust in those wielding economic power.” In the pope’s view, an ethics of mercy, not the market, should shape society.
But given the Jewish and Christian commitment to the poor, the query is probably a factual one: What social policy does probably the most good?
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus taught:
“Give, and you’ll receive. Your gift will return to you in full.”
At the very least, which means people should never be afraid to supply up what they’ve as a way to help those in need.
