Throughout scripture God reveals what it means to be a good ruler of people. Psalm 72, for instance, says these are the characteristics of a good king who has been filled with God’s righteousness:
- Rules with righteousness
- Gives justice to the poor
- Defends the needy among the people
- Rescues the poor and crushes the oppressor
- Delivers the poor who cry out in distress and the oppressed who have no helper
- Has pity on the lowly and poor
- Preserves the lives of the needy
- Redeems the poor from oppression because their blood is precious in his sight
My ultra conservative friends, Christians one and all, object saying that “you just want to take our money and give it tot he poor.” That common and simplistic answer is dead wrong, but widely believed.
A few days ago Mr. Romney made a $10,000 bet about something. I think it had to do with health care. I can’t make a bet like that, but I’ll give a nickel to anyone who can find passages in scripture suggesting that God would like us to:
- Eliminate almost all government
- Do away with regulations
- Offer enormous financial incentives to those who are already quite wealthy
- Give corporations all the rights and privileges of personhood.
- Invade other nations for specious reasons
- Live in fear of anything and anybody that is not like us
- Let the poor sink or swim, it’s up to them