Progressive Policies Harm The Poor

Reverend Jim Wallis understandably believes that progressive policies are the most Christian social policy. It is understandable because he believes in God the Father, Jesus, His Son and us as adopted children in Christ. Progressive policies are a natural extension of the Christian family, which is a an authoritarian, socialist institution. God and Christ are the heads of the larger Christian family and parents are the head the smaller Christian families which make up the larger. We love our families and we want to have the same kind of nurture only bigger.

But Wallis is mistaken.

Here is what God had to say about the government, in I Samuel 8:

11 He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle [b] and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."

The authoritarian dream Wallis embraces fails. It is not Godly. The authoritarian dream will make people suffer. And, as has always been the case, the rich will suffer the least and the poor the most.

In economic terms, the family does not scale. At the microeconomic level, the family is wonderful for the poor, the middle class and the rich. It has been so since the beginning. But at the macroeconomic level it is free choice, the free market, liberty and the creative destruction of capitalism that is wonderful for the poor, the middle class and the rich. Since the beginning free choice, the free market, liberty and creative destruction have been how families have interacted with other families.

God is wildly into freedom. He could have built robots. He did not.

It's also plain that God is wildly into creative destruction, even if we aren't. That was his plan to save our souls. How is Heaven going to be implemented? The old world will pass away!

So, Reverend Jim, I'm afraid you need to embrace the free market at the macroeconomic end. For the poor. For children. So we can have more justice and more peace.

I was inspired by this article: Is the Tea Party a Christian Movement?