Justice

Tim Keller does a good job giving a Biblical perspective on justice and poverty in his book "Generous Justice." Some excerpts below:

"When we come to the Old Testament social legislation, the application must be done with care and it will always be subject to debate. For example, while we have seen that the Bible demands that we share our resources with the needy, and that to fail to do so is unjust, taken as a whole the Bible does not say precisely how that redistribution should be carried out. Should it be the way political conservatives prescribe, almost exclusively through voluntary private giving? Or should it be the way that political liberals desire, through progressive taxation and redistribution by the state? Thoughtful people have and will argue about which is the most effective way to help the poor. Both sides looking for support in the Bible can find some, and yet in the end what the Bible says about social justice cannot be tied to any one political system or economic policy. If it is possible, we need to take politics out of this equation as we look deeper into the Bible's call for justice."

WHAT CAUSES POVERTY?
"One of the main reasons we cannot fit the Bible's approach into a liberal or conservative economic model is the Scripture's highly nuanced understanding of the causes of poverty. Liberal theorists believe that the "root causes" of poverty are always social forces beyond the control of the poor, such as racial prejudice, economic deprivation, joblessness, and other inequities. Conservative theorists put the blame on the breakdown of the family, the loss of character qualities such as self-control and discipline, and other habits and practices of the poor themselves.

By contrast, the causes of poverty as put forth in the Bible are remarkably balanced. The Bible gives us a matrix of causes. One factor is oppression, which includes a judicial system weighted in favor of the powerless, or loans with excessive interest, or unjustly low wages. Ultimately, however, the prophets blame the rich when extremes of wealth and poverty in society appear. As we have seen, a great deal of the Mosaic legislation was designed to keep the ordinary disparities between the wealthy and the poor from becoming aggravated and extreme...

There are other factors. One is what we could call "natural disasters." This refers to any natural circumstance that brings or keeps a person in poverty, such as famine, disabling injury, floods, or fires. It may be fair to say, also, that some people lack the ability to make wise decisions. It is not a moral failing, they are simply unable to make good choices because they lack insight.

Another cause of poverty, according to the Bible, is what we could call "personal moral failures," such as indolence, and other problems with self-discipline...

Poverty, therefore, is seen in the Bible as a very complex phenomenon. Several factors are usually intertwined. Poverty cannot be eliminated simply by personal initiative or by merely changing the tax structure. Multiple factors are usually interactively present in the life of a poor family. For example: A person raised in a racial/economic ghetto (factor #1) is likely to have poor health (factor #2) and also learn many habits that do not fit with material/social advancement (factors #2 and 3).

Any large-scale improvement in a society's level of poverty will come through a comprehensive array of public and private, spiritual, personal, and corporate measures. There are many indications that scholars are coming to have a more balanced, complex view of poverty and are breaking through the older Right-Left deadlock."

-from "Generous Justice" by Tim Keller, pages 31-35

One thing I keep running up against in dealing with the world's extreme economic disparities is that the world consists of us sinners from all socioeconomic classes. Although there are many who strive to be honest and obedient to God, Medicaid and social security disability benefits can be abused just as much as Christians have difficulty tithing to the church and giving to the poor. I think government benefits for the poor are a good idea (I don't know how else they'd live! Some people really have so many strikes against them), but I wish there was a better way to regulate them so they weren't abused. I wish us Christians would be more generous with the poor. SIGH, the consequences of living in a fallen world... it can be so frustrating sometimes.