How my continuing engagement with Scripture changed my views on public policy

In the 2000 presidential election, I voted in my first presidential election, and as a newly minted member of the U.S. Air Force, was very happy to see President Bush elected.  And in the time before facebook and blogs, I e-mailed news articles to friends, often with my commentary, almost always with a conservative slant.  So when I say that I have shifted to the left, that should be considered relative.  I am pro-life and believe in smaller, smarter government, but after that, I tend to favor if not progressive policies, certainly a lot of progressive values that I see reflected in scripture.

So how did I get here?

How One Reads the Bible

I think one of the fundamental shifts was from digging into the specific verses found in the Bible and instead
taking a step back and looking at the overall themes.  Don’t misunderstand me, I’m not saying that interpreting specific verses is not important, in fact I’ll be offering up some of my own favorite passages shortly, but never had I read a book of the Bible cover to cover and asked, what was the message of this person to this audience.  Instead I would ask, what does this verse or that say, and then line them up against others, with no appreciation for the context and scope of history.  We sometimes forget that the Bible was first and foremost written for its original audience.  In some ways I think the whole, “love letter from God”, or “manual for living” thing is overplayed, to some degree.

The Ethics of Jesus

This goes hand-in-hand with how one reads the Bible.  The Bible says a lot of crazy things.  How are we to make sense of what we apply and what we don’t?  Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s being.  So for instance when the Bible says that any number of things should be punished by death and then Jesus says no, do not condemn the women caught in adultery to death, that has implications.  At the very least, we must treat criminals and victims fairly and justly, while at the same time extending a great deal of grace to both.  These principles apply not just to individuals, but to people in power in their administration of justice.

Beyond that example, the Sermon on the Mount, starting in Matthew chapter 5, lists a whole set of values and new ways of looking at the world, all of which I think apply to public policy in the 21^st century.  No, not always literally, (though sometimes that too) but at the very least as a way of stating principles that should be carefully and wisely applied to our contemporary situation.

Reactions to Conservative and Progressive Culture

To some extent my shift is reactionary.  I’m willing to own that.  If I had grown up in an uber-liberal home and church, I would probably have reacted to that as well.  I think any given sub-culture has its issues and areas where it can improve.

Let me say this as well.  The actual people I grew up with, particularly my pastors and close friends, they are some of the best, most Godly people I know.  I think they combine their conservative values and allegiance to Christ very well. I have not been burned by an abusive church or something similar as some of my friends have.  Instead, I have great memories of my formative years, years which frankly continue.

So the bottom line is that yes I have shifted, there are some foundational values or assumptions made by conservatives that I question, but no, I don’t think conservatives are inherently evil.  I do not buy into a pure liberal narrative about the evils of corporations, the rich and powerful.  I may sometimes sound like I agree with that narrative, because I think there is some percentage of truth to it, but I do not wholly agree.

Additionally my shift can be attributed to getting to know some of those evil liberals, and finding out there is no such thing.  When you live in a town like Pasadena California, a largely conservative town by California standards, full of very rich people and very poor ones, it has an effect on you.  When you see the effects of red-lining, illegally separating blacks and whites through how homes are sold, effects that continue to this day.  When you befriend the poor and needy and then they literally die due to a lack of health care, when you sit with a little old black lady and here her stories… it changes you.  Frankly, you don’t see excess and poverty in the Midwest like you see in California.  I’m sure the cities of the Midwest are different, but it is just a whole different game out there compared to your average size towns in the Midwest.

Holistic Values

So what are some of those values I picked up on as I read and re-read the scriptures?

Life – Holistically Defined

Justice – Broadly Defined

Mercy – Liberally Dispensed

Community – Locally and Globally

Sustainability – Broadly Applied

Now, I can imagine how some of these would be critiqued, “that is naive” or “you are cherry picking what the Bible says.”  Say what you will, this is where I am.  This is going to be way too long, so I’m going to try and avoid writing a thesis on each of these, but following I have provided some passages and some of my own thoughts on each.

Life – Holistically Defined

“I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live” – Deuteronomy 30:19

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. – Matthew 26:52

Pretty strait forward here.  Any public policy that leads to people suffering and dying needlessly, or in a way that can be avoided, should be apposed.

We should not abort children, especially if they are to suffer. (Don’t read too much into that.) And if we are really pro-life, we should advocate for public policies that actually assist mothers, particularly those that are most likely to feel like they have no options in the face of a crises pregnancy.

We should not rush into war un-necessarily.  Something more likely to happen, the larger and more able one is to carry off such an adventure.

One way or another, everyone should have access to healthcare, particularly when we know that not doing so leads to death.

Environmental policy, at times that too is a life issue.  When a town near a factory has significantly higher cancer rates due to whatever is being belched into the air or the water, that is a pro-life issue.

Justice – Broadly Defined

“Sow for yourself justice, reap for yourself the fruit of steadfast love” Hosea 12:12

“It is the Lord who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.” – Deut. 10:18

 ⁵Listen, my dear brothers and sisters: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him? ⁶ But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? ⁷

¹⁴What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? – James 2:5-7, 14-16

Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. – Deut. 24:15 (apply the principle, not literally, pay weekly instead of monthly for instance)

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the LORD Almighty. – Malachi 3:5 (why does each party only trumpet part of this list?)

Not going to delve deep here, but there are systemic issues in our society that have to be addressed.  The incarceration rate of black men, and other minorities.  Income distribution - one need not be a radical liberal to see that the status-quo is unjust.  Access to basic services.  There are fundamental inequalities that have to be addressed.  Are many of these due to issues around personal responsibility? YES!  And they are ALSO due to systemic issues.

Mercy – Liberally Dispensed

“He has shown you O man what is good, and what does the Lord require? To act justly and love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.” – Micah 6:8

Frankly, this is my trump card.  One might argue that sometimes a generous disposition toward the poor is possibly in itself un-just.  “They did not earn it” one might say.  And there is some truth to that.  Say the drunk on the corner. People working for what they earn gives life, more so than a free hand out.  But there has to be a balance.  The apostle Paul begins nearly all of his epistles with the phrase “Grace and peace to you…”  Indeed.  Christ’s command to forgive as the Lord forgave us has not only personal ramifications, but implications for public policy.  Together we should choose to be generous, choose to mercy.  After all, “he who lends to the poor, lends to God.”  Giving health care to a total bum, that is about mercy.  As is providing health care for the immigrant or the rural poor in their trailer park, working for minimum wage, enabling others to get wealthy.

Community – Locally and Globally

We hurt ourselves when we practice a politics of division, something I have been guilty of at times.  Even beyond politics, we have to shift from “me” to “we”.  Our culture is fundamentally too individualistic.  Over and over again, the Bible addresses whole people groups.  When the community goes astray, the whole community lives with the effect, and when it follows God’s principles, everyone prospers.  (Example: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, that latter of whom were thrown into a fiery furnace, were all carried off to Babylon, in-spite of their personal piety.)

I fundamentally believe that we can do more together than we can apart, and that there is much to do.  Some of the things done in the name of personal freedom… they give me pause.  Whether it is the freedom engage in personal habits that directly hurt others, or the advancement of an every-man-for-himself, buyer-beware philosophy of business, freedom is not always a good thing.

Though on balance, I don’t think having my health care controlled by corporate for-profit bureaucrats, leaving me no choice but whatever my employer thinks is best for me, if I am lucky enough to have employer provided health care is a good thing either.  So yes to freedom, but we already agree there has to be limits: shouting fire in a crowded theater, obvious crimes, and over-the-top abuse of the environment, dumping chemicals and that kind of thing, clearly there are limits to our freedom.

I’m not going to say more, but valuing “community” impacts how we treat our fellow world citizens as well, whether they be trading partners, the two-thirds world, or suspected terrorists who may very well not be guilty of anything.

Sustainability – Broadly Applied

The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom and money, borrowing in particular.  Running a perpetual deficit is not sustainable or wise.

And of course there is the green angle.  Here too I am a cautious progressive.  I definitely disagree with any world view that places the needs of plants and animals over humans.  Rather, taking care of plants and animals serves us, gives us a better world to live in, and conforms to Gods first command, to look after the earth.  Destroying the only planet we know how to inhabit… not wise or sustainable.

So I value sustainability: fiscally, in personal habits, and the environment, and apply that value to public policy.

The Role of Government

This may be where some of us have the biggest disagreement.  And it is the area I am least likely to try and play some kind of a Bible trump card.  Some will say: “I  don’t substantially disagree with your values David, but that is not the role of government?”  Let me ask you, why do you believe that?  This is one of those presuppositions that I never questioned growing up, and then I took a step back and asked, why?

Why can’t we agree to work together, to throw in our lot together and say: “We as a people are going to…  go to the moon, choose negotiation over war, choose war over standing on the side lines while people die in a horribly unjust genocide, reform welfare, cut taxes or raise them” or whatever?

In a lot of ways, the issue goes back to our founding as a break-away nation.  We have a long and odd history of loving our country and hating our government.  (Except when we win the election.) From what I have read, this is a uniquely American tradition.

I believe that how we view government requires a fundamental paradigm shift.  We are the government. “We the people, of the united States…” We elect our government, and we were born into a compact by which we agree to abide by each others choices.  At the end of the day, politicians don’t ram anything down anyone’s throat.  They do what a majority of us asked them to do, use their own judgment (or the judgment of the corporate/union interests, left or right, that have paid them off) to do what they think is best for ALL of us, not one segment or another.

On the other hand:  There are issues in government efficiency, fraud waste and abuse that truly give me pause. I actually don’t think the government does things very well, but I do think it should regulate and promote the Biblical values I described above.

I think when business and enterprise takes a broad based values approach to business, that is often more effective than government.  But so often it drops the ball.  It seems government and business are both run by people, and people tend to be self-interested, myself included all too often.

For me it goes back to that old phrase, “trust but verify”.  Our founding fathers wisely set up checks and balances, a principle that I believe applies to government AND business.  So in the end, I tend to value business and particularly entrepreneurs, but want to check potential abuses with some (though certainly not all) progressive policies.

In Conclusion

In conclusion, taking a step back and looking at the themes of Scripture through the eyes of Jesus has caused me to values things I did not previously value.  Many conservatives value the same things, but their view of government is different than mine.  After a while, I realized that in spite of good intentions, many of these things can not be changed accept through government.  Only the government is in a position to regulate what should and should not be done.  When laws are broken, we call the police… the government, and we depend on that government to execute justice in the aftermath of injustice, sentencing white collar and blue collar criminals alike, enforcing regulations that we have all agreed to, and punishing those that break them.

In our country we get to vote.  We all take our values into the voting booth, flaming conservatives and Bible thumping liberals alike.  That is all that I advocate for.

Finally, I recognize that this is not going to convince anyone who has their mind made up.  I have made a lot of off the cuff comments which can easily be critiqued.  This is not a polished work, just a blog post that is way too long and probably read by virtually no one.  But I know from experience that being forced to write down your thoughts sharpens them.  So I thought I would give this ago.

Additionally I purposely waited till after the election to post this, I thought about it both ways, but I don’t want this to be persevered as simply liberal propaganda…  though of course it is.