Grace Church-Burlington

“What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.”

Augustine

With the recent nomination by President Obama of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, there has been an ongoing national dialogue on what is our country’s judicial responsibility to the poor and underprivileged. In a 2001 University of California-Berkeley speech, Judge Sotomayor said, “I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.” Many have interpreted this to be judicial favoritism; some have called it racist and reverse discrimination. As we have come to expect in American politics, there is a clear partisan division and both sides seem to be wanting to use this to somehow advance their political aspirations.

Too often Christians have a political worldview, rather than a Biblical worldview. We are accountable first of all for knowing what the Bible teaches and we have a responsibility to live by, promote and propagate our Lord’s worldview revealed to us in His Word in a sin-contaminated culture. The Bible has quite a bit to say about the poor and how they are to be treated. Scripture outlines for us a “theology of the poor.” Each of us has a responsibility to dig into God’s Word and see what the Bible teaches, and as Christ-followers that must be our opinion, not partisan politics. An often overlooked book in the Old Testament is the book of Leviticus. In Leviticus 19:15 we find an obscure passage where God commands, “Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.” So what does that mean? Simply this, Judge Sotomayor is wrong. Judges should never show special “empathy” for the downtrodden and unfortunate. To do so not only undermines the integrity of the legal system, but goes against Biblical morality. God’s Word is explicit and unequivocal on this issue. The scales of equal justice are not to be tilted in the direction of recognized "victim" groups, based upon a history of suffering rather than the validity of their legal arguments. Any thinking American with no specific background in the legal system can understand that Lady Justice must remain blind, not biased. Now this unmistakable commandment to avoid favoring the poor may come as something of a shock. I mean, doesn’t the Bible, and especially the New Testament, repeatedly remind us to deal generously with the less fortunate, and to care for widows, orphans and paupers in general? Absolutely! Both the Old and New Testament clearly view compassion as a personal obligation rather than a public priority for judicial policy. This very important warning against tilting the scales of justice toward the poor appears just three verses before the most famous single injunction in all of Scripture: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).

The juxtaposition of God’s directives makes it clear that not even love for your neighbor (even if they are less fortunate) can allow “perversion of justice.” Justice and charity must remain distinct—not just separate, but in some ways polar opposites. Thus, government is not to take from the rich and distribute to the poor. Just because someone is poor does not mean that the wealthy are obligated to support them. And a judge is strictly prohibited from saying “I’ll favor the poor man in this lawsuit to help him out, and make it more possible for him to make a respectable living.” Justice, to be justice, must be rendered honestly; charity may not interfere with it. Allowing justice to be twisted by emotions of sympathy for the unfortunate is no less corrupting than bending toward the rich out of a sense of awe or admiration, or in hopes of personal advancement. In both cases, feelings block the scrupulous application of rules of logic and fairness. In both cases, God’s Word teaches that the judge (or any other government official) has been, in effect, bribed.

As Christians, we are to seek to be righteous. There is no question that this must include charitable giving and acts of loving-kindness for the impoverished and powerless. But Law (or “judgment”) on the other hand describes an expression of governmental authority, which should treat all society’s members, rich and poor alike, in a non-prejudicial and neutral manner. This distinction between personal obligations and official policy brings important implications for current controversies.

As individuals, we should never try to look on a Bill Gates and a homeless beggar as equally deserving of our sympathy or generosity. At the same time, twisting the law or administrative policy to favor the beggar in a dispute with Bill Gates would require the same abandonment of impartiality as privileging the Software Sultan over the pauper. Now does this mean that a system of progressive taxation constitutes the blurring of justice and charity that the Bible decries? I believe that the answer has to be “Yes.” This doesn’t mean that Mr. Gates would ever pay the same tax bill as our imaginary pauper – particularly if they were taxed at the same percentage rate. Mr. Microsoft would still pay vastly more in precisely the same ratio that he earned vastly more. But a system under which top earners get slammed with a nearly 40% tax rate and struggling householders pay nothing, but actually get checks from the government totaling thousands of dollars very clearly represent a government organized to favor the poor in a way that violates unbiased justice. The Bible does not endorse or allow redistributionism.

As Christians and as a local church, we have Biblical responsibilities to minister to and help the less fortunate. But it is Biblically wrong to distort our judicial system to somehow “benefit” them. That is not justice. Forced compassion, in the form of confiscatory taxes and bureaucratic initiatives, quickly crowds out the healthy human impulse to assist those in need. God’s Word clearly teaches that we are to be both compassionate and generous with the less fortunate, but when “generosity” is mandated by the Government it undermines other values – private property, hard work, self-respect, and even compassion itself.