Jesus Tax

Some time ago, a blogger whose sincere faith I respect and admire publicly wrestled with the process of moving his family to a new city and renting a home. As sincere and devout a real-life Christian as I have met anywhere, Aaron was humble enough to share with his readers what thoughts went through his mind as he grappled with the issue of considering renting a house that was very nice versus renting a house that was good enough. What he shared with his readers was about prosperity and material goods. It was about what he believed was the Christian response to the suffering and poverty in the world.

Aaron is not one of those Christians who just goes to church and nods his agreement when the pastor says we ought to give to the poor, feed the hungry, care for the widow and the orphan. He and his wife have adopted orphans, and they’re trying to adopt two kids from the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, Haiti. They’ve been there and seen the poverty, and like any American who has had the chance to live, stay, or be with the poor elsewhere in the world and then returned to the most prosperous country on earth, they’ve been changed forever.

The marble or granite countertops in one house Aaron considered renting became a metaphor for more-than-enough, and it was interesting to read his blog as people commented, displaying their values and sometimes condemning their brothers and sisters and showing their own prejudices. One woman, for example, wrote this:

I refuse to ask God for a “dream” home (whatever that means anyway) when I know the conditions of most people in the world. It’s pretty sick, really. Like you said, nothing wrong with marble countertops, but I totally get what you’re saying.

Another commented:

What ever happened to having just enough? As an American what you just did is amazing! Thank you for sharing your heart. It would be so easy to justify the huge house with “big family” and such.

And yet another wrote:

Love this post. When I read the paragraph about the 3,000 sq ft house I was secretly thinking, “No, don’t do it, it’s a trap!” I feel the same pull towards wanting “nice things”, but I don’t think God calls us to lives of “nice things.” Not sure where the boundary is, I guess we all have to find it for ourselves. Anyway, hard to articulate, but thanks for the great post.

And, finally:

What a good reminder to what is really important! Congrats on finding the RIGHT house.

 

the politics of stuff

The climate today politically seems all about money and resources, and I’ve been wanting to write about money and stuff for a long time. I have many thoughts and experiences related to money, and even more questions. When does a person have too much? How little is too little? In a country where even the so-called “poor” have a car, two televisions, at least one cell phone, and at least one gaming system under the roof (according to the U.S. Census Bureau), do we even know what poverty is?

Who has the right to decide that you have “too much” and who has the right to force you to give up what you work a 40 or 50 hour week to earn? If you can make more money than another person because you’re more intelligent or harder working or have a dad with a plumbing business who passes the business on to you, do you owe something to the welfare mom across town, who is raising her third child from the third man she had a relationship with, the guy who lives with her illegally in her government-subsidized housing, and sells pot out of the back bedroom? How much money do others have the right to take from those of us who work hard, who teach our children to be self-reliant, and who are honest with our money? Do we really want our hard-earned money to go to people who refuse to do anything for themselves? If we knew real poor people, and were intimately acquainted with people who live on welfare or survive on food stamps, would our opinions and feelings change? If we needed government handouts, would our ideas about handouts change?

Who says how much is “too much”? Why do sincere Christians argue and wrangle about McCain policies versus Obama policies when we have only one holy book belonging to our faith, one Bible for the Christian, “One God, one Lord, Jesus Christ, one baptism?” There may be two or four or more political parties, but there is only one Bible for the Christian, one Torah for the Jew, one Dhammapada for the Buddhist. What do our religions teach about money and charity? What did our great spiritual masters say?

our christian nation ain’t so christian after all

What does the Bible teach about stuff and money, anyway? Do we even know? Do we want to know?

I find that most people do not know what the Bible teaches, and many don’t want to know. They get everything they need to know from the often scandalous behavior of self-proclaimed Christians. I find that people don’t read what Jesus taught because they are too busy judging the behavior of people who claim to be Christian. And you can’t blame them.

Still, I’ll bet that most people don’t know that Jesus and Buddha in effect pretty much taught along the same lines regarding money and stuff. There’s not a lot of disagreement among the world’s major religions, in fact, about caring for the sick, the hungry, the poor, the prisoner, the naked. Everyone should be charitable, they teach.

Stuff and money are always issues because they provide for our survival and provide comfort. It’s not surprising, then, that money was an issue in Biblical times just as money is an issue today. Jesus talked about money more than he talked about love, actually (bet you didn’t know that!). One of the occasions Luke recounts is this one:   

[Jesus] therefore began saying to the multitudes who were going out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? “Therefore bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. “And also the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

And the multitudes were questioning him, saying, “Then what shall we do?”

And he would answer and say to them, “Let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise.” And some tax-gatherers also came to be baptized, and they said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than what you have been ordered to.” And some soldiers were questioning him, saying, “And what about us, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not take money from anyone by force, or accuse anyone falsely, and be content with your wages.” Luke 3:10-14

So this is something Jesus taught about money and stuff: show your goodness and your virtue through actions. Share. Be generous to those who have less than you have. Don’t merely say you’re righteous: act righteous. Be a good tree. Bear good fruit.

jesus tax

I wonder what the fan of literal Bible interpretation would say to Jesus’ tax scheme suggested by “let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none.” That’s a 50% charity. That’s a 50% Jesus tax. I wonder, my fellow evangelical Christian conservative, are you willing to give up 50% of what you have to the poor, even if the poor are mentally ill, shiftless pot-smoking, fornicating, or uneducated folks? Even though the poor one you’re helping is a 300 pound black man, drinking his Budweiser breakfast and living in subsidized housing with his latest girlfriend, having produced seven or eight children who are all being provided for through welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid as you have to earn and pay for everything you eat and the roof over your head? Even though.

I don’t see Jesus or Saint Paul or anyone else in the Bible qualifying who deserves help except by the level of a person’s need. The Bible doesn’t teach that only righteous poor people should be helped. It doesn’t say that only good hungry folks ought to be fed. It says feed the hungry.

Paul, instructing Timothy like a son, advised this about money:

But godliness actually is a means of great gain, when accompanied by contentment. For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. And if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang. But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. 1 Tim 6:6-11

So we call ourselves good people. We say we are Christian, but I wonder. What do we desire? What do we pursue? What are we after, exactly? What’s the paycheck for? Do we want to get rich? Are we content? Food and covering, Saint Paul said, are “enough.” Are they enough for us? Are we ever really happy, we who have more than enough reason to be the happiest people in the world?

Again, we have the Apostle Paul, writing to the believers at Philippi:

I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:10-13

We know that all through the Bible are accounts of wealthy men and women who loved and served God. Many were mightily used by God, the God who blessed them and gave them abundance. Prosperity and material blessing have always gone along with the people of God. The entire universe is ours, and we are the stewards of so much beauty and abundance. I do not believe in the gospel of poverty any more than I believe in the gospel of prosperity. I don’t see it as an either-or thing. I see real relationship with God much like Paul describes, “I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry.” The secret is gratitude and present-mindedness, knowing that eternity stretches ahead, and we will take nothing with us. It’s a going-out-of-life sale, everything must go.

Good times will come and they will go. We must learn to save enough to share with those in need. We must understand that nothing is permanent. People resist the idea of impermanence. But the only thing eternal is spirit.

Finally, in the book of Hebrews we have:

Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge. Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” so that we confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?” Hebrews 13:1-6

true freedom is true generosity

Over and over again, the Bible teaches that the spiritual person ought to be free from the love of money, and that contentment and gratitude are virtues, that sharing is the right thing to do, and that people who have much ought to give much.

We have rich people running for president. Their fiscal charity is questionable. Both claim to be Christians, but don’t seem to live much by the Christian play book. In case you don’t know it, Christians and Jews alike are supposed to be giving 10% of their income to charity. That’s 10%, a tithe, not the 1% or less the Obamas gave every year until the year he decided to run for president, and not the 28% the McCains donated to their private foundation, which in turn was supposedly donated primarily to the private schools their kids attended. No, really, that tithe is supposed to be used a little more like, ironically, the 10-13% of their income that Bill and Hillary Clinton have given to charity most of their adult lives, before they were in politics, and before they had people scrutinizing their tax returns. Imagine people as maligned as the Clintons somehow managing to do the right thing with their charitable dollars. Most churchgoers don’t do as much, statistically speaking, so it makes the fact that Bill and Hillary did that much more remarkable.

In Biblical terms, one aspect of being good is loving on the poor by giving to them. This may mean giving as little as 10% and living on 90% of what you make (whether you make $50,000 or $50,000,000 annually, the Bible teaches a flat tax), or it may approach the 50% Jesus suggested. But it is a portion of what you earn, and it also leaves plenty for you to enjoy. Having stuff and enjoying God’s blessings are not sins.

Regardless of which side of the political fence you’re on, if you’re a religious person, your holy book tells you what to do about your excess and your prosperity. Even if you’re without any faith at all, but you claim to be a good person, material virtue is very plain, and it will look like this:

• Feed the hungry.
• Clothe the naked.
• Comfort the sick.
• Visit the prisoner.
• Care for the widow and orphan.

Give generously.

You only need about half of what you have; the rest is Jesus tax.