Are Matters of Economics Moral Issues – Spiritual Issues? Isaiah Pushes It!

More nice-sounding, anti-Biblical falsehoods:

In spite of Isaiah, and other Bible sources, we’ve all heard this – something like:

A. It is NOT the government’s place to interfere in matters of economics.

Don’t tell people how they should spend their money or how they should treat their employees. That warps economic process and is an abuse of freedom and a terrible threat to all of us. So it is anti-American and very unChristian. And it will lead to socialism and Communism and fascism and tyranny.

B. It is not moral for any government to forcibly take money from anyone for any purpose –

certainly not to use it for the benefit of someone else. When you get down to it, they feel, and say, that taxing is stealing.

Those attitudes are not actually capitalism. And such radical anti-government attitudes seem quite un-American in sentiment. But we often hear them!

So:

There ARE a couple of questions that bother me.

Question #1: Why Does Isaiah Complain About the Moral Effects of Economic Practices?

It’s just natural law, right?  Yet many times in Isaiah (and other places in the Bible) there is a complaint like this one in Isaiah 1 –

Your rulers are rebels,
companions of thieves;
they all love bribes
and chase after gifts.

A bit more from Isaiah...

They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow’s case does not come before them. Therefore the Lord, the LORD Almighty, the Mighty One of Israel, declares: “Ah, I will get relief from my foes and avenge myself on my enemies.”

Don’t you suppose someone should WARN these greedy and corrupt “rulers, companions of thieves” who do not protect the fatherless and the husbandless, that God intends to “get relief from” them – from their bad moral behavior?

Well, somebody is warning them. Isaiah is – in the Bible.

But what if somebody DOES something about it?

Doesn’t such public warning by the Prophet risk people getting stirred up to do something about it? Somebody? Somewhere? Maybe even somebody with some clout – like a king or high officials – who will try to get the government or the people to effectively interfere with the freedom of these “enemies” of God?  Enemies of God!!

Or do we think Isaiah was out of line, that it was a mistake to include things like this in the Bible?

And there’s this in Isaiah 58.

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’
“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.”
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Now he’s worrying about the “workers”! Doesn’t he know that workers often have socialistic tendencies? Doesn’t he know that the workers already have their freedom? If they’re smart enough and hard working enough to get rich like their oppressors – excellent! That’s what freedom’s for.

Still, Isaiah said SOMEONE SHOULD DO SOME LOOSING AND UNTYING. You have to wonder WHO should do the loosing and untying.

Question #1 reworded: WHO does Isaiah think is going to do anything about such misbehavior?

(Wrong) Answer (from hyper-capitalist Christians):

Only the offenders themselves can be expected to do anything about it. No one else has any right to interfere in such natural economic developments. It’s the “invisible hand” of the economy. It’s the way nature works; and we should not interfere with nature – well, at least not with THIS aspect of nature.

But Isaiah, whether or not he was one of those powerful, wealthy people (probably not) WAS complaining publicly about them.

So I say it is a moral issue, not just an economic one. Morals have to do with how God’s creation is impacted by our behaviors, including not least the HUMAN part of creation.

Morality is about relationships. Economics is about relationships. Economic theory and practice, and their consequences, which so greatly impact humans (not to mention all the rest of creation), are obviously matters of major moral interest.

Thus, for example, economist James K Galbraith can sanely argue, following world-class economist Amartya Sen, that famine is a human-caused event (see the quote below*). It is also true that bad or unenforced building codes which lead to hundreds of thousands of deaths in earthquakes are human-caused moral/economic events.

But by pushing their economic hands-off philosophy these super-capitalists have worked to remove economics from the realm of moral thought and judgment.  It is clearly an anti-Biblical stance.

So it comes down to this: according to their way of thinking we cannot force anyone to obey general moral principles if they touch economics or the freedoms of those with money. We cannot enforce or even emphasize moral principles!! (with the exception, apparently, of principles that have to do with sex or drugs or health care or speeding).

But then we get to my

Question #2: If there is no one with freedom or responsibility to legitimately and forcefully complain about such things, why is Isaiah blathering on?

The Biblical truth is that Isaiah, as a well-known and respected prophet of the Most High, of the God his people worship in the Temple, IS an authority and his words carry weight. And he IS interfering with the wealth and behavior of the wealthy.

Is that OK?

I ask because I “get yelled at” for even bringing the issue up. Why can’t I even TALK about it? I’m a long-time Bible student and even a preacher after all! But their touchiness about it very clearly implies it is not the business of any writer or preacher or prophet or moral voice to complain about how things go

• in the economy
• and in the tax system
• and in the enforced redistribution of wealth that is an unavoidable part of ANY functioning governmental system.

According to their line of thought no agent or imagined agent of God, of the government, or of any person or party can be permitted to speak about
– greed or
– tax inequity or
– poor pay or
– lousy working conditions or
– unfair lending practices or
– unavailable health care for many or
– dishonest banks and brokerages
because such things are just the outworking of the (economic) Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God.

Is the ‘Invisible Hand’ of the market our Real God?

No.  I’m sorry; I ain’t buyin’ it. And I don’t think any of us should buy it.

A major theme of the Bible is that there is indeed a higher standard for public behavior than the preferences of the wealthy and powerful of this world. Isaiah shows there is a higher Judge of morality than the invisible laws of economics. And that higher Judge does know how to ask questions.

We have to talk about that. We have to allow each other the freedom to TALK about that. We have to choose which judges we will listen to and submit to; and our choices WILL show up in what we talk about and advocate for.

Isaiah did it responsibly and faithfully. We can too.

Further, those who claim to be followers of Jesus – who talked so much about such issues, and who referred to Isaiah frequently – should be especially well-informed and out-spoken about it.

---

See also:

• If You Do Not Love Your Neighbor Whom You CAN See – Can You Love God?,
• Jesus and Racism – Samaritan Lives Matter,
• Justice is What Love Looks Like in Public. Why Resist It? Or Do We Hate Loving Our Neighbors?

---

---

(This article is a slight revision of one published here in 2010.)