Friday, December 11, 2009

Biblical Redistribution?

A couple of Sundays ago I was sitting in a lack luster Sunday School class when my mind began to wonder and I began to ponder what would the TRUE Messiah's stand be on politics and redistribution. So over the next couple days I read and researched and came to the conclusion that the savior is a tax paying capitalist. In response to a Pharisee's question regarding whether or not they should pay tribute (taxes) to Caesar, Christ responds with the instruction to "Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's and unto God the things that are God's". So Christ believes in paying taxes. But what about redistribution? The best example of the Lord's fairness and equality position is the parable of the talents. In the parable a master gives three servants some money before he goes out of town. He gives one servant 5 talents, another servant 2, and the last 1. On his return the master calls his servants together and asks for an accounting of what they did with their talents. The first two servants, through their efforts, doubled their talents. The master in turn praises and rewards them for their efforts. The last servant had done nothing with his talent and so still had only one. Now if the master was a redistributing liberal/progressive socialist he would look at the situation and say that the first two servants had an unfair advantage because they were given more money to start with and more opportunities to increase their talents. So to make it fair the master would take 5 of the ten talents from the first servant who had ten, give one to the servant who had 4 so he would have 5, and 4 talents to the servant that had done nothing and still had one one so that everyone would be equal and have 5. But in the parable, as related by the savior, the master is a capitalist that believes that although everyone does not start out with the same amount of talents everyone is capable of applying themselves. And that taking from achievers and giving to those who are not is not fairness but a crime. In fact according to the parable it is not the servant with the ten talents that is punished for being successful but the servant with the one talent that is punished for being an unmotivated slacker. To show his disdain for the unprofitable servant the master takes away the one talent the servant was given and gives it to the servant that now has ten. So if we were to apply this parable literally everything should be taken from those who are living off society, complaining that life isn't fair, and they are entitled to more and give it to those who are contributing to society as a reward for hard work and self motivation. Obviously we need to read and apply the teachings of the TRUE MESSIAH.