As submitted:

March 31, 2012

Editor, The Hattiesburg American:

John Allan, in his letter yesterday, said the Bible does not teach that wealth is inherently wrong.

Actually the Bible teaches that wealth is inherently evil.  1 Timothy 6:10 says “For the love of money is the root of all evil:” and it follows that money is the root of all evil, because if money didn't exist, there would be no love of it.

            The upward redistribution of wealth in this country and the world has been well documented. 

            Start with the online encyclopedia Widipedia report “A study by the World Institute for Development Economics Research at United Nations University reports that the richest 1% of adults alone owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and that the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total. The bottom half of the world adult population owned 1% of global wealth.”  And following the global economic disruption of say 2008 due to the Bush Republicans, the situation has gotten worse.

            It’s much the same in this country, with the top 20% holding some 88% of the wealth (up from 85% in 2007 and a 9% upward swing since 1989 according to various reports).  Robert Reich recently noted that in the 1970s, the top 1 percent received 8 to 9 percent of total income, but thereafter income concentrated so rapidly that by 2007 the top 1 percent received 23.5 percent of the total.  The bottom 50% in this country shared some 2.5% of the wealth in 2007, down now I’m sure.  Does anybody really believe God loves this?

            There are almost one billion people in the world going to bed hungry most nights now.  That’s up from 800 million malnourished people in 2001.  The rich get richer.  My figures say that some 16,000 children die each and every day of hunger, of slow starvation.  Does anybody really believe God loves this?

            If we believe anything from the Tao Te Ching, the book that’s been translated into more languages than any book except the Bible, it might be that “The way of heaven is to take from those who have too much, and give to those who do not have enough.”

            Jesus said when we do it not to “the least” (see Matthew 25:31-46) we do it not to Him.  He also said, in Luke 14:33,  “So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.”

            I think John Allan got it all wrong.  I think the richer you are, for the most part, the harder your heart is for these least little ones who are hungry for a slice of bread.

            Five times in Isaiah we encounter, I believe, one of God’s (hard) truths:  “For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.”  

I believe we have been blind for a long time.  I believe we have collectively served money more than we have served God since the dawn of our civilization.  I believe it’s time to change the laws.  I believe it’s time to redistribute the wealth to feed the poor.  I say let’s get out the vote and save us all from ourselves.  It’s the moral thing to do.

joel parker

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