Jesus Is Not A Macroeconomist

Erika Christakis commits poor exegesis:

As near as we can tell, Jesus would advocate a tax rate somewhere between 50% (in the vein of “If you have two coats, give one to the man who has none”) and 100% (if you want to get into heaven, be poor). Mostly, he suggested giving all your money up for the benefit of others. And Jesus made no distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor; his love and generosity applied to all.

Jesus promoted generosity and radical self-sacrifice as individual virtues that would have been meaningless if not freely offered, as his sacrifice of himself was. He never endorsed and probably never imagined government agents and leaders seizing 30-45% of people's income and using the proceeds to pay their salaries and expenses while spending the rest, often discerningly but sometimes not, on the public's behalf. Jesus actually lumped tax collectors with prostitutes as exemplars of sin. Unlike our decent, diligent IRS agents, they were notoriously corrupt in first-century Palestine, Still, I'll bet they came away from most transactions with less than 30-45% of their victims' worldly goods.

I'm for a government that's generous toward those in need because it's good for the strength and stability of our society. I hope Christians, Jews, Muslims, and atheists agree that a decent and wise state is also a compassionate one. While I don't resent paying taxes, it's not because I think confiscation of my property has anything to do with Christian ethics but because I believe in representative democracy and count on our leaders to make smart decisions about national security and those who need help while discerning the tipping point where taxation and the size of government impede a free-market economy's capacity to grow and produce wealth and jobs. It may be 27%, 39%, or 55%, but it's definitely not 100%. Let's please leave our LORD out of that strictly technical calculation. Anyway, he's actually concerned with what each of us does for those who suffer by using our remaining resources and free will. We can't outsource our consciences to Congress.

Convicted By A Cactus. Actually, A Yucca.

These painstakingly made enclosures protect Joshua tree saplings in the national park named for them in the high desert north of Palm Springs. Animals like to nibble on the saplings, so park personnel are doing what they can to even the odds.

I first noticed them last Thursday. The day before, I'd taken a field trip to Barstow, about 110 miles away, and been surprised to find it that was so economically stressed. I should've known -- I have friends who do wonderful ministry there -- but I didn't.

My first thought was that I should get out more. My second, on seeing these enclosures the day after my Barstow adventure, was that it seems strange to devote public resources to plants when there are people in need. I knew there was something callow about that observation, so I kept it to myself.

You might say that people, unlike plants, can take care of themselves. They can move somewhere else and take other steps to improve their situation. Counterpoint: Society has the responsibility to equalize opportunity to the extent possible, and it's failing in places like Barstow, where there aren't enough jobs, to a large extent because of the globalization of manufacturing.

You might say that Joshua trees are part of the ecosystem and critters are entitled to their dinner. Counterpoint: Joshua trees are prey to the encroachment of humanity and ought to be maintained in protected surroundings in at least one little part of the world.

Or you might say that all dimensions of God's creation deserve care. Counterpoint-- Well, there isn't one, except to say that our means, energy, and will appear so limited that, since we can't take care of everyone and everything, we spend our lives engaged in quietly desperate prioritization and triage. The problem is when we make the best or only choices we can, which often are the most self-interested ones, and then build the fortress of a philosophy around ourselves in an attempt to show that God or Reason sees reality, right, and wrong more or less as we do.

So maybe it's good to be convicted by a plant now and then.