The Church Is Called To Take Care Of The Poor, Oppressed, & the Marginalized (Part 1)

Publisher @ Reformation Charlotte has something to say about caring for the poor, the marginalized, & oppressed.  Do their words pass biblical muster?  

The title says it, but let’s talk about what that actually means. The Church is called to take care of the poor, the oppressed, and the marginalized—the least of these.

This is true.   At issue is the manner & which we are called to paraclete them and the identity of the people — defined not by our Liturgical Philosophy but instead by way our Rule of Faith (Sola Scriptura), ie the Bible correctly exegeted, exposited, & understood.  

But not the way progressive “Christians” would have you think. No, the modern leftist Evangelical, or worse, these apostate mainline Protestant denominations, have built entire ideologies around twisting this concept to such a grotesque degree that it’s barely recognizable.

These people—whether it be leftist Southern Baptists, the David French/Russell Moore/Curtis Chang “After Party” circus, or the transgender lesbian wearing a rainbow stole standing behind a PCUSA “pulpit”—have constructed a pseudo-gospel. One that paints the lazy, the entitled, and the irresponsible as “oppressed,” demanding that everyone else pick up their slack under the guise of compassion.

These words amount to a brazen attempt to poison the well.   Anything that differs with Publisher’s point of view serves as an instance of the encroaching liberal, LGBTQ loving, social justice menace.  “This is just liberalism & wokeness through theological & moral declension!” & “‘Wokeness/‘ / ‘Wokeism’ is the  Enemy as is the LGBTQ menace & social justice!” 

Perhaps Publisher would be better served by sticking to the exposition of the Bible in the article he wrote.   As we shall see, there is precious little biblical material in the article, and what there is, when correctly exposited & understood, serves to refute Publisher’s own argument.  

How does Publisher define the Poor? 

First, we need to make one thing perfectly clear. When the Bible speaks of the poor, it’s not talking about people who refuse to work or make foolish decisions with their lives. In fact, Scripture condemns such behavior repeatedly.

Where does the Bible define “poor” in such an exclusionary fashion?  The fact that Scripture doesn’t approve of a refusal to work or make foolish decisions  (Proverbs 13:18) does not mean that the Bible doesn’t include such people among the poor.  In fact, according to Proverbs 13, such people most certainly are among the poor.  

The ransom of a man's life is his wealth,
    but a poor man hears no threat.  (Prov. 13:8)

Trusting your own wealth leads to stupidity, which a gateway to poverty.   How does God proverb gluttons?  Sodom & Gomorrah come to mind.

Poverty and disgrace come to him who ignores instruction,
    but whoever heeds reproof is honored. (Proverbs 13:18)

I would think that Publisher would agree that ignoring biblically defined reproof / instruction qualifies as foolish decision making.   

Does the Bible agree with Publisher?  If so, then how so? If not, then how so? 

How did the Sanhedrin treat the man born blind?According to John 9, they infantilized him by looking to his parents for answers, not him. Rather, they chose to lecture him about being steeped in sin at birth.  

They oppressed the widow who gave her last penny (Luke 21).  The parallel narrative (Matthew 24:14) says that says that they devoured widow’s houses.  Mark 7 states that they were notorious for dedicating their own material goods for allegedly morally noble purposes when in reality they were using the Law to exploit the least of these.  

These men were the same men who took offense when called “blind” themselves.  Yeshua reminds them that they are among the most blind of all (John 9:41).

The Bible doesn’t approve of indolence (2 Thessalonians 3), but neither does it treat the literal sluggard in a merciless manner.  In fact, it recognizes that people who make poor decisions — engaging in gluttony, to take just one example — come to poverty via their poor decisions. 

The rich rules over the poor,

and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity,

and the rod of his fury will fail. (Proverbs 22: 7 - 8)

Some people come to poverty, resulting in debt bondage, which is in view here — because the rich sow injustice. Those who sow injustice will come to calamity. 

Whoever oppresses the poor to increase his own wealth,

or gives to the rich, will only come to poverty. (Proverbs 22:16)

One of the things those who oppress the poor do is give to the rich.   Those who do this risk coming to poverty (calamity) themselves. 

As you can see, the Bible defines “poor” in a more inclusive manner than Publisher defines the term.   Both people who come to poverty through the injustice of others & those who sow injustice & reap calamity are included. 

Yet, here we are, with so-called “Christians” arguing that we ought to support a welfare state—a bloated system that incentivizes laziness—because, apparently, this is what it means to “take care of the least of these.”

“So called Christians…” Publisher sounds like one or more of the examiners in John 9.  It’s worth noting that the folks at Reformation Charlotte are on record asserting that Democrats & other agitators ought to be rooted out of the churches as a matter of church discipline —- and these godless liberals probably aren’t regenerate!  

Publisher knows what’s his, & he’ll not stand for a robust social safety net if it means that we assist people who’ve made poor decisions.   That’s the sort of thinking that led Rep. Larry Brown to attempt to defund North Carolina’s ADAP Program in 2011. 

Brown stated “I’m not opposed to helping a child born with HIV or something, but I don’t condone spending taxpayers’ money to help people living in perverted lifestyles.” Brown refused to discuss what he considers perverted, but has referred to gay people as “fruit loops” and “faggots” in the past.

This what led TN’s State Legislature to reject CDC funding for HIV Education & Intervention via moral triage. 

The analysis revealed that reallocating HIV prevention funding away from CDC-prioritized populations (men who have sex with men, transgender women, and heterosexual Black women) towards Tennessee-prioritized populations (first responders, pregnant people, and survivors of sex trafficking) would result in additional HIV transmissions and deaths.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-07-tennessee-shift-hiv-funding-poorer.html#:~:text=Tennessee%20plans%20to%20reject%20%246,Ethan%20Borre%2C%20MD%2C%20Ph.

They later decided to direct their own funds toward assisting socially acceptable populations.  

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna80814

These populations included first responders, mothers & children, & survivors of sex trafficking. The Perinatal & Other Categories are areas in which TN is already doing well.  

https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/health/program-areas/hiv/2022-Tennessee-HIV-Epidemiological-Profile.pdf

You can practically hear the covetousness dripping from their rhetoric as they demand wealth redistribution, not because they care about justice, but because they simply want what others have. They’re lazy, and they want your hard-earned money to prop up their slothful lifestyles.

The modern leftist Evangelical, of course, wouldn’t put it in such blunt terms. They’ll wrap it up in a veneer of sanctimony, pretending that it’s all about “justice” and “equality.” But don’t be fooled. What’s really at play here is nothing more than old-fashioned greed. It’s the politics of envy dressed up in theological garb.

And let’s not forget—these people love to talk about “oppression” and “marginalization,” as if there’s some vast conspiracy by those of us with a work ethic to keep others down. But here’s the truth they don’t want to hear, in America, if you’re poor, it’s overwhelmingly the result of bad choices. Laziness, sloth, and fatherlessness are the main culprits, not some imaginary system of oppression.

As you can see, nothing Publisher wrote is, at this point, underwritten by Scripture.  Instead, he or she treats us to a bona fide Pharisaical jeremiad that has no supporting argument. Poor people in America are lazy, often fatherless (Black) sluggards.  

And let’s be honest—by biblical standards, no one in America even truly qualifies as poor. Even the so-called “poorest” among us have access to more resources than most people around the world could even dream of.

It’s true that the poor in the Bible were, in economic terms, as the dollar signs go, dirt poor by modern standards. It’s also true that there are poor people in other nations who don’t have access to the resources we have in the United States.  However, at issue is the Bible and what abiding principles it teaches relative to paracleting the poor, not dollar signs & access to resources. 

They have housing, food stamps, free healthcare—luxuries by global and historical standards. But that doesn’t stop these progressives from screaming about “systemic injustice.”

These luxuries would have been welcomed by a great many of the people in those days.   After all, the people in Antiquity were barely out of the Iron Age.   The fact of the matter is, however, that godly government works to alleviate the anxieties caused by the lack of such luxuries (Matthew 6:25 - 34)

Moreover, as a reminder to Reformation Charlotte, who cites RC Sproul approvingly & is, presumably, an organization whose members agree with Calvinism, the Reformed Tradition includes a social justice component & affirms the 3 Uses of the Law.   

Instead of writing a deeply flawed, prejudicial, & downright mean-spirited article that’s barely underwritten by Scripture, Publisher would have been better served to have written an article that carefully defined the Poor in solid, biblical terms, & explored the 3fold Use of the Law and how individuals & individual families, ecclesiastical institutions, & godly governments are supposed to work harmoniously toward a society in which we seek to both prevent poverty & treat poverty by recovering from our societal addiction to institutionalized warmongering, bigotry, vengeance seeking, sorcery, gluttony, works righteousness, & slavery to luxury & money — a situation which we in the United States have come extraordinarily comfortable.