In the Columbia Flier of April 23, Howard County Republican Council Member Darrel Drown is described as acknowledging "that his Christian beliefs create a framework from which he forms his political opinions, but, despite his fervor on the subject, he insists those beliefs have little relevance to his work on the County Council. "'Most of what we do deals with growth and economics,' he says, 'Those are the issues that hit home.'"

Believing Scripture could not be as silent on topics related to growth and economics as Mr. Drown was reported to believe, and having a computer program that can search for more than one word at once in the King James Version Bible, I searched for all the verses which contained the word "poor" and also the word "God" or "Lord". I sought this combination as most likely to represent Bible authors' expression of God's attitude toward the poor.

The result was quite challenging; whether one is reading the 32 verses in the Scriptures shared by both Jews and Christians, or the additional 8 in the Christian New Testament, the theme of diverse authors over a thousand years of Bible history is completely consistent on this topic.

Poor and rich are equal before God (Ex 30:15, Prov 22:2,29:13) but to neglect the poor is to deny God's Lordship (Lev 19:10, 23:22). We are to be generous to the needy (Deut 15:7) and to consider their circumstances in structuring our economic arrangements (Deut 24:15). Both poverty and wealth are created by God, therefore we are not to take credit for our wealth or blame the poor for their poverty (I Sam 2:7-8).

To take from the poor is to do injustice (2 Sam 12:1), and God will judge against those who have the spoil of the poor in their houses (Is 3:14-15).

The poor are protected by God (Psalms 12:5, 35:10, 69:23, 70:5, 86:1) who takes thought for them (Ps 40:17) and will give them refuge (Ps 14:6) from every trouble (both spiritual and physical) (Ps 34:6), who will maintain the cause of the needy and execute justice for the poor (Ps 140:12), and who will give happiness to people who consider the poor (Ps 41:1) Kindness to the poor is a loan which God will repay (Prov 19:17).

The mark of Zion, and by extension any Government whose leaders take God seriously, is that the needy will find refuge there (Is 14:32). At the day of God's presence, the poor will be joyful (Is 29:19); God is concerned that the poor have water to drink even when others fail them (Is 41:17), and will punish a country which allows the poor to be sold for a pair of sandals (Amos 2:6). To judge the cause of the poor and needy is to know God (Jer 22:16).

In the New Testament, Jesus opens his ministry by announcing, in the words of Isaiah, the he has come to bring good news to the poor (Luke 4:18); in the Beatitudes he says it is the poor who will inherit the Kingdom of God (Luke 6:20), and in the parable of the Great Banquet it is the poor who are invited into the Kingdom's feast after the rich have rejected it. (Luke 14:21). Jesus knows that salvation has come to the house of Zacchaeus because Zacchaeus gives half his goods to the poor (Luke 19:8), and St. Paul indicates that Jesus had done the same, for "though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor." (2 Corinthians 8:9)

The implications of this search would seem to be clear. In the last decade of American history, as the rich have become richer and the poor poorer there has been a net transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich, so that the rich in America have, in the words of Isaiah (3:14-15), the spoils of the poor in their houses. Any Christian or Jew who reads the Scriptures is confronted by a God who does not want things to be this way.

County Government does not set national economic policy; but it does, as Darrel Drown states, deal with growth and economics. The "trickle down" theory states that if you take care of the rich, the poor will eventually benefit ("A rising tide lifts all boats"). The last decade has proved the hollowness of this theory. I encourage Mr. Drown and all members of the County Council to adopt the contrasting Biblical view: make all decisions related to economics and growth with reference to justice and opportunity for the poor and needy, and all of us, rich, poor, and in between, will share in the reward.

Jackson H. Day, Clergy member,
Christ United Methodist Church
Owen Brown





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