I was thinking last night about God and poverty. As my thoughts travelled through the problem of evil and the biblical commands to help the poor, they eventually came to God's concern for systemic justice.
Is God a liberal or a conservative on the welfare state? Does he want the government to help the poor, or does he see charity as the private sector's responsibility? Today, I'll take a look at that question, using gleanings as an example.
Leviticus 23:22 says the following: "And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God." According to this command, Israelites are to leave the corners of their fields for the poor, so that they will have grain to harvest.
I don't see this as very conservative, or libertarian, for that matter. Suppose we asked a conservative who didn't know the Bible what he thought about this command. (If he knew it was from the Bible, he'd probably find some way to agree with it). "It sounds authoritarian," he'd most likely say. "I mean, the government has no right to tell someone what to do with his own land!"
This brings us to an important point: the Torah does not advocate absolute property rights. God tells the Israelites that the land is his, and that they are mere strangers and tenants (Leviticus 25:23). Consequently, God feels free to tell the Israelites what do do with their land (e.g., when to let it rest, its price, etc.). Sure, there are property rights in the Torah, as "Thou shalt not steal" presumes. But the Torah is not exactly Ayn Rand on the issue of private property.
And I can understand if a liberal sees parallels between the Torah's command on gleanings and the modern welfare state. Under the Torah's command, a person is mandated to leave some of his property for the poor. Under welfare, the government makes a person give some of his income to the poor. So both have a system of forced charity (let the libertarians gasp!).
But, interestingly, even conservatives point to gleanings to support their welfare position. "In the biblical system, there were gleanings for the poor, but they had to go get them!" I've heard conservatives say. "They didn't get a check in the mail." I heard one professor who writes for First Things refer to the Torah's system as "workfare." That's a Tommy Thompson term, isn't it? Wasn't his slogan "From welfare to workfare"? So some conservatives see little parallel between the Torah's command on gleanings and today's welfare system, in which people can receive money without doing any work.
What do you think? Can the Torah's command on gleanings guide modern public policy?