A Response to Dr Andy Woods of Sugar Land Bible Church

Dr Dr Woods,

I have recently read your interesting article on the Bible Prophecy Blog entitled , How an Evangelical Christian President can Support a Mormon for President. I was sufficiently  concerned about some of the premises that you say you hold that I thought I ought to make some sort of response.

I should stress at the outset that I have no issue with who you vote for in November. I am more concerned about the underlying assumptions that are shaping your decision. 

Please allow me to respond to some of the points in the order you raised them:

Economic Matters

Firstly, I find your definition of economic policies to be too narrow. Like you, I value Biblical teaching against stealing and in favour of economic self-sufficiency through labour (excuse the British spellings!) These values, however, are not the only things that the Bible has to say about economics, wealth and labour. The Pentateuch not only prohibited theft, it also created the conditions for Israel under which economic self-sufficiency could be achieved by all. This was through the equitable distribution of the primary means of production - land - to tribes and extended households (Num 26:52; 33:53, et passim)  This aspect of Biblical economics appears lacking from your analysis. 

It is a challenge to think through what such a Biblical value might mean in a pluralist society today. But, since we both agree that Biblical values should influence public life, I think we need to do the hard thinking about what a fair distribution of the means of production looks like in a post-industrial society.

Traditionally, those on the political left have sought to tax wealth as a means of re-distribution. However, it is questionable whether this approach goes far enough in ensuring genuine economic opportunity for all. Not only that, it has a tendency to create a vast and bureaucratic state apparatus, which itself can be problematic.

It is apparent that wealth is generated primarily through the judicious management of assets. In both the United States and Britain, the long-term trend has been for assets such as land, factories, property, businesses, and more recently, copyrights and patents to become increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The result of this trend over centuries is that the vast majority of citizens find themselves not as owners of potentially-productive assets, but as wage labourers. Their only "asset" is their time and skills. This employer-employee model of work has become so embedded in developed capitalist economies that we often find it difficult to imagine how "work" could be widely conceived in any other way. This model contains in-built vulnerabilities. A widely distrubitist model, by contrast, is more secure, just and sustainable, as an asset holder will never put themselves out of work.

In seeking to think about who to vote for, I would want evangelical Christians to also give consideration to the candidate most likely to empower the asset-less through the re-distribution of the economic means of production. 

Distribution

Your concern about wealth being distributed to the non-earner (the 47%, I believe they were recently controversially described as by Mr Romney) also requires modification, in my view. While I agree that people who refuse to work should not be supported by those who do, you must surely recognize the Biblical category of those who are brought into poverty through adversity,  injustice, (Prov 13:23)  illness, and a whole range of economic and environmental factors outside of their direct control (Lev 25:35). 

Government

The conservative view that such individuals should be helped through their own savings, families and/or private charity (more on that later) does not, in my view, do justice to the Biblical teaching on the matter. Rather, the prophets who denounced Israel's sin in the pre-exilic period often focused their preaching on economic injustice (Isaiah 1:16-18, et passim) and, significantly, called on the rulers (Isaiah 10:1-3) and kings (Isaiah 32:1-3) to act. The issue of poverty in Israel was not to be solved solely through private philanthropy but also through government intervention. One of the tithes mentioned in the Pentateuch, moreover, was specifically designed for distribution to the poor (Deut 26:12-13).  This was not private charity, but a form of co-ordinated and compulsory proto-taxation, to be directly used for assisting the needy. 

On the issue of charity-versus-the-State (your second paragraph under the heading of economic matters), you seem to miss the very obvious point raised in Romans 13:1-7, that governments are mandated to protect their citizens through the "punishment of the wrongdoer". While this certainly implies protection from criminals and foreign powers, it also implies protection from internal predators who would harm those who seek to live peaceful and quiet lives.

It is difficult to see how those greedy financial institutions largely responsible for the current economic crisis should not have the sword of the state wielded against them, and that "God's servant for your good" should not seek to ameliorate the human damage caused by these evil-doers. The same could be said about the idea of limited-liability companies - such as BP - who will be emboldened to take economically and environmentally reckless decisions as long as they know that the state will not hold them responsible for the full economic effect of their carelessness.

Family

On the matter of the family, I agree with you that a Biblical value in politics will be to strengthen families not only relationally but also in economic terms. My comments above about the re-distribution of assets, should be incorporated into this pro-family agenda. It is not enough to merely roll back regulations, as if they in themselves are the cause of unemployment, without looking at the larger economic context. The Joads, if I may throw in a cultural anecdote, were not helped by and did not need greater de-regulation. They needed assets.

Inheritance

On the subject of inheritance taxes, I would be interested to discover your views on the Year of Jubilee principle (Lev 25), which set a structural limit not only on debt, but also on the handing down of wealth and assets, through the requirement for all land to be handed back to the descendants of its original owners. 

Such a system would have (if faithfully implemented) prohibited the creation of a permanent class system, and restrained the unlimited accumulation of capital and assets and the corresponding driving down of incomes on the part of the dispossessed. Unpopular though such a system may be to some on the right, here we find in scripture a structural economic policy intentionally designed to limit the accumulation of wealth over the long term. Would you agree that, compared with this Biblical law, Adam's Smith's invisible hand is a far less effective mechanism in restricting the vast accumulation of wealth in fewer and fewer hands? 

Environment

I found your comments on the environment particularly disappointing. Firstly, your quoting of Genesis 8:22 as some kind of proof text disproving anthropogenic global warming is, frankly, unworthy of an evangelical scholar. The verse merely states, in context, that God will not destroy the earth again through a flood and that the seasons, including "heat and cold" will be features of life on the planet until its end. This can be interpreted in both a micro-scale (day to day) and a macro-scale (the ice-age, for instance). The text does not tell us whether and to what extent human activity can increase strain on the planet, locally or globally, nor whether mankind will or will not in fact do so in the future. The doctrine of sin certainly suggests that such action is at least a strong possibility! 

The Bible does, elsewhere, have things to say on the inter-relationship between human activity and the physical environment, at both a micro and macro scale.

What do you make, for instance, of the shout of the 24 heavenly elders declaring that the time has come, 

"for destroying those who destroy the earth" (Rev 11:18)?

Or God's declaration through Jeremiah that:

“I am against you, you destroying mountain,

    you who destroy the whole earth,” (Jer 51:25)?

Truth

As an evangelical Christan concerned about man-made climate change, I obviously recognise the reality of seasonal and long-term variations in the earth's climate. I also take seriously our call to think truthfully about life's issues (Psalm 15:2 et passim). This commitment to truth requires us to use our God-given minds to consider and weigh claim and counter-claim. 

The overwhelming scientific consensus (summarised below by the US National Research Council) is that the 

"climate is changing and that these changes are in large part caused by human activities."

I infer from your article that you are somewhat mistrustful of international and inter-governmental bodies. Nonetheless, the scientific consensus on the role of human activity on climate change is also summarised in the findings of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change here. 

For the Christian, this reality is both an issue of stewardship, and also one of justice. I have written elsewhere of the relationship between global warming and global poverty. The real victims of this current environmental crisis are the world's poorest and, frankly, it is very unedifying to hear a gospel minister apparently overlooking their suffering in order to enable American Christians to continue to drive their SUVs with a clear conscience.

  

Evil Days

The apostle Paul calls us to "be careful how we live - not as unwise but as wise...because the days are evil." One of the evils being carried out by the global oil conglomerates is the deliberate feeding into the public discourse misleading suggestions and pseudo-scientific research over the issue of global warming (source). Research shows that these wealthy billionaires - including Koch Industries who also support Mitt Romney's campaign as it happens - have been remarkably successful in their PR efforts. 

This is an area where discernment is needed to see what is really taking place - a reckless and ungodly destruction of God's world in order to ensure financial profits for a small cadre of billionaires. As Christians, we need to oppose this ungodliness and defend the rights of the poor in the face of the Koch brothers and their ilk.

Debt and War

I agree with your concerns about public debt. The only sane and Biblical way forward is to reduce it. I hope, therefore, that you will continue to be vocal in your opposition to expensive and ill-founded military campaigns in Asia. The Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns have cost many lives and, according to research from Brown University, have also cost the American economy approximately 4 trillion dollars. That's trillion, please note, not billion.

I was intending to go on to compare social matters and foreign policy, but I think this may result in an overly-lengthy article, so perhaps I will leave it there for now. Suffice to say, I agree with many of your conclusions on social matters - though, briefly, I must ask you to seriously search your conscience and consider whether Jesus really meant what you have represented him as meaning in Luke 22:36. 

On foreign policy, I confess to being, like Stephen M Walt  "a realist in an ideological age." But perhaps that is for another day. 

As I said at the outset, I am not writing to challenge your conclusions about who you or others should vote for. I am more concerned about some of your premises. 

 

Thank you for taking the time to read (if you have) and I wish you God's blessing.

Yours respectfully in disagreement,

Al Shaw

Bristol, England

          

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State to Charge Interest on Loans to Poorest?

Suggestions, reported on the BBC web site this morning, that micro loans made by the government to low income applicants may cease to be interest free represent a negative development in the way that the state treats the poorest members of society.

The Social Fund currently makes loans totaling £500 Million to about 1.2 benefit claimants. The average loan is around £400 and is typically used to buy one-off items by the recipient - a cooker, gas heater or even the cost of a funeral. The loan is repaid weekly, typically within a year, and is interest free. Under proposals currently being considered by ministers, these loans may be transferred to credit unions who would be free to charge interest, typically of between 12-26% APR.

If true, the proposal represents a poor choice for several reasons:

1. It will make life harder for the poorest. During times of economic downturn, low income people are always hit proportionally harder than others - for instance, through rising food and fuel costs and unemployment. The welfare state (remember that?) is more necessary at such times and reducing its reach is the wrong move at the wrong time.

2. It will increase poverty. Some applicants will not apply for the loan if it attracts interest. This may result in some basic needs being unmet.

3. It shifts the problem of the credit crunch from the richest to the poorest. Unlike heads of banks, the very poor don't appear on television very often explaining why they should receive government bailouts for crises which they have created. The current government's breathtaking economic bailout of the banking sector in recent months will have to be paid for. Measures like this one, along with yesterday's announcement of the sale of the government's share in the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, appear to be part of a long-term, low-level drive to pull in the public purse strings - a move which will certainly include tax rises in the future. It is unfortunate - unacceptable, actually - that this should be done at the expense of the poorest members of society.

Beyond the detail of the policy, however, is a far bigger picture: the existence of a permeneant underclass in British society and the growing inequality between the richest and the poorest.

Listening to Bill Patterson on Radio Five Live yesterday, I was struck by his reference to the now-closed 784 Theatre Company, which was set up in the 1970s against the backdrop of the stark fact that at the time 7% of the British population owned 84% of the country's wealth. Patterson commented that such a statistic would seem very positive thirty years on when the extent of economic inequality is so much greater.

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Climate Change and the Poor - Face the Music

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Brazil Becomes Middle Class

The Economist reports today that Brazil, with a population of 170,000,000 (an under counting of 3.3% according to the US Census Bureau's projections) has officially become a middle class country.

A person is, apparently, officially defined as middle class if they have:

1. a job in the formal economy
2. access to credit
3. ownership of a car or motorbike
   

According to Brazilian non-profit group FGV, more than half of the Brazilian population now meet these criteria.

Notable features of this move to middle-classdom include:

• 52% of the population now earn between £350 and £1,337 per month; in 2002 the figure was 44%
• Poverty (defined as living on the minimum wage) has declined from covering 52% of the population 15 years ago to 38% today
• Extreme poverty (defined as surviving on less than 50 pence per day) has also declined over the same period from 8.8 % to 4.2 % of the population
  
• The reduction in extreme poverty in Brazil has met one of the Millennium Development goals set out by the UN in 2000

Increases in rates of education (Brazilians now spend three years more in school than they did in the early 1990's) and in jobs in the formal employment sector are cited as the main factors contributing to the country's economic progress in recent years, a trend which has been evident over several decades.

It was as recently as 1985 that Brazil, Latin America's most populous country, finally left behind its reliance on military-backed governments and began its current uninterrupted journey towards democratic government.

In some ways, the transformation of Brazil is embodied in the life of its current president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Born into an illiterate peasant family in the poor north-east of Brazil, he moved with his family to Sao Paolo when he was seven, working as a shoe shine boy and learning to read at the age of 10. Becoming a metal worker, he lost a finger in an industrial accident and emerged as a leading trades unionist in the 1970s. His early radical politics have developed into a social democratic platform of reform which in recent years has seen an increase in the minimum wage, the courting of local and international business leaders and significant reductions in inflation and levels of foreign debt.


Selected Brazil Links:

• Jose Sarmago is the only Portugeuse language writer to win the Nobel prize for literature. At age 85, he's also started blogging. It's in Portuguese and Spanish, but I'm sure Babel Fish will help you if you ask nicely.

• Daniel Duende Carvalho shares some thoughts on the state of the blogosphere in Brazil at Global Voices Online.

• The CIA factbook entry on Brazil contains all the basic stats and figures.
  

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G8 Summit Japan - a Time to Account for Millennium Development Goals

The G8 Summit in Hokkaido, Japan, on 7-9 July is a huge opportunity for millions around the world to call on the G8 to fulfill their commitments for better health for children as part of the Millennium Development Goals. Click here to visit the petition, which will be presented to the G8 leaders ahead of their meeting next month.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjær Visits Schools in Angola

Former Manchester United striker and UNICEF Norway Goodwill Ambassador Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has this week been visiting Angola to witness and lend his support to the educational reconstruction work being undertaken in the southern African country. His trip took him to Bengo province in the north of the country to a couple of schools hoping to install sanitation and water systems for the first time.

The next day the footballer visited schools in the capital, Luanda where he saw the practical benefits that simple sanitation can make to improve health and save lives by preventing waterborne diseases.

The UN General Assembly has designated 2008 the Year of Sanitation in an attempt to increase the pace towards the UN Millennium Goal of halving the number of people worldwide who do not have access to a clean and safe toilet. At present, the total number is 2.6 billion - nearly half of the world's population.

Awkwardness and a reluctance to talk about sanitation is one factor contributing to low funding for this area of development. As the film Liquid Gold shows, however, changes made in this area can result in dramatic improvements in local communities.

Photo copyright UNICEF 2008.








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The Ethics of Importing Stray Dogs from Sri Lanka

The news that three British people have been bitten by a rabid dog held in quarantine in Essex was disturbing enough. To then learn that the infected dog was a stray which had been imported, along with (wait for it) THIRTEEN other strays from the streets and rubbish tips of Sri Lanka was a detail too far.



What on earth are people doing importing these hounds into the UK? The claim is that they are "rescuing" them from the admittedly brief and miserable lives that they endure in their native Sri Lanka. But, seriously, has anyone stopped for a moment to question or challenge the whole idea of importing stray dogs?

Consider the following:

• a single dog costs hundreds (if not thousands) of pounds to transport into the UK from Sri Lanka by air, not to mention producing several tons of CO2 in the process
  
• Additional costs include veterinary fees, medicines and kenneling as well as the cost of flying people from Britain to Sri Lanka to round up the hapless mutts in the first place
  
• Many of the dogs thus imported die in quarantine. The BBC reports that 5 of the 13 recently imported and brought to the Chingford centre have been put down since their arrival

Animal SOS Sri Lanka, the organisation responsible for the misguided practice of importing rabid dogs, is a registered charity in the UK, enabling it to claim significant tax relief on donations made by the pet loving British public.

Their web site is full of emotional stories of animal suffering, which, all things being equal, I'm sure we would all prefer not to be happening.

The trouble is that all things are not equal. 22% of the population of Sri Lanka live below the poverty line. The country has a Gross Domestic Product of $4,100 per head of population, ranked 144 in the world. Infant mortality is 19 per 1,000 live births, more than three times higher than that of the UK or USA. The presence of so many diseased, abandoned and neglected animals on the streets is simply a symptom of grinding human poverty, which SOS seems altogether quiet about.

How can it possibly be just to spend thousands of pounds on dogs instead of on human beings whose life prospects are often no better than the animals they live among?

To me, the most disturbing feature of the web site is the story of the Cat Lady of Sri Lanka. This desperate woman, abandoned and living in squalor next to an open sewer, is presented on the site as a model of compassion for animals. The writer virtually passes over the nauseating state of the woman's physical and mental health to describe the fact that "she was not concerned about her own health and squalid living conditions. Strangely, she seemed resigned to her fate. But, she was concerned about her pets and keeping them as healthy as she could, with no funds."

Resigned?!

"Inspired" by her example, the misguided SOS team draw their sentimental conclusion:

When human companionships are lost,
animals are still there for us.
They always will be and that is why they
are so special.
It is a unique bond that few in this world
will ever understand. For their loyalty
and devotion to us humans, we owe them
a duty of care.

So, at the heart of this nonsense is a sentimental conviction (which, incidentally, few in this world will understand) that diseased dogs should have thousands of pounds spent on flying them round the world to die in kennels in Essex.

Well, I confess plainly that I am clearly among the many in this regard and am stepping into this river of sentimentality and shouting: "Save the human! Save the human! Save the human!"

For a more edifying story from Sri Lanka, read about the work and legacy of micro entrepreneur John Karunaratne here.

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It's Official - Global Warming is Bad for Your Health

Health professionals around the world have issued a variety of warnings about the impact of global warming on human health.

In Canada, the Ontario College of Family Physicians has issued a report highlighting the dangers to public health of continued climate change. These include an increase in the incidence of heat stroke and respiratory illness, especially among children and older people. Citing a two-week heat wave in France in 2003 which resulted in 15,000 premature deaths, the College is urging medical services to prepare for similar events in Canada and elsewhere in the coming years. The report also predicts an increase in the number of cases of malaria and dengue fever, caught by Canadians returning from vacations in a warmer Caribbean. Climate change will, says the report, also lead to an increase in Lyme disease (pictured) and west Nile virus – conditions which the vast majority of Canadian physicians have never seen let alone treated.

College President, Dr. Renee Arnold, says the negative health effects of climate change will be irreversible "if we don't get our act together now and stop damaging our environment."

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has issued a warning of 150,000 deaths a year as a direct result of climate change, with more than half coming from the Asia-Pacific region.

This number of fatalities will be caused by increases in malaria, malnutrition and diarrhoea as well as by flooding triggered by climate change. Citing outbreaks of malaria in regions once considered too cold for the disease to survive – such as the highlands of Papua new Guinea – WHO spokesman Shigeru Omi describes the health effects of climate change as lasting for the long term: "it is inevitable climate change will get worse for some time," Omi said.

Related health developments cited by the WHO include:

• Increased water-borne illness caused by sea water seepage into ground water supplies in Pacific Island nations such as Tuvulu and the Marshall Islands
• Deaths caused by increased flooding and droughts
• The spread of disease caused by the migration of people rendered homeless through environmental degradation

In a separate report, the WHO has also highlighted the link between climate change and mental health with evidence that extreme weather conditions can lead to psychiatric illness.

"Psychosocial illnesses are a part of the various health issues associated with climate change," according to Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Deputy Regional Director of the WHO.

Studies of severe flooding in England and a cyclone-affected area of Orissa in India have demonstrated an increase in post-traumatic stress disorder among affected populations, up to one year after the initial climate event.

The relationship between drought and mental health has been long established: "The phenomenon of farmers’ suicides in India is a typical example of consequences of climatic vagaries in poor, predominantly agrarian economies," according to the report.

Following the Asian tsunami, the WHO estimated that 20-40 per cent of affected people suffered from short-term mild psychological distress and that another 30-50 per cent experienced moderate-to-severe psychological stress. Similar results emerged from those affected by Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

The report concludes that people living in poverty, those in geographically vulnerable areas and those highly dependent on farming for their livelihood are among the groups more likely to experience mental health problems sparked by extreme weather patterns.

Australian doctors, meanwhile, have warned of increased rates of climate-change related illness in Australia and the Pacific, citing heat stroke, mosquito-borne illness and gastroenteritis as representing particular problems.

Dr Graeme Horton is quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as saying, "Climate change is clearly much, much more than an economic inconvenience, it is a threat to our life support systems."

The final warning comes from the British Medical Association which is calling on health professionals to take the lead in responding to the public health aspects of climate change.

Predictions include the possibility of malaria occurring in the UK, increased water-borne illnesses caused by flooding and a possible increase in skin cancers and sunstroke caused by heat waves becoming “common” by the middle of the C21. Head of Science and Ethics for the BMA, Dr Vivienne Nathanson, also foresees increased mental health issues sparked by climate change.

The BMA report predicts an economic imbalance in the health effects of climate change in the UK with the most deprived 10% of the population “eight times more likely to be living in the coastal floodplain than the least deprived 10 per cent” and thus more at risk.

POST SCRIPT

Exactly one year after this post was published, evidence was submitted today by the US Environmental Protection Agency confirming that greenhouse gases represent a significant and direct threat to human health. Findings include:

• concentrations of six greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluorideare - are at unprecedented levels as a result of human emissions
  
• these high levels are "very likely" the cause of the increase in average temperatures and other changes in our climate
• Climate change is resulting in increased drought and flooding; more frequent and intense heat waves and wildfires; greater sea level rise; harm to water resources, agriculture, wildlife and ecosystems
• the health of the poor, the very young, the disabled and the elderly are disproportionately effected by climate change and increased concentrations of ground-level ozone
  

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Another Inconvenient Truth - Poverty in America

The American dream has taken a battering in recent weeks with the publication of two seperate reports that highlight aspects of poverty in America.

Cities in Crisis reports on high school graduation rates across America's largest 50 cities and highlights significant failings in the education system among large sections of the urban population. The author, Dr Christopher Swanson, reports the following findings:

• 17 of America's top cities have high school graduation rates of less than 50%
• More than 1 million students in America drop out of high school every year
• Urban schools perform on average 15% worse than suburban schools nation wide and nearly 20% worse than the national average
  
• Graduation rates among males in the 50 cities are 8% lower than for females
• Historically disadvantaged ethnic minority groups perform 25% worse than white students
• Only 24.9% of students in Detroit and 34% of Cleveland students graduated from public high schools

The report, commissioned by America's Promise Alliance explicity makes the link between education attainment and poverty in America:

"The much higher rates of high school completion among their suburban counterparts – who may literally live and attend school right around the corner – place in a particularly harsh and unflattering light the deep undercurrents of inequity that plague American public education."

The report concludes: "It is not an isolated problem: this is a national crisis." Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the Alliance, adds, "When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe."

A high quality map enabling viewers to zoom in and out of every school district in America, based on the statistics that underpin the report, can be found here.

A second report predicts that a record number of Americans - 28 million - will become recipients of food stamps in 2008. With over 40 states seeing a rise in numbers of recipients last year, the Food Research and Action Centre is predicting continued growth in the coming 12 months.

Six states saw food stamp use increase by 10% in 2007 - Arizona, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Dakota and Rhode Island. In West Virginia, 16% of the state population currently receive food stamps, which have long been one indicator of poverty in America.

Over the same 12 month period, grocery inflation has been at its highest since the early 1990s with milk having risen by 17%, rice, pasta and bread by 12% and eggs by nearly a quarter.

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