This little blog piece turned into a
bit of a monster ! So if you haven’t the time or just can’t be bothered to read
the full version you can just go to the summary at the end!
WHAT WOULD JESUS SAY ABOUT THE TAX CREDITS
DEBATE?
Some would object,
surely
Jesus is above grubby politics. He doesn’t concern himself with that sort of
thing . Really?
A Reality Check
Days before
an election on national television a Prime Minister reassures the public that
he is not going to cut tax credits. Weeks later his Chancellor announces £4.5
billion cuts to tax credits. This will leave 3.3 million families on average
£1,300 worse off a year. Many thousands of hard-working but low paid people
simply do not know how their families will make ends meet, without going
heavily into debt. This can only
add to the long list of other miseries the current and previous governments had
already visited on welfare recipients, including:
·
benefits
freezes
·
benefits
caps
·
the
bedroom tax
·
the
withdrawal of council tax support
·
thousands
having welfare benefits withdrawn for being wrongly assessed as “fit to work”
or “sanctioned”.
Such policies
had already swollen food bank users to over 1 million a year, increased the numbers
living in poverty by over ¾ million (including 300,000 children), raised
homelessness by one third in five years and led to 2,380 people dying within
only 2 weeks of being assesses as “fit to work” (a truth the DWP tried to keep
quiet for months). Oh and not to forget the “social cleansing” of the benefits
cap. This is forcing the unemployed from whole areas of London and the south
east, because their benefits will no longer cover the high housing costs.
At the same
time the richest thousand people in the country in only four years have seen
their wealth more than double to over £1/2 trillion (and now own more than the
poorest 40% put together). And yet the Chancellor plans further tax cuts for the
richest to enjoy on their corporations, income and estates.
Well I would suggest
Jesus is very much concerned with “that sort of thing” and so should His
followers be.
Jesus’s Law of Love Your Neighbour
Jesus tells
us “in
everything do to others what you
would have them do to you, for this sums up the law and prophets” (Matt 7:12). His “law of love” therefore
should be applied to every aspect of our lives; how we treat our
family, our next door neighbours, our work colleagues, the ordinary man or
woman walking the same pavement, sitting on the same train or driving on the
same road as us. Jesus also applied it to those who we might not see as the “same”
as us, as He illustrated in his parable of “The Good Samaritan.” (Luke 10:
25-37). Going beyond that He even encouraged us to “love your enemies, pray for
those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44). And His “law of love” was not just
about thoughtful prayers, warm words and gentle smiles. He expected His
followers to put that love into action and literally put their money where
their mouth was. On more than one occasion He challenged rich men who would follow
him to sell all they had to give to the poor (e.g. Mark 10:21). And He
commended the repentant tax collector Zacchaeus for giving away half of what he
had (Luke 19:1-10).
But isn’t Jesus’ law of
love just about how we behave as individuals? It has nothing to do with
government and politics. Does it?
It certainly is about how we behave as individuals. But why does that not apply
to how politicians as individuals treat others in the decisions they make? And
as, unlike Jesus, we live in a democracy, why does that not apply to how we as
individuals exercise our votes and how that in turn affects others? Jesus’s
law of love recognises no barriers. It applies to “everything” we do. Just as
it does not stop at our national borders or our bank accounts, it should not
stop at the ballot box or the parliamentary dispatch box.
Being My Brother’s Keeper
The bible
shows us that God has always been concerned about how we deal with the
resources of this world and how those resources are distributed between our
fellow men and women. The key starting point is that everything we have in this
world is ultimately not our property but His (Psalm 24:1). We are merely
tenants and stewards of it and we shall all one day have to account to Him for how
we have managed the resources we have been given. (Matthew 25:14-30- the
Parable of the Talents). And God expects us to use those resources fairly and
to take care of others. (Matthew 24: 45-51)
Very early in the bible-in
only the fourth chapter - Cain asks God a question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
(Genesis 4: 9). In the rest of the bible God writes his answer, a resounding
yes. (I once
heard Tony Benn at Nottingham University say that affirmatively answering that
question was the crux of Socialism. I’d say it’s part of the crux of
Christianity).
A Fair Allocation of Resources
Part of looking after
each other, as God sees it, is ensuring a fair allocation of the resources He
has given us. And where that has not happened He expects us to use our
resources to provide for the welfare of the poor and needy. I would suggest God’s expectations of
how we should allocate this world’s resources are seen best when His people
first came together. First, how the new people of Israel were to share out the
resources of the Promised Land. Then how Jesus’s followers shared out their own
resources at the start of His church.
Numbers 26 clearly sets out how the Promised Land
was to be divided fairly and evenly between all tribes, clans and individual
families, “based on the number of names”.
Everyone was to have their stake in it. And in an agrarian society a fair
allocation of the land should have ensured everyone had enough to live on. (Looking
at it through twenty first century eyes, this new society He was instituting
might almost be seen as a form of socialism). It was actually very radical
stuff when you compare it with how successful invading armies in the rest of
history have distributed land and wealth. It’s usually the men at the top who
take the most and the lowly foot soldiers often get nothing. (William the
Conqueror literally seized ownership of the whole of England and to this day
technically we’re all the Crown’s tenants. As I was taught in Land Law lectures
29 years ago, the concept was given the rather apt name, “seisin”!).
In Deuteronomy 15 God makes the point that
with the abundant allocation of the Promised Land’s resources to His people, “there
need be no poor people among you, for
in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, He
will richly bless you” (provided they continue to obey Him). However, in almost
the same breath, knowing what men are like, God sees that things won’t stay
that way. He sees there will be people who will end up disenfranchised of their
share and fall into poverty. He therefore acknowledges, “There will always be poor people
in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded
toward [the] poor and needy in your land.”
Looking After the Poor and Needy
In
Deuteronomy God sets out various commands to ensure that the poor are provided
for, including leaving the edges of their harvest fields for the poor to “glean”
their share and the Jubilee rules of the seventh year when they should leave
their land fallow for the poor and cancel all debts owed. Indeed, throughout the Old Testament God’s heart for
the poor and needy is writ large, with dozens of commands and encouragements to
look after the poor and needy and to avoid exploiting them. Just a few of those:
“He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord
and He will reward them for what He has done.” Proverbs 19:17
“…uphold
the cause of the poor and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver
them from the hand of the wicked.” Psalm 82:3-4
“If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the
poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.” Proverbs 21:13
“The Lord secures justice for the poor
and upholds the cause of the needy.” Psalm 140: 12
“The Lord enters into judgment against
the elders and leaders of his people: … the plunder from the poor is in your
houses. What do you mean by crushing my people and grinding the faces of the
poor?” Isaiah 3:14-15
“…with righteousness He will judge the
needy, with justice He will give decisions for the poor of the earth.” Isaiah
11:4
“Hear this, you who trample the needy
and do away with the poor of the land.” Amos 8:4
“Woe to you who add house to house and
join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land.” Isaiah
5:8
The Kings of this World- the Winners
Take It All
A few hundred
years after the people of Israel had settled in the Promised Land they asked
their current leader/judge, Samuel, to appoint a King over them. He objected, declaring they should just
submit to God, their heavenly King. He nonetheless gave them what they asked
for. However, he warned them that establishing an earthly kingship would result
in an unfair and uneven allocation of the land’s resources, opening them up to
exploitation. He warned, “This is what
the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your
sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in
front of his chariots. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and
olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your
grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your
male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take
for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will
become his slaves.”
1 Samuel 8:11
1 Samuel 8:11
After a false
start under King Saul, with Kings David and Solomon generally the land and the
people prospered, and although the Kings grew rich, initially the people
prospered too. They continued to enjoy their stake in the land. “During Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel,
from Dan to Beersheba, lived in safety, everyone under their own vine and under
their own fig tree.” 1 Kings 4:25
However, as
their kings turned away from the Lord, they oppressed the people and the
kingdom was split. As the words of the later prophets showed (see the quotes
above), there was a growing inequality in the land, with the kings and the rich
accumulating great wealth for themselves on the backs of the poor whom they
exploited. These and other sins led to the Lord’s punishment of his people who
were conquered and forced into exile from the land.
A Fair Allocation of Resources- a
Vision Renewed
Yet in exile,
through prophets like Jeremiah, Isaiah, Daniel, Micah and Ezekiel, the Lord
revealed that He still had plans for His people to return to the Promised Land.
And He made clear it remained His vision that once
more His people should all enjoy their own fair share of the land’s resources (even
the foreigners living among them).
“You are to distribute this land among
yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. You are to allot it as an
inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who
have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with
you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In
whatever tribe a foreigner resides, there you are to give them their
inheritance,” declares the Sovereign Lord.”
Ezekiel 47:21-23
Ezekiel 47:21-23
“Everyone
will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will
make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. “
Micah 4:4
Micah 4:4
The Lord’s
people did return to the land at exactly the time that Daniel had predicted.
However, despite starting with a fair allocation of resources, men reverted to
their old ways and inequality, poverty and exploitation returned.
The Kingdom of God- the New Jerusalem
And so to the
time of Jesus, God’s own Son, come to earth not as a rich King, but born to a
humble carpenter’s family. By this time what remained of God’s people were
living under the yoke of the Romans and their own local oppressive kings. Jesus’s
mission in one sense was completely apolitical and had nothing to do with how
society was run or resources were allocated. Indeed, He disappointed
many of his followers by not leading a violent revolution to kick out the
Romans and establish His own kingdom. (John 18: 10-11) Instead, He came to die a criminal’s death on
a cross, to pay the price of our sins so that we could be reconciled to God. (Just
as prophesied 500 years earlier in Isaiah 53).
And yet in one sense His
mission was and is very political.
In heavenly terms first of all He established a new order, the Kingdom of
God, “where the last will be first and the first will be last.” (Matthew
20:16) Ordinary men, women and children were invited to the “top table”,
to sup with the King (Matthew 22) and to be adopted as royal sons and daughters
of God (Ephesians 1). And this invitation was extended well beyond the original
people of God to all people on earth (Matthew 28). Ultimately that new order will be fully
realised when Jesus returns in full power and establishes His new Jerusalem (Mark
14:62 /Revelation 21). In that Kingdom there will no more exploitation, poverty
or suffering. Every citizen of that new Jerusalem will be a co-ruler with
Jesus, enjoying to the full God’s abundant blessings (2 Timothy 12). This will be
the final fulfilment of the Old Testament vision, “Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree,
and no one will make them afraid.”
As it says in Revelation 21, “He
will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning
or crying for the old order of things has passed away…Those who are victorious
will inherit all this… the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from
God. It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very
precious jewel…”
But does any of it apply Here and Now?
But how does
any of that apply to the here and now? The ultimate vision of the perfect
society will only be fulfilled when Jesus physically returns to earth. And it
will be based not on a democracy but a benevolent theocracy. And yet whilst
Jesus’s Kingdom on earth will only be fulfilled when He returns, He announced
that Kingdom as starting two thousand years ago with his declaration of “good
news to the poor.” (Luke 4:18). And He expected His followers to live out
His good news manifesto, following His law of “love your neighbour.” (Matthew 25: 35-46). How that should
look like was seen best after His death, resurrection and return to heaven; at
the birth of His church. “All the believers were one in heart and
mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they
shared everything they had. … And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them
all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those
who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it
at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.” (Acts 4:32-35).
Seen through modern
eyes, just as God’s new order of Numbers 26 might be seen as a form of
socialism, His new order of Acts 4 might be viewed as a form of communism- a
community living and sharing everything as one. But I’m afraid everything I
have seen of this world and everything the bible teaches me about mankind tells
me this perfectly equal society is not achievable on this present earth.
Excepting a few small, mostly Christian, communes, all attempts to install such
a communist society on a larger scale have failed in miserable totalitarianism.
A perfect
equal society may be unachievable on this present earth. However,
Jesus’s example and law of love and His Word’s teaching should compel us to
strive for better; a country and a world in which as many people as possible
feel they have a share and where the poor are properly cared for.
How do Tax Credits fit in with this?
So how do tax credits fit in with this? In
a perfect society there would be no need for them. Everyone would be able to
earn a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, enough to be secure in their own
home and free from poverty and debt (The picture of Micah 4). Sadly, so much of the country’s and world’s wealth is
stored up in the “barn houses” of the very richest (much of it off shore).
Without government support it would be practically impossible to ensure the
economy works in such a way that everyone is paid such a fair and living wage.
The government’s increase in the minimum
wage is welcome, but it will nowhere near compensate for the loss of tax
credits. And the complete answer I’m afraid cannot be
simply to increase the minimum wage. Certainly not in the shorter term anyway. There are currently 6 million employees paid
less than the living wage. There are many larger employers who could afford to
pay their employees well above and beyond the living wage. (After all the CEOs
of the largest companies currently can afford to pay themselves over 180 times
the average worker's pay. 25 years ago it was only 40 times) . However, there
are quite a few employers who could not afford to pay their employees much
more, especially in smaller start-up businesses whose owners do not even pay
themselves the minimum wage. Also, many relying on tax credits are
self-employed with no employer who can increase their wages.
The Chancellor has suggested that in place of tax credits he
will deliver an economy that pays workers sufficiently high wages without such
state support. He is here either being deluded or dishonest or both. If
the Chancellor really believed that rather than tinker with and rebrand
he
would have increased the minimum wage massively, so that it really did make up
for the loss of tax credits. Instead the independent assessment is that
in net terms 3.3 million families will be on £1,300 a year worse off on
average. He also knows that many of the workers losing tax credits are public
sector workers. To increase their pay enough to make up for the loss would
doubtless wipe out any savings from the tax credit cuts (as the pay rise would
also apply to many not receiving tax credits).
The tax credit system is not
perfect, but in an imperfect world it is a very effective means of redistributing
resources in this country and reducing the growing wealth gap and thereby reducing
poverty. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates
that following the introduction of tax credits the numbers of children living
in poverty fell from 26 per cent in 1997 to 18 per cent in 2010. The IFS
estimates that without them child poverty would have risen to 31 per cent, meaning an
additional 1.8 million children living in poverty. It is estimated
that
the tax credit reductions proposed would immediately increase the numbers of
children living in poverty by 200,000.
The Chancellor and Prime Minister would have
us believe that "there is no alternative" to such cuts if we are to
get the "bloated" welfare bill under control and turn the budget
deficit into surplus by 2019. But as the Shadow Chancellor pointed out there
are plenty of alternatives. They could reverse the tax cuts they have
made or promised to the wealthy and super wealthy and (at a time of very low
interest rates) they could cut the deficit more slowly and moderately. And most
economists believe that running a significant budget surplus is actually bad
thing; reduced public debt invariably results in increased private debt, the
very thing likely to trigger another crash (And it was this excessive private
debt not public debt that originally led to the last crash).
Jesus
Cares about How We Treat Others- that includes Government Policy
It might be that (like me) the tax credits
cuts wouldn’t affect you. If so, you might not care about them. That is unless you
care about inequality or poverty or about the debt, fear and insecurity this
brings to millions. But, as the bible shows, Jesus does care about these
things and He expects his followers to care too and to do something about it.
Certainly this includes many of the
fantastic things that Christians (and others) do individually and
collectively to help the poor and needy.
Individually, there are countless personal acts of help, kindness and giving.
Collectively, in my own town there is the work of street pastors and food banks
and plans being discussed to develop a local homeless sanctuary and a Christian
debt advice service with Christians Against Poverty. Sadly, I believe the need
for such projects will only increase due to government policy to cut tax credits
and other welfare benefits, which the economy cannot and will not make up for.
Yet many of the good Christian
men and women answering God's call to help the poor and needy will have voted
into power a government whose policies are directly increasing the need and
poverty that they are fighting. I believe they must have must
have misunderstood one or
both of two things. Possibly, God's message through His Word about His desire
that the resources of this world should be shared fairly and the priority of
helping the poor and needy. But more likely, a misunderstanding of government
policy; its effects on poverty and inequality and the alternatives to its
policies. Sadly, for many the truth about the latter is too often hidden in a fog
of distorted statistics, spin, soundbites and even downright lies.
Empty Arguments and Lies
Perhaps the
biggest and most successful lies of all are that excessive government spending
and borrowing caused the economic crash and that “austerity” is the only way
forward out of “this mess”. Virtually no
serious economists agree with the former and most disagree with the latter.
Yet through such deceptions I believe out of fear millions were beguiled into
voting the current government into office. (Note less than a quarter of the
electorate, but enough to win a small majority in our rather distorted
electoral system). Now that the Prime
Minister's lie to the nation on 30 April this year has been so clearly exposed,
perhaps more people will look at the alternatives? Perhaps they will start to recognise
that a government that pursues policies so damaging to the poor and needy and
then tries to cover up what it is doing, is a government that according to the bible’s
standards is simply not fit for purpose.
When I think
of the current government I have to say am reminded of the words of Isaiah
59:4,“No one calls for justice; no one
pleads a case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments, they utter lies;
they conceive trouble and give birth to evil.” Yet, as Jesus challenges me
to do, I will continue to pray for them. Perhaps in response the government might even be moved to reverse, or at
least soften the impact of, the tax credit cuts?? We shall see.
SUMMARY
SUMMARY
·
Jesus’s “law
of love of your neighbour” should be applied to every aspect of our lives.
·
It recognises no barriers. It applies
to “everything” we do. It does not stop at our national
· borders or our bank accounts. Nor should it should stop at the ballot box or
the parliamentary dispatch box.
·
In the fourth chapter of Genesis Cain
asks God a question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” In the rest of the bible God
writes His answer, a resounding yes.
·
Part of looking after each other is
ensuring a fair allocation of the resources He has given us- the world’s resources
are God’s and not our own. Where that doesn't happen His people
· are to provide for the welfare of the poor and needy.
·
Throughout the Old Testament God’s
heart for the poor and needy is writ large with dozens of
·
commands and
encouragements to look after the poor and needy and avoid exploiting them.
It remained God’s vision that His
people should all enjoy their own fair share of the
· land’s resources.
·
In one sense Jesus’s mission was
completely apolitical and had nothing to do with how society was run or
resources were allocated.
In another sense His mission was and
is very political. He established a new order, the Kingdom of
God. Ordinary men, women and children were invited to the “top table”.
·
The fulfilment of Jesus’s Kingdom on
earth will only happen when He returns.But He announced that Kingdom as
starting two thousand years ago with His declaration of “good news to the
poor.” He expected His followers to live out
His good news manifesto, following His law of “love your neighbour.”
·
A perfect equal society is
unachievable on this present earth. But Jesus’s example and law of love
and the bible’s teaching should compel
us to strive for a country and a world in which as many people as possible feel
they have a share and where the poor are properly cared for.
·
The tax credit system is a very
effective means of redistributing resources in this country, reducing the wealth
gap and thereby reducing poverty. The proposed cuts to the tax credit
· system will make society less equal and increase poverty, adding to the misery
caused by other welfare cuts.
·
The government tried to deceive the
electorate that there would be no tax credit cuts.
·
They are now trying to deceive public
that other measures by them and in the economy can make up for these cuts. They
won’t.
·
They are also trying to deceive us
that “there is no alternative” to severe austerity and massive welfare cuts.
There is.
·
I believe Jesus does have a view on
proposed tax credit cuts. They are wrong and we should pray the government change policy.
