God and Equality in our Community

In societies like ours which are materially well off, we find a lack of social contact and increased levels of anxiety. Community life is not flourishing. We are becoming isolated from one another like ships passing in the dark. Families are disintegrating. Neighbours often don’t know each other. But it shows in other ways too. People seek comfort in over eating, obsessive shopping, excessive alcohol and drug consumption. Rates of mental illness are climbing rapidly, prison populations are climbing alarmingly. I think many of us are concerned about high levels of greed and we long for a community that is centered on values, community, and family, but we feel powerless and isolated to do anything. While politicians rabbit on about economic well-being and building a better future, we long for them to start talking about social values and building a better society that is based on policies that will build a better sense of community.

I read a book recently which some of you may have encountered. It is called ‘The Spirit Level’. It’s written by Prof. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett. It has a message that is has been causing much debate around the world for a couple of years now and it is this. Key signs of our well being like life expectancy, rates of mental illness, rates of violence, obesity, educational performance, are no longer affected by how wealthy a society is but now the key determinant of these things is how equal it is in its distribution of wealth within that society. Wilkinson and Pickett look at a number of indicators like levels of trust, rates of mental illness, life expectancy, obesity, the education performance of children, teenage births, homicides, imprisonment rates, and social mobility and graphed these against income inequality. [show graphs] In each case the results were the same. The more unequal the country in terms of income distribution, the poorer the country performed in terms of these measures of well-being. They checked their data in numerous different ways and places, used different measures of inequality, but the same results came through. Where a country or community has a great difference between the rich and the poor, it will perform badly in terms of well being. When it has a more equal society created either by small differences in received income (as in the case of Japan) or a system of redistributing income (in the case of Sweden or Norway), the results are startlingly the same. Gross inequality in our society is bad for all of us – the rich and the poor.

In a sense I don’t think there is anything new in this idea. It is a thoroughly biblical one. It’s a contrast that existed as the Hebrews of the Old Testament set up their new way of life in the Promised Land. In Egypt most of the land, and land equaled wealth in an agricultural society, belonged to Pharaoh or the temples. In most other near Eastern countries a feudal system operated. The result was the same. There were a small wealthy elite and a vast majority who lived in poverty. The Hebrews who set up their nation under God were different. We read this morning from Joshua of the people coming before God as the true owner of the wealth and casting lots to divide the land according to the size of each tribe. It was then further distributed to each family. It was a system that lasted for centuries as we discover as we read the story of Naboth’s vineyard in 1 Kings 21. Naboth refuses to give up the vineyard because it is his ancestral inheritance. Each family had their land. Of course life being life, some families would fall upon hard times and to survive they would have to sell their land, but in Hebrew society you never sold land in perpetuity. In Leviticus we read of the Year of Jubilee which occurred every 50 years. This ancient God given law was radical in that it returned land to the original family every 50 years. Your luck may turn sour and you might end up selling all you owned, but next Jubilee Year your family got their land back and everyone got a fresh start. It was a wonderfully unique way of making sure that the poor weren’t consigned to the scrap heap forever.

This way of equality was a strong part of early Christian communities. People, believing they were simply trustees of anything they owned, and were remarkably generous to each other. The wealthy saw it as their role to care for those who had less. Christians were noted as people who were ready to share and use what they had for the good of all. In Corinth things were going awry and these ideals were not being followed. The wealthy were separating themselves off, so Paul addresses the issue firmly but clearly. Pointing out the generosity of Jesus who he says gave his whole life for us he tells them there must be fair balance between those who are well off and those in need. Quoting from Exodus and the gift of manna from heaven he says, the one who had much did not have too much and the one who had little did not have too little. (Ex.16:18) This was not a matter of indiscriminate handouts for Paul but clearly he recognized that healthy communities must practice equality and take responsibility to show genuine concern for each other.

I believe God is asking us to make this issue a priority in our voting next Saturday. God is asking us to put a beating heart back into our community. God is asking us how we can create communities that are equitable and which encourage participation and input from every member.

Dugald Wilson Nov 20th 2011