This Is Our City

Kevin, thanks for your wonderful postings! Leaving the capitalism/socialism debate, back to the article. The author is right that Christians should not feel that mindful purchasing is enough to witness to social concerns; however, in my experience relatively few are even concerned with that level. How much of poverty could be eliminated by putting values first in the myriads of purchases we each make? Millions making mindful choices can effect great change, without obviating the call for a greater witness. The global 'economy' is nothing but the sum of billions of individuals making one choice at a time...

"(Leviticus 25:10-13) Basically, these verses indicate that the Jubilee requires all debts between Jews to be annulled. Also, any Jew that sold his or herself into slavery is released, whether they worked the amount of time they promised, or not." [http://judaism.about.com/od/prayersworshiprituals/f/jubilee.htm] Note that declaring Jubilee means a negation of transactions made in the 'free marketplace', and that there is no mention of the 'free marketplace' and 'capitalism' by name anywhere in the bible. The effect of cancelling debt is wealth redistribution. "At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied." Deuteronomy 14:28-29 That is wealth redistribution mandated by the Bible; there is no requirement of 'merit' or 'work' for the fatherless and widows.

From Pope John Paul II: "In fact, although decisively condemning “socialism,” the church, since Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, has always distanced itself from capitalistic ideology, holding it responsible for grave social injustices (cf. Rerum Novarum, 2). In Quadragesimo Anno Pius XI, for his part, used clear and strong words to stigmatize the international imperialism of money (Quadragesimo Anno, 109). This line is also confirmed in the more recent magisterium, and I myself, after the historical failure of communism, did not hesitate to raise serious doubts on the validity of capitalism, if by this expression one means not simply the “market economy” but “a system in which freedom in the economic sector is not circumscribed within a strong juridical framework which places it at the service of human freedom in its totality” (Centesimus Annus, 42)." Pope John Paul II, “What Social Teaching Is and Is Not,” in Origins, Vol. 23, No. 15, September 1993, pp. 256-58, at 257.

On Jubilee, I found a great article "Land Concentration, Efficiency, Slavery, and the Jubilee" in the Oxford Handbook of Judaism and Economics. It offers some good insights into the culture and meaning of Jubilee. In short, Jubilee had nothing to do with wealth redistribution as so many socialists claim. It was more like a modern mortgage burning ceremony. People didn't sell their land as we do. They sold it for the value of the harvests until Jubilee in order to pay off a debt. The debt was paid off buy the time of Jubilee, the "mortgage" was torn up and the original owner returned to farming his land.

Someone should stop Kevin before he hurts himself. Clearly he doesn't want to have a discussion, but to vent his fevered mind.