The Bible: Distributist Economics

[Aquila]

Remember... when you read the Law of Moses... you're reading the constitution and civil law of an ancient nation. Now... let's take a look at just a FEW details that illustrate that the Bible is distributist in economic philosophy....

In biblical economics the Law forbade landowners from harvesting the edges and corners of their fields. These were to be left for the poor, widows, orphans, and strangers to glean from. God sent prophets such as Amos to rebuke the nation when land owners and magistrates colluded to deny the poor their gleaning rights to increase profits.

Every third year the poor tithe was gathered from land owners. The poor tithe stocked the "storehouse", a central hub of grain and produce storage for the poor, needy, orphans, widows, and strangers. God sent prophets such as Malachi to rebuke the nation for neglecting the storehouse.

Usury was forbbiden by God... yet the national leaders colluded with lenders to steadily empliment and increase usury. God rebuked the nation through the prophets repeatedly for this also.

Every 50 years, the Israelites were supposed to celebrate a year long festival called the Jubilee. As part of those festivities, all land reverted back to its original owners and all Hebrew slaves were freed. Thus, Jubilee prevented economic hardships from being hereditary. Even if a family fell on hard times, it could start over in less than 50 years. As one might expect, this was a popular holiday for the poor. No doubt it was VERY unpopular for the wealthy who had aquired said lands during the 50 year period. God rebuked the nation for not observing His statutes of justice.

Distributism was the social economic structure of the Middle Ages and widely enforced by the church for centuries. Papal Encyclicals have been repeatedly made down through history on the side of Distributist economics based on biblical precedent. Leo XIII's encyclical, Rerum Novarum is an excellent example. It was this encyclical that inspired Hilaire Belloc to go looking for a new solution to economic woes of his day. These biblical principles have inspired the Catholic Workers Movement and the works of G.K. Chesterton.

Imagine if we had a political party in power today that required land owners to allow the poor to glean their fields.

Imagine if we had a political party in power today that required land owners and business owners to set aside 10% of all income to specifically fund a national program that served the needs of the poor, widows, strangers, and needy (the Storehouse Fund).

Imagine if we had a political party in power today that stood hard against preditory lending practices and held banks and lenders accountable.

Imagine if we had a political party in power today that sought to break up monopolies and massive corporate enterprises to decentralize production, and stimulate competition. Imagine if this party also believed in generational reparations for social injustices and inequities.

That would be a biblical government... as God designed government in the Law of Moses...

...but Republicans would be crying "SOCIALISM!!!". LOL