[Continues "What standards should we use when choosing our leaders?"]

Biblical principles by which to evaluate policy

The passages associated with each of the following seven points are not proof texts, but entry points to the wealth of biblical guidance God has, in his mercy, entrusted to us. For more on any area, see Votewise Now!, Jubilee Manifesto or browse the resources available on the Jubilee Centre’s website.

Aversion to centralisation of powers (1Samuel 8:11-17)

When Israel first demanded a king, Samuel made clear, “the king who reigns over you will make your sons serve with his chariots and horses, he will assign some to be commanders and others to plough his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields, your crops, your employees, the best of your cattle and donkeys and flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.” (1Samuel 8:11-17) Samuel is clear that the centralisation of power in any individual or institution increases the temptation for corruption and exploitation. The Old Testament envisages power being balanced across six sources of authority: the individual, family, community, religious bodies (Levites), region (tribe), and nation.

Stewardship of creation (Genesis 1:28)

We are to exercise God’s delegated dominion, nurturing creation, not exploiting it for personal gain.

Personal responsibility (1Thessalonians 4:11-12)

As in 1Timothy 2:1-6, we again see an explicit link here to our outreach: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” In today’s culture of individualism, we can take the warning against economic dependency too far: God is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and we are to be interdependent on one another.

Parental responsibility (Deuteronomy 11:18-21)

We are to teach God’s words to our children, “talking about them when we sit at home and when we walk along the road, when we lie down and when we get up…so that our days and the days of our children may be many.” Not just parents but all of us share a responsibility for the children in our spheres of influence.

Family empowerment (Leviticus 25)

The Sabbath Year and Jubilee Year guarantee of land (means of production) was for all families (not individuals; cf. the belief today that people have a right to leave home at 18 or after university and own a home of their own, which has a huge social and environmental impact). Note the provision made for if a “countryman becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.” (v.35) This presumed concern for immigrants and foreigners leads us into our final principles.

Community responsibility (Numbers 35:6-28)

The provision of Cities of Refuge, to which those guilty of manslaughter may safely flee, and community sentencing compares with our NIMBY attitudes to electronic tagging and open prisons. Provision that victims and their relatives should be personally involved in administering any punishment compares with our modern impersonal approach, which loses opportunities for biblical values of justice such as forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration. Possible parallel with modern warfare, which is said to have been transformed from when one man would kill another face-to-face down the barrel of a gun to a new impersonal version where someone might sit hundreds or thousands of miles away from his enemy and drop a bomb from an unmanned aircraft while watching a distant computer monitor.

Community compassion (Zechariah 7:9-10)

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. '” We are to share God’s concern for the disadvantaged and those lacking in family support.

This list is in no way supposed to be exhaustive, but is intended to capture some of the dominant themes of the biblical social agenda, which is explored in far greater detail in Votewise Now! and Jubilee Manifesto

Series concludes tomorrow...Making it Practical: Applying the Principles to Policy

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