Anthony Davies

© 1998, Cline & Davies Research Alliance

Consider the proposition that it might be immoral for a society to tax its members in order to give to the poor. To take from someone without that person’s consent is, by definition, robbery. Is it the case that the argument that the confiscated wealth is to be used for the good of society a argument for the ends justifying the means?

What may be the case is that the morality of giving lies not in the gift, but in the act. Morality and justice, arguably, arise not from the feeding of the poor, but from the interaction of the rich and the poor: the free and willful giving by the rich person, and the awareness by the poor person of goods freely and willfully given. It is this willful charity that is an expression of the divinity within humans, and is an active response to the recognition that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Without the ability to choose freely to give, the poor come to regard what they receive as entitlements rather than gifts, while the rich come to regard the poor as burdens rather than as opportunities to love.

Assuming for a moment that God (a) is aware of the poor, (b) cares, and (c) is capable of effectual action, the obvious question is "why has God done nothing about poverty?" Could not God feed the poor? All of them? Now? Perhaps God believes that there is something more important than the eradication of poverty. The history of God’s interactions with his people shows quite clearly that the ability of humans to exercise their free wills is of more importance to God than the eradication of evil because it is in freely choosing to behave in a God-like fashion that humans recognize the God-life within them. Free will is meaningless in an environment where the choice of evil is not a possibility. Some have argued that the ultimate purpose of the cosmos is to provide a backdrop against which humans can exercise their free wills. With what arrogance does the welfare state rush in where even God has chosen not to tread?

What happens if we disband the welfare state and no one gives to the poor? If this happens, then we would have a problem far greater than poverty, a problem that economic and political policy cannot address – we would have lost our souls.

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