Inequity: Is it a sin?
The rich-poor gap in the United States has doubled in 21 years and is set to widen further under new tax cuts. People of faith say society has a moral responsibility to narrow that gap.
America is changing: The society that has prided itself on being an egalitarian model for the world has become more unequal than "aristocratic" Europe, economists confirm. The rich-poor gap has doubled in 21 years and now is at its widest since 1929. The number of those in poverty rose by 1.7 million between 2001 and 2002. New tax cuts will add to the disparity.
Does this mean something's gone wrong with the American dream? Some people of faith think so. This is more than an economic or social concern, they say. It's a moral and theological issue - one they insist demands attention.
"A fundamental teaching in the New Testament and strongly present in the Hebrew scripture is that God has a special care for those who are poor and needy," says the Rev. Joseph Hough, president of Union Theological Seminary. "I'm deeply concerned about the directions we are taking in our common life." In a recent sermon at Riverside Church in New York, Dr. Hough said the three Abrahamic faiths share this teaching and urged believers to actively resist public policies that further increase inequality.
This fall, Gov. Bob Riley of Alabama, a conservative Republican, called, albeit unsuccessfully, for voters to approve reform of his state's tax system, which places a higher burden on the poor than on the wealthy - what economists call a "regressive tax system." "According to our Christian ethics, we're supposed to love God, love each other, and help take care of the less fortunate," he said.
Once an ardent anti-tax congressman, Mr. Riley changed his view after becoming governor and reading the report of an Alabama tax lawyer who examined the state's tax structures in the light of Judeo-Christian ethics.
Surveys consistently show that Americans consider themselves highly religious and say they want more morality in public life. Yet all too often, some leaders contend, people don't connect the dots - they fail to see how their faith's teachings relate not just to personal morality but public responsibilities.
Susan Pace Hamill, the Alabama lawyer who sparked Riley's reform effort, says she was like that. She had a comfortable life with her husband and kids, teaching tax and corporate law at the University of Alabama, until she undertook graduate work at an evangelical seminary and did an in-depth study of biblical teaching and its application to her field. That woke her up, she says.
"Tax is a moral issue, and has to do with what is just," Ms. Hamill adds. "Your laws are unjust if they tolerate oppression of the poor and if your community infrastructure fails to provide for the minimum needs of the least of us - and allows them the chance to better their situation."
In Alabama, some low-income people pay income tax at a higher rate than the wealthy. "The state's powerful timber industry, which owns 71 percent of the land, pays 2 percent of the property taxes. Meanwhile, we overtax poor people with punishing high sales taxes even on groceries, reaching 11 percent in some counties," she says. At the same time, the state's infrastructure, including public education, is ranked near the bottom of the 50 states. "We are not prospering," she adds.
While Alabama is an extreme case, Hamill believes it should be a warning about what can happen when the burdens start getting shifted onto middle- and lower-income people. She's concerned that in the national tax debate, "people are not looking at it from any moral framework other than, 'Whatever I've got, I've earned, and it's all mine.' "
People of faith see this issue from varying perspectives, however. The Rev. Robert Sirico, who heads the conservative Acton Institute for Religion and Liberty, says it's important to recognize the role that economically successful people have in ensuring a dynamic and prosperous economy - that the majority of their wealth is invested and is employing people.
"While I agree that Americans tend not to have a very sophisticated moral understanding of social and financial obligation," he says, "part of the problem is that when tax rates reach confiscatory levels, as high as 50 percent, it causes people to react and want to keep it all."
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