“At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORDyour God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.” Deuteronomy 14.28, 29

Neighbor-love requires that communities accept responsibility to care for the needs of the poor among them. This is a responsibility we should expect churches, first of all, to embrace. And, indeed, most churches recognize caring for the poor, if only among their own members, as an important part of their ministry.

Local charities also exist to help in this area, and depend on the gifts of individuals and corporations to fulfill their missions.

But public policies should be adopted to encourage the practices we have outlined in this and previous installment. Local governments especially have an interest in seeing to it that the needs of the poor in their communities are cared for in a manner designed to meet all their needs, and not just their temporary needs.

However, public policies transgress the bounds of justice when they (1) treat the poor indiscriminately, on the basis of income or wealth only, (2) deny the dignity of the poor by failing to support opportunities for work, (3) make the poor dependent on government largesse, (4) transgress the property rights of the non-poor (as through taxation), (5) create a class of people who make their living on the poor or on being poor, (6) create a political environment which either encourages poverty or links it to political power, or (7) bypass or supplant local agencies in offering solutions to the needs of the poor.

It is the duty of government to highlight the presence and needs of the poor and to encourage a public policy framework for individuals, corporations, and private charitable agencies to do the work for which they are best fitted.

T. M. Moore

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