Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 29, 1994 TAG: 9405220150
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: F-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by TOM SMEDLEY
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As the pugnacious title suggests, this exposition on wealth, poverty, and duty rebuts a prior work, Ron Sider's "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger." Chilton's argument has more flavor and substance than the book it counters, and is a livelier read as well.
Ron Sider, professor at the respected evangelical Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, espouses an avant garde socialism, a trendy WASPish "liberation theology" decked out with ornamental Bible verses. David Chilton, pastor and author, sets forth the Christian conservative position.
Sider, distressed by poverty, argues for massive interventions by civil government to adjust the balance. Chilton, distressed by the distended bloat of civil government, argues for an ethic of liberty and personal responsibility, tempered with personal (person to person) compassion.
Sider's lack of a distinctively Biblical social theory shows in his uncritical adoption of leftist slogans. Life will be better for everyone, Sider claims, if no one can rise too far above "the masses." Those who would excel must be reined in by socially conscious philosopher kings, to avoid disrupting society. We are our brother's keepers.
Chilton demonstrates from the source documents that an ethos of freedom and personal responsibility is more congruent with Biblical revelation, and demonstrably superior at reducing or eliminating poverty. Poverty is fought through ethical, not violent means. We help the poor by helping the poor, not by cutting the rich down to size. The Christian gospel deals with the attitudes that keep people in poverty, and imparts the personal characteristics required to prosper: sobriety, integrity, diligence and hope. Our brothers are not domestic cattle, needing to be "kept." They are fellow human beings awaiting an invitation to the table of the Lord, to a community of faith that rejoices in the abundance of a royal banquet and that cares for its own.
Mr. Chilton's second (and third) editions respond to Mr. Sider's second edition. Ron Sider dealt with Chilton's objections to "Rich Christians..." by ignoring them, and trying to pretend that they were never raised. Yet, even though Sider has tacitly capitulated, his books still impress naive fundamentalists. This is not harmless. A people paralyzed by guilt cannot resist their predators, their would-be "keepers."
Advocating blunt talk, David Chilton points out: "we are talking to murderers. Liberation theologians may look cute and harmless with their preoccupied looks and professorial elbow patches, their footnotes and qualifications; but they are advocating a reign of terror."
Most people know of Varo only because of the book written to rebut his whining diatribe, Augustine's massive "City of God." Readers looking for coherent Christian social theory, rather than baptized socialism, will find Chilton's book refreshing. Secular observers tracking trends in the Christian right may find it frightening.
- Tom Smedley is a local contract technical writer.
by CNB