The people of the land have used oppressions, committed robbery, and mistreated the poor and needy;
and they wrongfully oppress the stranger. —Ezekiel 22:29
Question 142 of the Larger Catechism asks, “What are the sins forbidden in the
Eighth Commandment?” The second part of the answer states, “The sins forbidden
in the Eighth Commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are…
oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust enclosures and
depopulations; engrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and
all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbor what
belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves.” Last week we looked at subtle ways of
stealing where we take something that does not belong to us, not by breaking in or
holding up, but by manipulating technology. Today we focus on those kinds of
stealing whereby we force others to give us their belongings unjustly.
Oppression, extortion, bribery: when I hear those words I think of organized crime
shows or mafia activity, where hardworking store owners are forced to pay
“protection” money to mobster thugs or something like that. Yet the reality is that
these forms of stealing occur all the time in a much more refined manner. Several
years ago I remember being out on a job site with our youth group in a ministry that
helped poor people with minor projects around their homes. Suddenly a woman,
acting very distraught and obviously drunk or high, began to beg us for money in
such a way that was very troubling to the group. One of the other leaders finally
threw some dollars at her and told her to get out and leave the children alone. She
did. Clearly this woman understood how to use “oppression” to extort money from
people so that she could continue to destroy her life with drugs and alcohol. In effect
we gave her a bribe to leave us alone and she did.
It is not just drug users who use such methods. At a very young age children learn
how to manipulate their parents into paying them what really are “bribes” in
exchange for them to stop whining and needling them about how much they want
that toy, piece of candy, or whatever. Likewise, teachers regularly are stressed and
pressured by unjust parents who continually harass and badger them into giving
their children grades they have not earned. In the political realm unscrupulous
special interests groups and lobbyists are experts at knowing how to extort money or
favorable legislation from elected officials. In these and other examples we see that
oppression, extortion, and bribery are part of life in this sinful world. May God grant
that you and I look closely at our lives and make sure we are not oppressing or
extorting money or favor from others.
Usury refers to lending out money at exorbitant interest rates. The Jew was
forbidden from charging any interest to his fellow Jew, but was allowed to receive it
from foreigners (Deu. 23:19-20), proving that such a practice is not morally wrong so
long as the rate is fair. Similarly lawsuits in general are not condemned, only
“vexatious” lawsuits. Sometimes it is necessary to take someone to court in order to
stand up for your rights or for income that was wrongly taken from you. “Enclosures”
refers to a practice in old England whereby land legally designated as “common
land” would be fenced in by its neighbors, disregarding the rights of those entitled to
use it for pasturage. “Depopulations” occurred when a wealthy person would buy a
large tract of land and force the tenants living on it to move. The Westminster
Divines living in England and Scotland had seen these forms of stealing all too often.
“Engrossing commodities to enhance the price” speaks of monopolizing goods for
the sake of selfish gain. As with lawsuits and interest rates, the Catechism does not
condemn monopolies per se, but only when such monopolizing is done for the sake
of charging exorbitant prices for things people need but now can get nowhere else.
Such a practice is selfish and wicked and cares nothing for the quality of people’s
lives. Similarly, “unlawful callings” and “unjust or sinful ways” would include any
illegal or unjust occupation whereby people would be forced to pay you for
something they should not have to. The greed of man has developed stealing into a
fine art. May God grant that you and I shun all forms of stealing.
Kommentare