50 years ago — April 6, 1970
The General Council of World Presbyterians, held August 1970 in Nairobi, Kenya, developed a Bible study to help individuals, churches and governing bodies explore issues of the theme “God reconciles and makes free.”
One of the lessons focused on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31): “The same technology which has made the lot of urban poor so much more degrading has made the rich richer than ever before in history. The gap between rich and poor seems to be opening rather than closing, both within nations and between nations, and this is the moral problem. If we were all poor together, or all rich together it would be different. But when rich and poor live together in the same world, then the question of injustice has to be faced. And that is what has happened to us. … There is no reason why we should expect economic systems to produce moral results. They were not meant to, and on the whole they don’t. The international market system has a built-in bias – it favors the rich: it makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. … But if economic systems are not morally responsible,” people are and should be held accountable if they allow their systems to produce injustice and suffering.
From “God reconciles and makes free, Lesson 5: The rich and the poor” by Donald M. Mathers
