Justice and the church

Paul Middleton is thinking about discipleship and justice:

How many times in modern religious life - outside of freakish cults or the radical lifestyle of the Amish - have you ever heard of someone taking out a second mortgage on their house to help out a brother or sister in Christ who has become overwhelmed with medical expenses? How many have sold real property for a similar purpose?

We simply never hear about those sort of things because we either view them as far too radical or we begin to fear that such a proposal sounds too much like socialism. That, and in America and the west we have a long, entrenched history of valuing individual property rights very, very highly (the original version of the Constitution set out to guarantee everyone the right to life, liberty and property). We might sacrifice a little disposable income, if we believe we have it to spare. But we don't go so far as to sell something off of value to help a brother or sister pay for a surgical procedure. But Biblical justice might very well do just that.

Yep.