Last fall I took a worldview test sponsored by one of CEI’s members. One of the questions addressed income equality and whether that is something God requires of a society. The correct response according to the test is that God does not require income equality, even though God encourages Christians to be generous toward those in need.

The test position presents a distinction that is often misunderstood and to many may even seem contradictory. How can efforts toward bringing income equality not be in line with Christian generosity toward those in need?

Jesus taught people where to find joy, peace, contentment, etc., He fed thousands, and He healed many, however He never promoted a societal goal of individual equality in any material sense. That does not mean we should not work for better living standards for our fellow man, whether he be a neighbor or a person on the other side of the globe. A key aspect of this discussion is how we work to help others in need. Christian principles are not instructions to attain a certain earthly wealth, but rather they are principles on how to live a contented and wholesome life. Ultimately, how we live points to who is our god because the ideas we follow and what or who we trust identifies our god.

Being generous to those in need is wonderful and is, by definition, voluntary. Taking personal property from anyone else is stealing, even if you want to give it to a great cause or needy person or family. Stealing violates God’s law (Exodus 20:13), so if we embrace stealing, we put something above God and display a lack of trust that God will provide for our needs as Jesus affirmed in Luke 12:6-7.

This presents the core problem with entitlement and wealth redistribution programs, including education vouchers, which have been growing in popularity across our nation, especially in more conservative-leaning states. If it is okay to steal for single-payer (state) education, then it is okay to steal for single-payer (state) healthcare. The case against it becomes purely about human preference. It seems that even those who claim to be God-fearing, limited-government, free-market conservatives are embracing wealth redistribution (using government force to take one person’s property and give to another) as the solution for training up children.

Can a government steal? Does all property rightly belong to the government? Who rightly owns the fruit of a person’s labor? That person or someone else? Are we still a nation that allows one man to own the fruit of another man’s labor, as was the case before emancipation? Is that the kind of society we want to build and type of thinking we want to instill in our children?

These are important questions, especially for Christians, who embrace a moral code that among other things embraces personal property ownership. Clearly there cannot be stealing without ownership. Even Jesus made clear that the state, Caesar, did not own all (Matt 22:21).

While entitlements come from and encourage coveting and a slave-system mindset that provides a right to the fruit of another person’s labor or property, an even bigger problem is state-entitlements elevate the state over God. Thus, entitlements not only violate the Eighth (stealing) and Tenth (coveting) Commandments, but also the First Commandment (Exodus 20:3-17) and both Greatest Commandments (Matt 22:37-40).

Creating a new entitlement, which education vouchers most certainly do, once again raises the state, with its ungodly ways, above God as the object of our trust for providing our needs. In addition, the source of the widespread embracement of fraudulent ideas is masked. The lack of healthy thinking in our nation is not simply a lack of money issue. Nothing is free, someone is paying. Financial help through voluntary donations is wonderful and demonstrates our responsibility to care for those in need; however, care is still needed to not foster entitlement-thinking or build unhealthy or unstable dependencies. Parents who embrace a mindset of entitlement to another person’s property will pass that belief, like all other lived out beliefs, on to their children.

In our quest for a renewed appreciation for liberty, we must understand that a liberty-mindset, which is a mindset that embraces the realities of God’s created design, order and ways and understands God as our provider and protector, will never be achieved from an entitlement-based education.