What about reparations?
I’m in favor of reparations. I’m in favor of them because the Bible is in favor of them. When God established His nation, when He delivered that law which was to govern His people He established reparations as the fitting punishment for those who were guilty of theft or negligence. They didn’t call it reparations, but restitution, but the principle is the same. The thief, or the negligent, had a responsibility to make things right for their victim. One could even argue they were required to go beyond making things right. Sometimes they might have to return twice what was taken, or even more. One thing they never had to do, in that era considered harsh and inhumane by postmoderns, was be imprisoned. God’s law provided for no such punishment. There were only two kinds of punishments, restitution, or death.
The biblical practice, however, though the law was established long before the ministry of Ezekiel where God reminds us that He will not punish the children for the sins of the father, has always been that the guilty are punished, not the innocent. And that the victim is recompensed not those who are not victims.
That is not to say that the Bible has no room for the concept of corporate guilt. When Achan took of the accursed things at Jericho not only did it lead to God’s judgment such that many died at the battle of Ai, but when Achan was exposed his whole family was put to death. During the days of the kings it wasn’t at all uncommon for God Himself to pronounce a judgment on a wicked king that he would die and all his children. How do we deal with that? By simply remembering this foundational truth- we are all, in ourselves, because of our own sin, under a death sentence from the living God. Ever soldier at Ai, every family beyond Achan’s, every king, prince and every pauper are all guilty before God.
Which should lead us to this conclusion which is as plain as something remarkably plain- the call for, even assuming we could know who was whom, descendants of slave owners to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves is a cry for injustice. What is stranger still, however, is that any Christian, whomever his ancestors may be, would think it prudent to demand justice. Every last one of us has stolen from others. Every last one of us have treated others at one time or another as property. The very evil that resided in the hearts of slaveowners resided in the hearts of slaves.
Which is why it doesn’t surprise me that the racism that justified slavery (“these Africans are the descendants of Ham and therefore it is right to enslave them”) or even genocide (“these Jews should be put to death because they killed the Messiah”) is at work in the hearts of the descendants of Africans and the descendants of Jews. It’s what we all are. There are two kinds of people in this world- those who think other people are wicked and those who, by His grace, know that we are all other people to other people.
I know of a man who was enslaved. His master was a believer. The slave ran away. He became a believer. The same man led them both to Christ. That man sent the slave back to the master, carrying a letter not demanding reparations, not even demanding that the slave be freed, but rather asking that, in light of their shared liberty in Christ, who paid all that we all owe, he be welcomed not as a slave but as a brother. And all three of them now live happily ever after. We are all the servants of the One who paid all our debts. We are all His, and each other’s brothers as well. May we cease giving demands and ever more give thanks.