The Useless “Sin and Penance” Model of Public Policy

I’ve been reading and studying public policy ideas, especially concerning economic issues, for years. Being a Christian, I want to process these issues through the eyes of faith and by analyzing pragmatic concerns. But what should be the driving force in our decision-making regarding such issues?

All too often, a “sin and penance” mode is adopted by competing parties. Problems we confront are caused because of someone’s transgression, the reasoning goes. The challenge is to ferret out who the sinner is, vilify them, compel them to do penance for their evil deeds, and then compel them to fly straight in the future.

Take the issue of poverty in emerging nations. Many progressives identify the cause of abject poverty as exploitation by capitalist nations and multinational corporations. Therefore, these sinners must be compelled to take corrective measures. Debt cancellation, foreign aid, and banishment from trade within these emerging nations are just penance. Pursuit of this retribution becomes a moral crusade for progressives.

Meanwhile, many conservatives identify mismanagement and corruption as the cause of abject poverty. Giving aid to such nations is just throwing good money after bad. Emerging nations must pull themselves up by their bootstraps, stop “sinning,” and take advantage of the global market as other once-poor nations did. Penance is to let them suffer in their misery until they come to their senses. “Tough love” becomes a moral crusade for conservatives.

In my estimation, using the moralistic “sin and penance” model does much to enhance one’s self-righteousness and little actually to address the problems at hand. A better model is to think in terms of health care.

A physician looks to benchmarks of what a healthy person looks like, then begins a diagnosis of a patient’s ailments. Once a diagnosis is reached, a regimen of treatment is begun. Seeking penance from someone believed to have caused the disease is not usually part of the agenda.

Now it is possible that in any given international economic circumstance, there has been exploitation by nations or corporations. It is possible that people are indeed engaged in a cycle of destructive behavior that needs to be broken. But in all my years of learning about these issues, neither has been the sole or primary cause. Punishing perceived sinners has little impact. Discovering healthier ways to exist that might diminish destructive influences, even when those healthier ways might mutually benefit those we ideologically think deserve retribution, are usually much more sound solutions. Unfortunately, far too many activists are so gripped by this notion of evildoers doing penance that they oppose win-win solutions that would benefit the poor tremendously.

As Christians engaged in public policy, we need to think much more like health workers and less like adjudicators.