“And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:9-10)
In the Book of Ruth we learn of two poor widows, Ruth, and her mother-in law Naomi, who “glean” the fields to find food. Gleaning, of course, is the act of collecting leftover crops from farmer’s fields after they have been harvested. As noted above, the law at the time actually required that landowners leave a part of the harvest in the fields for the poor to glean. (See also Deuteronomy 24:19-22).
In England, this centuries-long tradition was brought to an abrupt halt with the Steel v Houghton case of 1788. The court (which consisted of land-holding British “Lords”) ignored common law, existing statute, and historical precedent and, instead, sided with the landlords in ruling that gleaning was “trespass” on “private property.” The court drew a hard line between “acts of charity” and “legal obligation” that conservatives still lean on today every time they object to the government “forcing” them to help the poor. The court even used the outrageous “trickle down” argument that allowing gleaning would reduce the farmers’ profits and thus the amount they could contribute toward taxes to help the poor. In other words, they actually claimed that a ban on gleaning was in the best interest of the poor!
Putting the “rights” of “owners” above care and concern for the poor is a clear example of the type of meanness of spirit that the Lord abhors. In the modern United States, strict definitions of “property” are the norm, and those without property (or even food!) are believed to have created their own situation. The Book of Mormon warns us strongly against this attitude! (See Mosiah 4:16-19).
For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? (Mosiah 4:19)
This great sin of covetousness and pride, manifested by denying the poor and needy in the midst of prosperity, is the very sin that led to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Ezekiel 16:49). LDS Scholar, Dr. Hugh Nibley, reported that these Old Testament “Cities of the Plain” even “fenced in all their trees on top above their fruit” so that the birds could not get anything for free! (“Three Degrees of Righteousness from the Old Testament,” Approaching Zion). With our feverish efforts today to selfishly “maximize profits” in every way possible, I fear we are not much different from Sodom and Gomorrah.
I wonder how Ruth and Naomi would survive if they lived today?
Amen.