Digest of Biblical Civil Law

Deut. 26:12-13 establishes a holy tax (called a tithe) for the nation of ancient Israel, which transfers wealth to a group of people who did not earn it. In this scripture the payments were made every third year to the Levites, who were our equivalent of civil servants, and to “the stranger and the sojourner, the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your towns and be filled.” Similarly Deut. 24: 19-22 creates both a form of taxation as well as a transfer of the wealth on an annual basis to the poor: the stranger and sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. The scripture requires that a portion of three different crops be left for the poor and needy: the harvest from the fields, oil from the olive trees, and the grapes from the vineyard.
-  Katherine Yurica, "Why the Bible Commands You to Be a Liberal (And Vote for Democrats)," at http://www.yuricareport.com/Religion/TheBloodGuiltyChurches.html.