Beyond Moralism and Salvation…
Instapundit linked this morning to a story about a call to shun obese people. As a formerly morbidly obese person such things catch my eye. I will resist the temptation to go on about that issue specifically, but I was stunned by the fact that we are now being called upon to shun smokers and the obese while embracing the homosexual. That is a massive moral shift. Not that smoking or obesity are good things, but are they worthy of the outcast status being thrust upon them? There are gradations of bad.
But then it requires a great deal of both learning and thought to understand such gradations.
The I turned to a Scott Johnson post at Powerline discussing at great length the economic and societal ills born of social welfare programs. My initial, visceral, reaction to it was to be put off. It seemed somehow uncharitable. I turned to my Bible and read about how we are called to care for those in need. I was searching for a response to the piece. But then it dawned on me, the issue isn’t the charity, but the use government coercion, to accomplish charitable ends.
Again, that is a subtle argument and one that has a powerful counter – private charity generally proves insufficient to the poverty it faces. (Never mind that government coerced “charity” suffers the same issue – but that is off point of this post.)
One must ask, why is the nation seemingly unable to deal with these subtle argument? A second question here raised – Why is private charity always insufficient – an be answered at the same time.
My devotional reading this morning contained this rather astonishing statement:
We might be tempted to associate feelings with our sinfulness, but to exonerate our thinking. Rationality can seem to be pure, untainted by sin and its corruption. Yet this is not the case according to Ephesians 2:3. According to this verse, we are naturally inclined to gratify the cravings of our flesh, “following its desires and thoughts.” Did you catch that? “And thoughts.” Sin has tarnished, not just our feeling, but also our thinking. Left to our own devices, we are not able to think rightly, discerning without error what is true and false.
OK, quoting scripture is a bit “too religious” for this blog, but the point made is truly important. The thinking in the nation is tarnished because the church has not done a sufficient job of fixing the root problem, which Christians describe as “sin.”
Oh sure the church, and particularly its evangelical expressions, preach salvation and promote a moral code, but does it improve people at their core? Does it educate them to straighten out their thinking? Which I think is also instructive on the matter of charity. Private charity is generally insufficient, as is government coerced charity, because there are not enough charitable people. Most churches seem very good at promoting charity to the church, but what about charity among individuals?
It seems that the church today is satisfied with affiliation. But the job of the church is far more than merely gaining affiliates. The job of the church is to make good people – rational, charitable people.
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Doug King on 26 Jan 2013 at 6:45 pm #
IMHO, focusing on the economic dimension of social welfare (as did Scott Johnson’s piece) overlooks the most tragic dimension of the problem — lost human potential.
Sometimes “helping” actually hurts when it reinforces dependency. (There is a superb book on this subject called When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor . . . and Yourself.) I’m not talking about retired folks on Social Security but rather people who repeatedly refuse to take responsibility for themselves. It’s astonishing how some able-bodied people can act so completely helpless. I’m no mental health professional, but many cases look like mental illness to me. And I suspect nearly every charity worker in the country knows what I’m talking about. Doling out welfare to such people is like giving booze to an alcoholic; it only re-enforces their helplessness.
But not every one who applies for welfare fits the above description. There are many honest and hardworking people who need temporary assistance to get through hard times. The challenge is to administer a program that is fair and wise enough to discern the pathological cases and the normal cases. I think churches and private charities can do this to some extend by setting (subjective) conditions for receiving assistance. But I don’t know how government can do it effectively.
We are becoming a nation of takers because big government has become a Super Enabler with very deep pockets.
GottaZoom on 27 Jan 2013 at 1:35 pm #
My thoughts have been following what is perhaps a parallel track to many of your recent posts. As I see it, many churches and political arguments no longer seem to drive home that a community thrives when people do righteous acts.
Often we hear that because we are equals we are all entitled to pursue our own individual dreams. But that mentality does not lead to building a thriving community – it leads to the mistaken notion that all dreams and individual desires should be equally supported.
What we need in both politics and in churches are for people to articulate what we expect and will support, versus what we will tolerate, versus what needs a strong community penalty.
Recently we were treated to hearing how abortion allowed one journalist to feel his life was saved because as a teen father his dreams might not have been reached. However, as a child comparable to the one he chose to not support I can testify the decision to raise up a good, community oriented child is a FAR superior choice that is worthy of support and promotion. My mother soon left my life by choice. So it is relatively easy to contrast selfish choices with the choice of a young father who was committed to his unborn (and later born) children.
As a result of my father’s sacrifice, there are at present 10 souls who are alive that will work and support charity, social security, and taxes. The contribution of a self-centered journalist is his choice, but it does not have the same value to the nation as a young father who keeps and raises his children to productively join society.
kgbudge on 28 Jan 2013 at 11:33 am #
I have believed for years that a hallmark of the modern Left is the inability to make fine moral distinctions. This is an issue of clouded reasoning, not intentions or feelings.