Poor Always with You
May 22, 2009
I direct my comments today to the 87% of Americans who claim to be Christians. I welcome the balance of American citizens to consider my position and agree or disagree with my conclusions.
Deuteronomy 15:11
"For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land."
Mark 14:3-9
While Jesus visited the house of Simon the leper, a woman chose to spend her personal resources on anointing Jesus with very expensive perfume. The houseguests thought the actions taken by this woman were a misuse of wealth. Jesus himself rebuked the people for judging how she spent her personal resources. Some applications for today of this Biblical story of Jesus' anointing are:
- How we use the material blessings bestowed on us by our Creator is
personal, between individuals and God, and not up to other persons or
government review and approval. - Helping the poor is personal, not a RIGHT of others personally or
through government to confiscate property for distribution on behalf of
someone. - Helping others is not a state's RIGHT, but a personal sacrifice
using personal resources and private property.
Ultimately, whose collective responsibility is it to help the poor? The answer would be that it is nobody's. The responsibility to helping the poor is an individual responsibility. Perhaps you could extend the concept to a group of people, but that is stretching the example of Christ. Nevertheless, certainly government entities have NO obligation, responsibility, or even the right to
confiscate personal property, and then choose winners and losers from among the needy. In America, our form of constitutional government clearly prohibits such activity.
For five decades, Americans have slowly abdicated our Biblical responsibility of helping the poor and needy to allow the government to take over. Today, America is awash in government dependent citizens. In fact, the federal governmental agencies alone have $97,000,000,000,000.00 plus in unfunded liabilities over the next 25 years. In addition, to keep power, government bureaucrats yearly expand social obligations with no ability or intention to pay the claims.
In exchange for the unfunded promise of government help, Americans forgo Liberty and the American Experiment.