My pastor preached an excellent sermon yesterday on Jesus' parable about the Good Samaritan and emphasized our responsibility to show compassion and generosity to the poor. It was an important reminder for me to make sure that I am not closing my eyes and my heart to the needs of people all around me and that I am willing to give to others as the Lord has given to me. It also got me thinking about how this principle of Christian compassion relates to political issues, such as ObamaCare.
I don't have time to write much on this topic now. But I think it is often very problematic to take biblical commands directed to individuals about compassion & charity and attempt to apply them directly to the government. Don't get me wrong -- the government must stand for justice, and so obviously it must take action to prevent corruption and oppression of the poor. But government charity is something entirely different -- that is the government taking some people's money and giving it as a handout to another group of people. I'm not saying I'm against some sort of safety net for truly needy people. I'm not opposed to programs like welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid -- provided that there are incentives built into those programs to encourage people who are able to take responsibility for their own lives to do so. In the case of medical care -- we need to look and see who are the people without health insurance who really need it and what can be done to get targeted help to those people.
The problem is that government is a massive nameless, faceless collection of bureaucrats that cannot see people as individuals and cannot target help to their specific needs. Therefore it cannot really show true compassion in a biblical sense. Despite their sanctimonious attitude, politicians are not being compassionate by spending other people's money to help the poor. Government generally establishes a "one-size-fits-all" government program that operates inefficiently and wastes taxpayer money without really helping the people it is supposed to help. So much of poverty in this country today is really encouraged by the government. People become dependent on the government to take care of them and don't take responsibility for their own lives. Many people in this country today feel they have a "right" to certain things (a good job, health care, education, etc.) but they are not willing to work hard to get those things. They think these things should be guaranted for all by the government. And this situation creates anger among people who have worked hard and taken responsibility for their own lives, only to find increasing amounts of their hard-earned money taken from them in taxes to give to others who have not worked for it. The more extensive this wealth redistribution becomes, the fewer incentives people have to work hard and the less free, responsible, and productive a society becomes. France and the Scandinavian countries are excellent examples of this.
In the case of ObamaCare, I think compassion is only the ostensible motive. The real motive is increased government power, which explains why Obama & Congress have been so deceitful on the details of the plan and have worked so hard to push something quickly under the radar of public scrutiny. If 80% of Americans are generally happy with the quality of our country's health care system, there is no reason to do a radical overhaul of the whole system. There should simply be small, incremental changes made to try to lower costs and help the neediest people. The fact that Obama and Congress are instead pushing for radical, comprehensive changes that a majority of Americans oppose speaks volumes about their real, more sinister intentions.
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4 comments:
It's pretty easy to be generous with somebody else's money, isn't it?
I agree with you. one thing you said
"I think it is often very problematic to take biblical commands directed to individuals about compassion & charity and attempt to apply them directly to the government."
while this is true you, could and should state this with more confidence, because in 2 Corinthians 9:7 it says
"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
The only income a government welfare program (such as ObamaCare) is the income that comes from taxes that are taken with force from individuals, and this goes directly against government funded welfare programs because a man should give "not reluctantly or under compulsion".
I'm all for charity as commanded in the Bible, but government charity is BS.
Hey 4dguy -- thanks for reading and commenting. I think I have a slightly different take on that verse. I think it is speaking to individuals, not the gov't, and its point is that if you give just because think you should or because someone is pressuring you to, rather than out of a willing and cheerful heart that wants to help others, you are not pleasing God. God cares not just about your actions, but also your thoughts and motives. Unwilling obedience to Him is not obedience at all. Perhaps the verse has some application to government welfare programs, but I don't think that's its primary meaning.
I agree with you that government cannot really give charitably or be compassionate in the true sense of the word. But I don't think that taxes are unbiblical, and taxes are always wealth redistribution to at least a certain degree. The government has the right to tax people in order to raise money needed to provide basic protection and services to its people. If I were to take money from you against your will to give it to someone else, that would be stealing. But the government doesn't operate according to the same rules as individuals. The Bible acknowledges that when it says that God has given gov't the power of the sword to punish evildoers. Individuals do not have that right, but the gov't does. Jesus did command his disciples to pay taxes to the gov't and said to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. I think it is completely legitimate for the gov't to tax citizens in order to fund things like the military, police, road & infrastructure construction, etc. It's completely inefficient and ineffective for somebody to go door-to-door to get everyone to contribute to a road in their neighborhood. Of course, I think the gov't has gone way too far down the road of socialism with the taxes they levy and the services they provide. And while I think more freedom and less gov't is consistent with biblical teachings about the basic dignity of humans made in God's image, I'm not sure the Bible says much directly about what form of gov't is best. Just my thoughts off the top of my head -- if you can prove otherwise I'm open to convincing!
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