Charity isn't enough
Russell Sadler
The Season To Be Jolly ruthlessly shouldered aside the Season for Thanksgiving this year. Modern retailers make most of their annual income during the Christmas Selling Season. Retailers were terrified that high gas prices this summer and fall would cut into December Christmas sales.
Led by Wal-Mart, retailers began selling Christmas merchandise as early as October. Can’t afford to jeopardize Christmas sales, we are told authoritatively.
It’s an practice that fits right in with the relentless material acquisitiveness of the “Me Decade” attitude that recently ascended to national leadership. It’s an attitude that reduces all human behavior to a financial transaction between consenting adults whether the slogan is “Low Prices -- Always Low Prices” or “No New Taxes.”
At no time in the past century has the Judeo-Christian ethic of being our brothers’ keeper been so overwhelmed by the crass selfishness of accumulated wealth. Self-appointed Christian leaders who declare the nation to be in the midst of a Christian Revival insist the Judeo-Christian ethic is limited to voluntary charity, ignoring the warnings from those who administer charity that there never have been sufficient charitable resources to meet the need.
With the prospect of record high heating bills threatening to force the poor to choose between heating and eating this winter, the “honorable” members of the House voted to cut $50 billion from the federal budget, including money to help the poor with their heating bills, while voting themselves a pay raise.
Instead, the Hon. Charles Grassley, the gentleman from Iowa who chairs the august Senate Finance Committee, passed the hat among oil companies enjoying record profits from the fruits of a natural disaster. "You have a responsibility to help less fortunate Americans cope with the high cost of heating fuels," Mr. Grassley wrote in a letter to oil and gas industry lobbying groups. The silence was deafening. Charity, we are told, will provide home heating help for those who need it.
Charity, for all its importance, is not designed to help the poor. Charity is deliberately designed to make the well-to-do feel good about themselves during seasons we are supposed to “help others.” The rest of the year conservatives and self-styled Libertarians practice Ayn Rand’s “Virtue of Selfishness.” The poor remain an out-of-sight, out-of-mind disposable low-wage workforce to serve those who can still afford to live well.
“If the poor folks in the floating army of ‘temporary’ labor don’t make it they have only their own lack of ambition and character to blame,” we are told by economic moralists who are usually on the payroll of some tax-exempt “think tank” or comfortably tenured at some prestigious research university.
People with more experience in the real world know living on the streets is often just a missed paycheck away. An illness, a lost job, a layoff -- General Motors just announced the closure of nearly a dozen facilities and the layoff of 30,000 workers. Where will that many people find equivalent jobs in a country that deliberately adopts tax policies that encourage its industries -- from agricultural production and food processing to manufacturing and high technology -- to move their work out of the country?
Food stamps do not pay for a roof over your head. The house goes first. Then bankruptcy, which now leaves you with nearly nothing to start over again. You move into the car. The car breaks down. You go to the shelter. The shelter closes or says you have been there long enough. You move to the street. The street is wet and cold. You move under the bridge. It still happens to ordinary people every day.
We feed them a token meal at Thanksgiving. We plunk spare change in a little red kettle to send them a token box of food at Christmas. We declare our duty done. We pretend their misfortune is their own fault the rest of the year - until it happens to someone we know. Then we realize the problem is not so simple.
This is not Marxist criticism. It is an Old Line Protestant criticism of the neo-Victorian reactionary reflection that private charity is sufficient and the Libertarian libel that government welfare is immoral coercion.
It was the late Pope John Paul II -- not Marx -- who criticized the “I’ve-got-mine-Jack” attitude that claims income tax cuts for the well-to-do are more moral than providing bare-bones health insurance for the working poor.
We will shortly be celebrating -- in case the commercial excesses of the season cause you to forget -- the birth of a carpenter who spent most of his short life among poor social outcasts by choice. Whether in the conservative writings of the Early Church fathers or the liberal writings of Social Gospel in the early twentieth century, the message about our personal and collective responsibility to the poor has not changed much in 2,000 years. We are commanded to be out brother’s keeper. Nothing else in Scripture absolves us of that responsibility
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6:49 a.m.
Nov 27, '05
Thank you for a timely reminder. Think more, buy less.
Nov 27, '05
You say, "With the prospect of record high heating bills threatening to force the poor to choose between heating and eating this winter, the “honorable” members of the House voted to cut $50 billion from the federal budget, including money to help the poor with their heating bills, while voting themselves a pay raise.
Are you suggesting that the federal budget is $50 Billion less than last year? Or what?
House and Senate members automatically get a pay raise every year. This is similar to the public sector in Oregon. The largest segment of the Oregon budget, K-12 employees, are individually receiving increases in excess of cost-of-living. In the same vein, would you also suggest that their increases be slowed? Oregon K-12 employees are among the highest individually compensated of all of the states. How much is too much? Should we cut their compensation to feed the poor? If that is too specific, whose compensation do we cut to pay for your suggestions?
What are you suggesting? Higher taxes? If yes, then specifically where? Are you suggesting a different allocation of revenue?
It is easy to say to increase welfare to help the poor, but how? Do we limit the size of families that are on welfare? Do we penalize them (economically) if they are on drugs? Do we limit payouts for unwed mothers who have 3 or 4 children, who can't name the father? What are your suggestions?
Nov 27, '05
The constriction of middle-class wage opportunities are driving more and more people into poverty in Portland. The root of our homeless and poverty problems are being fertilized in the soil of greed and self-interest. Globalization is consolidating wages at the lowest common denominator. Power and wealth becomes concentrated with the few. They own main steam media. The media manipulates the masses through repititously associating materialism with needs and desires such as love, sex, and security. The really scary thing is that there is no master mind manipulating us like puppets. We are rushing hell bent for destruction by mindlessly doing what the T.V. commercials tell us to do. The advertisers are merely trying to sell there product. The presidents of corporations are trying to get thier next bonus or stock option. The politicians are just trying to get the campaign donations so they can sell the public whatever image the polls tell will get them elected. It has been going on in this country a long time. Who has the skill and guts to pull us out of this BULLSHIT?
Nov 27, '05
Scrooge Bailie: If only we would follow your advice and compensate public employees according to your wishes The largest segment of the Oregon budget, K-12 employees, are individually receiving increases in excess of cost-of-living. In the same vein, would you also suggest that their increases be slowed? Oregon K-12 employees are among the highest individually compensated of all of the states. then Christmas would not be commercialized? If public employees were compensated differently, there would have been no fights in stores on Friday as people pushed others aside to get at "bargains"?
Is that what you are saying? Or are you in some kind of competition to see how many different blog topics you can insert paragraphs like that into?
Nov 27, '05
I'd sure like to know what planet Bailie is living on, as I'm a teacher and I sure as heck ain't getting the sort of cost of living increases or the level of compensation he's talking about.
Then again, I was one who had to go on strike to get what I got.
But I digress. Let's look again at a few choice cuts from what Russell Sadler wrote:
Charity, for all its importance, is not designed to help the poor. Charity is deliberately designed to make the well-to-do feel good about themselves during seasons we are supposed to “help others.” The rest of the year conservatives and self-styled Libertarians practice Ayn Rand’s “Virtue of Selfishness.” The poor remain an out-of-sight, out-of-mind disposable low-wage workforce to serve those who can still afford to live well.
Think about this. Think very hard about this. Think about what it would be like if you were the recipient rather than the giver of charity. Another factor of my life as a teacher in a low-income area is that I do end up occasionally buying a bag of groceries for a student's family, or going through my closet or hitting the store to get a kid some clean, unripped clothes--not to make me feel good, but because, damn it, the kid's family is falling through the safety net and this is what it takes to get things to the point where the kid is capable of focusing on school instead of an empty stomach, dirty clothes, or the other stuff that can interfere with the learning process.
More Sadler: This is not Marxist criticism. It is an Old Line Protestant criticism of the neo-Victorian reactionary reflection that private charity is sufficient and the Libertarian libel that government welfare is immoral coercion.
It was the late Pope John Paul II -- not Marx -- who criticized the “I’ve-got-mine-Jack” attitude that claims income tax cuts for the well-to-do are more moral than providing bare-bones health insurance for the working poor.
Reread these lines. Then go back and take a good hard look at those phrases in the Old Testament prophetic writings that condemn the rich for living it up while failing to provide for the widows and orphans. Isaiah has some pretty choice turns of phrases there about "cows of Bashan lolling on ivory couches."
Just update it to obese folks sitting around in their SUVs cruising from mall to mall to chase down the latest "must have" on their shopping lists, then going home to quaff the latest designer vino.
Our nation has always depended on a strong middle class. Our current economic policies undermine this strong middle class. Our political polarization is a forerunner of the impending economic polarization coming our way. Do we really want to go down in history as becoming just another banana republic with a top-heavy wealthy class living on the backs of the numerous poor?
1:47 p.m.
Nov 27, '05
Food stamps do not pay for a roof over your head.
They also don't go very far to put food on your table, either.
People are always bitching about "welfare," but they need to get over it-- there is no such thing as welfare anymore. They did away with it, remember?
Families used to be able to get money to help them buy things like toilet paper, cleaning supplies, toiletries, clothes, etc. Now if you're absolute bottom of the barrel poor (basically you have no job), you can get TANF (Temporary Aid for Needy Families) for a short period of time. That's it.
You end up with a lot of families that are under 133% of the federal poverty level (that's the cut-off for things like free/reduced lunch at school) who get about $100/month to buy food for their entire family. And there's no help to buy those other necessities such as toilet paper, toothpaste, or shampoo.
Nov 27, '05
The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is not compatible with christianity or sacrifice. If you were really concerned about the poor you would look at the dark ages when the world was ruled by faith and see that religion is bad for people. Or just look at present-day countries ruled by Islam. Rational selfishness and Capitalism is good (moral)for people. We ought to have it in the USA.
Nov 27, '05
Two thousand years of altruist preaching and Christians still don't get it? They are still selfish and mean! Voices of Marx are finding fewer and fewer open ears. And that must make you nervous.
Nov 27, '05
[off-topic, non-responsive and predictable teacher-salary gibberish deleted. -Editor.]
Nov 27, '05
I agree with Jack. Forcing some people to pay for the troubles of others assumes the same ethic as the person who robs the 7-11 in order to put food on the table. Both are done at gun point and both laugh in the face of voluntary cooperation.
Nov 27, '05
So this isn't really a topic about charity but about Bailie's statistics which he has posted on other topics?
Recently, I heard a speech by someone who is a devout Catholic and had spent a year in seminary before deciding on a different career path. Part of the speech was about what had been the priest's message that Sunday--that only those who actively help the poor get into heaven. That the gate to heaven will only be open to those who can answer the question "what actions did you take to help the less fortunate, as in 'as ye do unto the least of them, you do unto me' ". Agree or disagree, that opinion is as valid as "Forcing some people to pay for the troubles of others assumes the same ethic as the person who robs the 7-11 in order to put food on the table". Call it a theological debate or a political debate, but we are allowed to have those debates in a free country.
Maybe 30 years ago, someone had a song with the line "Jesus Christ was the first non-violent revolutionary".
If there are those who want to preach their own ideology instead (and yes, I do believe Bailie quoting the same statistics over and over again even if the topic is not about school funding is a statement of ideology)it is a free country.
And we are free not to believe them.
Nov 27, '05
The rest of the year conservatives and self-styled Libertarians practice Ayn Rand’s “Virtue of Selfishness.” The poor remain an out-of-sight, out-of-mind disposable low-wage workforce to serve those who can still afford to live well. I have no idea what conservatives do or think, but that is a rude generalization about Libertarians. I know too many Libertarians who are just getting by. I also know others who spend a significant amount of time giving to others as well as some in the South who were rushing into the hurricane zone to help others. And for you enlightenment, not all Libertarians are devotees of Ayn Rand. In fact some dislike her and her attitude. Some libertarians are opposed to the idea of a coercive society. And I do see their point. How is it possible to build a peaceful society by using coercion? Or is the new phrase "Peace. Builiding a better Society thru Coercion." Is that the "new speak"?
Nov 27, '05
LT, You say, "If there are those who want to preach their own ideology instead (and yes, I do believe Bailie quoting the same statistics over and over again even if the topic is not about school funding is a statement of ideology)it is a free country."
Actually, for me it is totally about Oregon K-12 funding. The "over and over" part of it, is in hope that many on this blog would talk about the problems of the issue. No one will. To the contrary, everyone is bent on dismissing anyone who mentions the spending side of the problem. It seems as though, a thorough discussion of K-12 funding is off limits for "progressives", especially if numbers are involved.
Nov 27, '05
What is this nonsense about a "coercive society?" When was the last time anyone on this blog was robbed at gunpoint to pay for someone else's food or other staples? Maybe harassed by a homeless person for awhile, but they don't typically carry firearms. I believe the bloggers, however, are referring to the government.
So, I guess we have to spell it out: we live in a representative democracy. Our elected representatives make decisions on taxation and spending. Mostly, these representatives have been enormously incompetent and cynical lately, but even so, they won the most votes. In recent years, there have been candidates who espouse the belief that all taxation is coercive and that government is never responsible for helping out less fortunate citizens. So far, these candidates have had trouble attracting more than 5% of the vote.
Michael "the Lib" asks: How is it possible to build a peaceful society by using coercion?
Ah, wouldn't it be nice. Ever try to get a bratty child to voluntarily go to bed on a Sunday night with school the next morning? Well, there are a lot of bratty adults in the world, too.
We all should say: "Amen, Brother Russell."
Nov 28, '05
Russell--thanks for the holiday reminder. Too often the holidays feel like the rush of musical chairs, making sure that I've got mine when the music stops...and we often forget about what should truly matter during this season and throughout the year. I really wonder whether conservative christians have actually taken the time to READ the bible and discover what stories it has and the great lessons it teaches, rather than simply soaking up the rhetoric of the hate-mongers and spewing it back out. And to echo Gil, I too will say Amen!
Nov 28, '05
Pre- civilized cultures all had systems set up to spread the wealth around so that no one went without. These systems had the force of public opinion. Everybody knew everybody and nobody wanted a bad rep. Now we are "civilized" so we can ignore the homeless and starving in our society. But what happens when they become the majority?
Nov 28, '05
Gil writes: So, I guess we have to spell it out: we live in a representative democracy. Yes Gil we do live in "representative democracy" and it has at times been acceptable to keep others in bondage, deprive women of the right to vote, lock folks up for their sexual orientation and today locks people up because of their use of certain substances. Then of course there is the issue of a war that is being fought by this "representative democracy", but in this time of "Peace on Earth, Good will toward Men" we will continue this war and instead of protesting it we will be tucked snugly into bed. Maybe sometime we will get around to realizing that government does cause problems and in the early part of the last century society had developed a large system of social insurance without the aid of government. It didn't solve all the problem, but it took care of a bunch.
Nov 28, '05
Ballie writes "House and Senate members automatically get a pay raise every year. This is similar to the public sector in Oregon." At the risk of being chatised for straying from the topic, I cannot let this falsehood pass. I am a long-term public (state) employee, I DO NOT get an automatic pay raise every year. I may get a cost-of-living increase if the legislature allows for it in the budget (note that our pay was frozen for two years). It's one thing to have an opinion, but it should at least be based on the facts.
Nov 28, '05
engineer, At the risk of being chastised for straying from the topic, I cannot let your comment pass.
A "a cost-of-living increase" is a pay raise. Even when there was the pay "freeze", there was a cash benefit paid to soften the "freeze". Health benefits increased during that time, along with PERS increases. Also, there was a negotiated settlement with union employees making it considerably more difficult for the private sector to underbid public sector for provided services.
7:23 p.m.
Nov 28, '05
Bailie--
Please note that engineer stated:
"I DO NOT get an automatic pay raise every year"
Engineer was not saying that a cost-of-living increase wasn't a pay raise. Engineer stated that it was not automatic-- the legislature has to allow for it in the budget. Automatic means that it happens without anyone having to do anything.
And benefits and PERS are not "pay raises"-- those are benefits raises. Pay raises are an increase in your salary or hourly wage.
Nov 29, '05
And benefits and PERS are not "pay raises"-- those are benefits raises. Pay raises are an increase in your salary or hourly wage.
It -is- a raise, Jenni. Any increase in compensation; be it vacation, pension, insurance, pay etc. is a raise. It's silly to try and split hairs.
Government workers should be compensated on their performance, not tenure. Everyone in the private sector has to abide by this mandate, why shouldn't government employees as well?
Dec 8, '05
Restoration of the Body of Christ
I found your Website by Google and I wish you the best you can get, the peace of God through Jesus Christ.
The most important prayer request for all Christians must now be the restoration of God's temple, the Body of Christ. Nothing on the earth is more important than that the Assembly of God becomes built up according to the pattern of God's word, so that we all are ready when Jesus comes.
When God was so strictly with that the tabernacle (Exodus 25:9) and the temple of the old covenant became built according to the pattern, so that the workers must get special education through God's Spirit (Exodus 35:30-35, 36:1-2), then he must be still more strictly with the real temple, the Assembly of God. All that the Bible teaches about Assembly of God constitutes the pattern for the Assembly of God.
Revival is a hackneyed word. Many have used this word to gather people around themselves, instead of around Jesus. And people think any revival is not coming. They refer to 2 Thess. 2:3 and tell about the great Apostasy. But this Apostasy has taken place a very long time ago. The entire Christendom was lead astray by false shepherds and preachers, which preached false doctrines. Since then, God's people have been slaves under many denominations and churches. And the great Apostasy is still today continuing. The great Apostasy is NOW!
Rev. 18:4-5 is an extremely powerful revival message from the Lord. He commands his people to leave the great Babylon. This must take place before Jesus comes. After Jesus has come, then God's people are home at the Lord, and there is no Babylon. In the churches they never have preached the truth of the Assembly of God (the pattern). God's people must be released from all denominations and churches, the great Babylon.
As in the days of Lot, it is now. Lot was not interested to leave Sodom. God sent two angels to rescue him, and they must persuade him to leave Sodom. When he yet lingered, they took him at his hand and led him out of the city. One of the angels said to him: "Flee for your life sake and do not see you backwards..." Genesis 19:15-17.
Just like as Lot, God's people today is not interested to leave the great Babylon. They are spiritual to sleep and do not want to be disturbed. They do not know that their churches and denominations are founded on false doctrines, and are false copies of the Assembly of God. They do not know in what they are members.
"If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John 1:7. But most of those who profess them are Christians do not walk in the light. They are walking in the spiritual darkness of the church, and are averse to light. They have a sort love and fellowship that does not endure the light.
Have you really struggled in prayer before the Lord to find the truth about the assembly, the Body of Christ? This has been my continuing prayer request during more than 40 years. What I have written about churches and denominations and about the Assembly of God, it is a study of the Bible and answers to prayers, and not criticism.
Very few Christians have obeyed this revival message of the Lord, and left the great Babylon. Before Jesus comes all Christians must obey this command of the Lord. Otherwise God will judge them as partakers in the sins of the great harlot, and they must share her plagues.
Welcome to visit my Site. http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/INDEX.HTM
What is Living Faith? None be saved by law-deeds, Gal. 2:16, and none be saved without faith-deeds. Matt. 7:21-23. http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE13.HTM
Is America Babylon the Great http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/BABYLON.HTM
God's Law and God's Gospel http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE15.HTM
The Trinity http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE66.HTM
What is a revival? How does a revival rise? http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE86.HTM
The Body of Christ, the most valuable that exists on the earth, but the people lack knowledge http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE91.HTM
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/PAGE92.HTM
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