Bro. Curtis said:
Or are the go-getters biblically obliged to meet their every need ?
I say people are responsible for themselves, and should trust in God, not the government, when they get in trouble. I believe the truly needy should be cared for, but a family that's been on welfare for three generations are not truly needy, they are lazy.
How do we seperate the needy from the lazy ? Should people who have to shell out money to care for both ?
Brother Curtis, I've been thoughtfully thinking about this since I first read your post, because this is a serious subject, imo, relative to the very real presence of need in our communities and in the world, and the very real mandate of Scripture to love our neighbor as ourselves: and admonition to us to not live in our excesses while tolerating and leaving another in need.... if we have 2 coats and see another (in need) without one...give...... and so forth.
I think the failure I see in the government welfare program is the fact that I don't believe the purpose of government is to relieve people of their own responsibility: I see the purpose of government to set up and enforce laws which limit or prevent criminal activity such as stealing, killing, maiming, giving false testimony.......in other words the enforcement or rule which encourage people to live in community with each other peacably....... this does not require agreeably on all issues.... but with a civil courtesy and respect . I see the government as protector from enemies to its borders and the safety of its citizens. Most everything else I see as either a function of individual responsibility or collective responsiblity belonging to the needs and resources of the community in which the need presents.... or perhaps, at the max. a function of the state to intervene and provide guidance and finacial balance to the communities within.
I see no mature person as being removed from responsibility for himself or those members of his household: True, we are created equal in our standing before God, but we are not equal in opportunity, nor talents and gifts, nor in birth order, nor in intelligence, nor in access to education, nor in the economy of the household in which we are born, nor in health, nor in position in the community, or the affluence of community in which we are born: We're not equal in adversity, nor in the foundations which give strength and vision to some, nor in our support systems or lack thereof. Nevertheless, we are responsible for our own choices, and how we use the resources we do have.
Three generations of welfare (its hard for me to realize.... that I've lived long enough to know that once there was no welfare as its become known today..... except maybe for the extremely poor.... and government help was in the form of 'commodities' like cheese, grain, powdered milk, and peanut butter....) sounds like a problem of enabling dependancy. Children raised in such dependancy are often mentored by their parents into dependancy.
If a person under the age of 18 can be identified as having some disorder, (depression, bi-polar, ADHD, personality disorder) which might have difficulties but could function in society.... is raised and identified in a household already dependant on government aid.... the chances are higher that the traits they exhibit and the poor mechanisms for coping with life are so poor or absent and they are already 'documented in the system', that they will qualify as disabled and get aid for living....and that easier than those who work and disabled later in life. Marriage and having off spring are considered 'quality of life' issues whereby they are enabled in continuing the cycle: Quite a contrast when one considers that social services is also a component of the agencies responsible for removing children from parents homes because they home school, or use some form of corporal punishment, or because they choose alternative medicine to alopathic, or refuse or delay vaccination of their children.
One may correctly ask "Do these programs really serve the needs of the people....which should also include redeeming qualities of helping to take them from need to independance? Or do these programs serve to increase the need and demand for more services and secure the jobs of these social workers employees.... and the expansion of their agencies.... and the expansion of the political impact and philosophies which are invasive to our societies ideals? I think the 'war on poverty' is loosing by design.
(Just like the 'war on terror' is increasing the impact on our rights.... because "they' attacked us because 'they' hate freedom"..... and the 'war on cancer' is fighting cancer successfully on some planes but the majority of our tax payer dollars going into CA research is going for the extention of life and 'quality of life' but not for identifying causes and cures... Actually, when only about 1 in 30 people might die of cancer at the turn of the 20th century....Now about 1 in 3 will be diagnosed with CA. And we already see that certain 'suspect' causations appear to be sacred cows of the 'industry' which funds CA research which prevents researching them and publishing data to the public: "Sacred cows" are such areas as repeated exposure to ionizing radiation to identify growths when there are now screening procedures with high reliability for those in low risk groups: Researching the safety and the push to increase vaccine development and use in the absence of significant outbreaks, or to a low risk population.... when vaccines are developed from a witches brew which uses animal tissues from chickens, monkeys, pigs, horses, and fetal cells of abortion tissues... sometimes contaminated with viruses and mixed with chemical stabilizing preservatives which contain aluminum, or mercury, or other heavy metals which are toxic to our systems; Sacred cows such as reassuring th e public that there is no danger from micro-wave communication towers or use of cell phone.... while blocking research into the recent increases in brain cancer ....Johnny Cochran's lawyer believed cell phone use caused his rapid brain tumor and quick demise.)
I remember my deceased husband telling me of returning to visit his widowed mother in his late teens after having run away from home in New Jersey when he was 14y/o: She was living in government restricted housing for the poor and would not (make that could not) even let him sleep overnight because of restrictions placed upon her occupancy. At the time, course he was young and felt her concern as rejection: If it hadnot been for such restriction placed upon his mom by government.... a sleep-over might have helped to reestablish a mother-son relationship which might have progressed to her independance of government helps and restrictions.
Think it was Jefferson who said a government big enough to give the people what they want is big enough to take what they have.
3 Generations..... and no leadership into responsibility: No wonder I go to a very clean laundromat... and find the owner recently revamped the bathroom... but, as it is not on his surveillance camera, patrons have entered the bathroom and burned out the new ceilling, and marked on the pristine walls and torn the paper holder down. Some one doesn't realize responsiblity means taking care of what another provides as well as taking care of one's self. It's so sad....and sadder still that more are rising to defend poverty instead of truely helping the poor!
