GraniteGrok now has well over 44,000 posts in its archive – and I have written well over 16,000 of them and Steve is credited with an almost as large number as well. Why do I bring this up?
We’ve become self-referential. If there has been anything in politics that has poked its head up above ground, we’ve probably written about it. In fact, several times in one aspect or another. Thus, we are our own reference area that we can research to see what we wrote about in the past.
Sidenote: have to ask the webmistress if we can get a better search engine at some point.
Sometimes, stuff just comes up during that research and I go “well, isn’t that interesting?” Wasn’t what I was looking for exactly, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing to bubble it from whence it came, would it?
This was one of them from 2017, especially as the Biden Administration, like all Socialists, are making another run to make Christian Charities a thing of the past under the beliefs that Government is the only place where good things happen and that “God is the opiate of the masses” and should be eliminated from being a competing “Power” in competition with Government (even as this country was founded on the idea of Religious Freedom; it is becoming it’s own State Religion, IMHO):
Christian leaders or Progressive / Statist activists
This piece in the Washington Post keeps on confirming my belief that The Church is continuing its march in becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of The State. Once again, there is no charity in Government – the government money that is used for relief is not given voluntarily – it is taken by force (go ahead, try not paying your taxes and tell me I’m wrong) but Progressives DO conflate the two and then use that to virtue-signal to the rest of us their moral superiority. Like these two authors – I’ve taken a few snippets out for commenting. First, they lead off with a sentence that is absolutely true – but it is setting a false stage for something that ISN’T tru:
The Bible is replete with references to caring for the poor in obedience to God. Jesus declares that loving our neighbor — wherever they live — is one of the greatest commandments, a corollary to loving God.
Yes, we are called to do this. All one has to do is to read Jesus’s Sermon On The Mount – or the Good Samaritan to know of the values that He preached. But note – he NEVER preached that message to a group of politicians or to the Roman government officials, but to individuals. He came to change a person’s heart, mind, and convictions – one by one by one. An individual ministry and not a collective one – for only one person can pray for forgiveness of their personal sin and to accept His message of redemption and salvation. But not here:While the U.S. government doesn’t directly share this mandate, it plays a critical role in fulfilling the moral responsibility of all Americans to help those less fortunate. In fact, the U.S. government has always been a strong partner with American citizens in helping those in extreme poverty and crisis. Yet now, President Trump’s proposed budget threatens to severely cut that foreign aid.
No, no, no, NO! People have a sense of morality (putting aside the phrase “the public morality” for the moment), individuals have an innate sense of right and wrong as well as kindness and empathy. A GOVERNMENT cannot fulfill the moral responsibility that belongs solely to you and to me. Each of us putting our hands into our pockets to give sacrificially, giving of our time to those in need, applying our talents in the stead of those who cannot – that is fulfilling that moral responsibility.
Again, and I cannot hammer this home often enough – there is no voluntary with Government. There is no charity with Government. You are forced to participate which subsumes the individual to the collective (and faceless) actions of bureaucrats. How CAN this be charitable? One has to KNOW what is being done – go ahead, ask most Americans about this issue and I bet you’ll get deer in headlights for responses.
And NO, the phrase “the U.S. government has always been a strong partner with American citizens” is absolutely wrong. One of our early posts (by Doug), Not Your’s To Give, speaks to that directly. But it seems that ever since the Progressive Era started, we’ve been losing that early and right way of thinking – that charity belongs solely to Civil Society and Individuals. Instead, under Progressive demands and without regard to our founding philosophy of a limited government, they have pushed Government to be large and have both crowded out Civil Society from its former roles and forcibly pushed its own organizations into those spaces, and started the process of convincing Individuals that only Government can do the good and big things.
A complete reversal of the Founders intent. Remember, it was Bernie Sanders that said he’d eliminate ALL private charities if he could. And here they are advocating that government do something with other peoples’ money instead of doing the hard work themselves and convince more people to support their direct mission.
At less than 1 percent of the federal budget — an amount analogous to the “widow’s mite” — foreign assistance promotes our values, our own prosperity and our nation’s security, all while providing a lifeline to the most vulnerable in the world, those Jesus called “the least of these.”
Yeah, catch that bit of “Bible-wrapping”? Me too. How DARE they take the utter sacrifice of that poor widow and conflate that to taxes that are forcibly taken? She gave all she had, her tithe, while in a time when the US Govt already owes $20 Trillion, these Christian leaders want to see others taxed to service their own purposes.
HOW IS THIS BEING CHRISTIAN??? This is yet another sign of church leaders becoming more worldly even as they wrap themselves in helping the poor. I do remember these kinds of stories of the Pharisees and Saducees…
…Every year, generous Americans, churches and foundations support the life-saving work of organizations like World Vision and Catholic Relief Services to keep vulnerable children alive and enable communities to work toward standing on their own. They expect our government to mirror their generosity. The U.S. government and faith-based organizations are powerful partners in eradicating the most egregious forms of poverty hindering human potential.
Especially to them. World Vision got $171,950,308 in US tax monies. Catholic Charities has received $1.6 Billion since 2012.
And NO, to add a few more thoughts, I do NOT expect the Government to “mirror” anything I do in part for Charity. What I REALLY want out of my Federal Government is to ONLY do those things outlined in the Constitution. Period. Leave the Charity to ME, to Individuals, or Civil Society. Stick to your own mending – we’ll take care of the important stuff. Remember, “LIMITED” is supposed to be part of your name and purpose.
You’ve become too big for our britches.
With poverty-focused international assistance at risk for deep cuts, more than 100 leaders in the Christian faith community expressed our support for foreign assistance in a letter to Congress. Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and mainline Protestant leaders, as well as leaders from a wide array of networks, seminaries, ministries and mission agencies — cumulatively representing tens of millions of American donors — have signed this letter.
Look, I am not saying they don’t do good work. What I am saying is that they are repeating what I have seen locally – more and more becoming captured by Government and the lure of “free money”. What gets my ire is that there IS NO FREE MONEY. If you are given government money, be assured that money was first taken from someone else. Yet this is what they want – from the brokest nation the world has ever seen.
Guess these two missed the lessons of Biblical stewardship.
So stop being lazy, Christian Church, and get to it. Stop doing the “well, SOMEBODY has to do something about this” – it’s lazy, it’s slothful, and it’s avoiding one of YOUR missions.
The federal budget cannot be balanced on the backs of the poor. By drastically cutting foreign assistance, we risk the extraordinary gains we have made against hunger, disease and extreme poverty. It is penny-wise and pound-foolish to forfeit funding that does so much good in the world.
Ha! Due to the chuckleheads these two are trying to beseech additional funds from, I think that the US is INCAPABLE of balancing ANYTHING, much less its own budget. Trust me, it can’t be balanced on the back of the poor because it never balances. Bad metaphor guys.
This is the “just a cuppa coffee” assault on our money by other means – EVERY charity that has enslaved itself by the Shiny Object that is the public Treasury has the same argument for yet other issues.
Bottom line? They have all become LAZY; it is far easier to convince a few politicians or a handful of desk-bound bureaucrats to loosen the public purse strings than to be that individual changing yet another individual heart and mind to give. Paperwork – far more easier to convince in getting a few signatures than the public at large.
They have turned from their first love.
Richard Stearns is president of World Vision U.S. and the author of “The Hole in Our Gospel.” Sean Callahan is president and CEO of Catholic Relief Services.
Oh yeah, Catholic Charities is a big deal in the refugee biz – bring them in at so much a head from the Federal Government, place them into a community that has no choice in the matter and do the work to put them on that community’s dole. Once again, forcing others to be “charitable”. Yeah, right Christian charitable that is, eh?
These are the kind of folks that are turning “Christian Charity” into an oxymoron.
That’s what happens when you no longer rely on “passing the plate” and turn to the world.
