Civil Society

“The mindset behind this approach is that a nation should measure compassion by the size of the federal government and how much it spends….The problem is, starting in the 1960s, this top-down approach created and perpetuated a debilitating culture of dependency, wrecking families and communities.”

“There’s a vast middle ground between the government and the individual.  Our families and our neighborhoods, the groups we join and our places of worship – this is where we live our lives.  They shape our character, give our lives direction, and help make us a self-governing people.”

From Paul Ryan’s speech of yesterday (courtesy of Washington Examiner via Heritage).

 I’ve listened, for years now, that we have to help the poor, the misfortunate, and those well off than ourselves.  Actually, I’ve heard that message almost since I became “self-aware” – time after time hearing that from my parents, my family, and in church.  According to them, it was a moral imperative.  And I still, to this day, agree with it wholeheartedly.  It was up to me – that *I* had to be the one to personally do the reaching out, to personally roll up the sleeves, to personally unload my wallet.

In other words – the message was one of personal responsibility – that the Sermon on the Mount was meant for ME; that Jesus’s admonish of “to the least” was directed to my heart, my compassion, and my willingness to put away my idea of what was important and to just go and do.  And “do” was not something to be outsourced to others – it was, and remains, a personal responsibility, an outgrowth of a Christian heart and a demonstration of obedience to His Commandments of a personal transformation and willingness to walk in His footsteps.

It was never a command to “outsource that responsibility to unknown people in Government to do it for me”.  Yet, that is what our current society has done – especially those Progressives who believe that ONLY government programs can suffice.  In fact, during a recent John Stossel program, the head of NYC’s Human Resources Administration Robert Doar openly and publicly stated that it was his determined opinion that charity could NEVER do what Government could.  And Big Govt folks, in area after area after area, have used the size, money, and coercion of the State to crowed out almost all of the formerly private charitable organizations and have co-opted many of those that remain with money – with strings attached (in essence, making them nothing more than a further outreach of governmental bodies and kingdoms).

And most Progressives agree – yet, even having spent over $20 Trillion on the “poor” since the War on Poverty began, and now almost $1 Trillion annually, is that really the solution?    I disagree vehemently – the Progressive intent, started in full measure by FDR, has not had the result of that intent.  In fact, it has been a failure by the easiest of measures – has all that money actually solved the problem?

The answer, plain and simple, is no.  And Progressives continue to shriek that decreasing Federal and State budgets “will hurt the poor” – a self-continuing circle (and one in which, if you simply look at Joe Biden’s charitable contributions on his tax returns as a typical example, show little personal concern in what used to be a personal responsibility).

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