Family Research Council: Christians should not want the government to care for the poor

[nitasee]

“The government has a responsibility to care for the poor? That’s not what Scripture says"

The Family Research Council has some interesting ideas about Christianity and poverty.

Last month, FRC senior fellow Kenneth Blackwell said there was “nothing more Christian” than kicking 4 million people off food stamps, and FRC head Tony Perkins echoed his

Comments

[tsaraven]

Of course they don't want the (bad) government to do it, because they believe private charity can help everyone. Except that it doesn't. I will never understand how they balance a religion that says everyone is born a sinner and is easily tempted to do bad things, yet everyone will always magically step up and do the right thing without a government playing a parent role to make them. I read multiple right-wing Christian friend-of-friends on fb say that the government monuments should not be run by the government and that Americans who just love their country enough would volunteer to clean and maintain them (and offer volunteer security as well?). Funny how they never extend this boundless optimism to not having jails because people will just do the right thing and not break the law!

[angelus7988]

Let's be honest, the reason conservatives would rather have poverty be handled by private charities is because charity, unlike taxes, are not mandatory.

[darth_eldritch]

This

And their charity quite frankly sucks. It's nothing but beans and rice for the poor and boot straps the rest of the way.

And, oh, the strings attached. Get involved with the church that helped you.

[tsaraven]

An anti-welfare friend-of-a-friend insisted that churches would just help me pay my bills and get me kitchen appliances (I mentioned that my oven had been broken for a year) and I emailed the richest local church I know of to humor her. They never wrote back, surprise surprise.

[darth_eldritch]

One fine example I recall is a local church that had a food closet for the needy where everyone could donate.

It was always bags of rice and lots of bean, cheap paste, nothing ever brand name or fancy. While this is always not bad in itself, as it's great to help out when you can, but a large percentage of the congregation were wealthy.

Then the church moved because they had grown so much (more tithes, more wealthy) and moved out to a rich part of town in a much larger building.

They stopped the food closet. "Oh, no one who needs food comes along this route, not like the other one." was the reason.

Gee, I wonder why.

[mamasboo]

I know someone who got food from a food pantry/food bank and a lot of it was expired stuff and a bag of rice that was ripped. When we're talking about food we're talking stuff people sometimes can't even eat. One lady actually got hand cream with her food bank food. Who thought you could eat that? I don't know what people are thinking with some of their donations.

At a church in NY I did some volunteering packing up bags for families and folks for the food pantry and it's basic stuff like beans, peanut butter, rice, mac n cheese. At least that food pantry was more organized. The food bank stuff though -- dented cans and expired crap.

[darth_eldritch]

That's awful.

The donaters are usually giving away stuff they want to get rid of but don't want to throw away is my guess. It's still pretty lousy.

At our local foodbank, while it's not fancy, at least the stuff is more varied and more substantial than that church had. The church was just beans and rice and odd and ends that had the feel of being cast off.

[ebay313]

I know of a local (not religiously affiliated though) non-profit near where I live that helps folks who don't have them get basic appliances like fridges and ovens.... and the wait list is over a year long. Because they rely on donations and there are far, far, FAR more people in need of those than donations.

So clearly charity works perfectly, right?

[ebay313]

Except that they are totally cool with other aspects of their religious beliefs being involved in the government. How dare the government take a role in the whole help the poor part of being Christian, but totally cool for the government to be involved in prayer... despite the latter actually being contrary to scripture (Jesus was pretty clear that prayer is not meant to be used as public display to show what a good person you are to others.)

[tsaraven]

Well there are layers upon layers of hypocrisy involved of course since that's how people can be. That's why I believe in a centralized government and am a dirty liberal. ;)

[moonshaz]

And of course the government MUST be involved in policing people's sex lives and reproductive decisions!

Yeah, they want the government to control who can marry whom and tell women what to do with their uteruses. But GOD FORBID the government offer any resources to those who are in need.

The hypocrisy is mind-boggling.

[peace_piper]

I know! We can get the Hell's Angels to volunteer their services as security. That worked out so well before!

[romp]

yeah, that is there line, even if it isn't reality--this line is a big hit with libertarians too