The Left, of course, knows—and cares—nothing about true New Testament Christianity. They hate Christianity because the religion condemns the promiscuous, licentious, godless lifestyles they crave to live. It’s not surprising. The world hated Jesus and killed Him (John 7:7), and it wasn’t because He preached love. Well, yes, it was, but the kind of love He preached—“Love God with all your being,” but especially, “go and sin no more”—a love whose first order is to be submissive to God isn’t the kind of “love” the Left and the world can tolerate.
We are told that the world will hate Christians, too (1 John 3:13). And it’s for the same reason they hate Christ: Christians oppose sin. It’s actually the most loving thing a person can do—to try to get people right with God so that they can escape iniquity’s current and eternal consequences, but again, when men want to sin, as most people do, then they don’t want others trying to urge them out of it, like Jesus tried (He died for the attempt). Read Mark 10:21ff for a good example of true love from Jesus’s perspective.
So, the Left tries to twist Christianity into the pretzel they want it to be and condemns true Christians when they don’t measure up to the standard the Left sets up as “true Christian love.” But they don’t fool, or convince, anybody but themselves, and the people who want to be fooled.
To the Left, giving government money, through taxpayers, to various targeted groups is the definition of “true charity,” and any Christian who would oppose it is a hypocrite and not a true Christian. But again, this shows absolutely no understanding of true Christianity. That the religion teaches that we should help the poor is undeniable, and any Christian who doesn’t do it when he/she has the resources and opportunity to do so is not living the kind of compassionate life that Christ would demand of His followers. Helping the needy poor is an absolutely essential part of the Christian religion (and Jewish), though not the totality of either, of course. An example.
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At the risk of sounding boastful (and please forgive me for doing so), since I moved to Thailand four years ago, I have personally given, out of my own wallet, not through government taxation, literally thousands of Thai “baht” to various people who I perceive are less fortunate than I. Not a single week passes when I do not give my own money (usually several times) from my own pocket to help those I believe have a need. I believe that is what Christianity teaches we should do, and I try to do it.
I would be curious to know, from any leftist who considers me a hypocrite, how much money do the leftists, personally, directly, give to the poor? Or do they let the government do all their “charity” for them? I truly hope all leftists are very generous with their own resources. They should be.
But government “charity,” for reasons I shall note, is what the Left really wants. And anybody—especially a Christian—who has the slightest question about our bloated welfare state is, at best, a hypocrite, or a “CINO”—“Christian in Name Only.” The Left has no imagination, either, except when it comes to promiscuity. They can create all kinds of ways to do that.
But what about “government charity”? Is it “Christian” (or Jewish)? The problem with government “charity” is manifold. First, it’s not even constitutional, and for good reasons. There is nothing about government charity in our Constitution, and James Madison flatly said that “charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” He further stated, “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.” I’ll consider their reasoning for that as we go along.
The New Testament (and the Law of Moses) also says nothing about “government charity.” Folks, there is no virtue in being forced to be “charitable.” Where is the virtue in that? If someone puts a gun to your head and tells you to “be charitable and give them all your money,” well, you might have to do it, and that person might even truly need the money more than you do. But I seriously doubt you would consider it “virtuous” to give him your money. Everything the government does, including and especially taxation, is by force; that’s what government is by definition: the nationalization of force (or state). So, whether it accomplishes something “good” or not, forced charity is an oxymoron, not virtuous.
Our Founders knew that and wanted a virtuous republic. So do Christians. The Left doesn’t—except, of course, forced government “virtue.” They want Christians to be forced to pay for their sins because they hate Christianity. That’s a major crux of the matter.
So, the first problem, in America, with the government “charitable” welfare state is that it is unconstitutional—not that our Congress pays the least bit of attention to the Constitution anymore. But I’m just saying, the Founders, for varying reasons, didn’t put “charity” in the Constitution as a duty of government. A second problem with “government charity” is one reason why they didn’t put it in the Constitution: the one I already mentioned, i.e., forced charity is the antithesis of virtue, and they wanted a virtuous republic, not one increasingly dependent upon government. Virtue is freedom; dependence upon government is not.
And a people who allow government to buy their votes with their (or somebody else’s) money, is neither virtuous nor free.
In my next article in this series, I will consider more about government “charity” versus true godly charity.
Check out my substacks: “Mark It Down! (mklewis929.substack.com) and “Mark It Down! Bible Substack” (mklbibless.substack.com). Both free. Read my new book! "Kendrick and other stories," four great tales of the Old American West, available on Amazon Kindle. Read my other books as well: "Whitewater," "River Bend," "Return to River Bend," and "Allie’s Dilemma," all available on Amazon. Follow me on X: @thailandmkl.
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