CARING FOR THE POOR

The Fox news article said that dozens of Catholic professors are pressuring House Speaker John Boehner to back off proposed cuts to programs for the poor and elderly, accusing the Catholic lawmaker of diverging from the tenets of his faith. The professors sent a scathing letter to the speaker ahead of his scheduled address Saturday at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Citing changes to Medicare and Medicaid, as well as cuts to food stamps and programs for pregnant women, the professors from Catholic University and other schools accused Boehner of imperiling programs for the poor. They wrote that it is his "moral duty" to prioritize those programs and said they hope his visit to CUA will "reawaken" his familiarity with Catholic teachings. They wrote: "From the apostles to the present, the magisterium of the church has insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor. Your record in support of legislation to address the desperate needs of the poor is among the worst in Congress." 

Let me inject here. It is not the “government’s” job to take care of the poor, widows, and orphans. That is the church’s job!! It has been the church’s job since its inception. Over time though, the church defaulted its Divine Charge to the government. It took God’s ordained ministry and handed it over to government programs. The church surrendered its chief evangelistic tool, helping those in need, to the government. Jesus never preached about the government doing more; He preached about His people doing more. The apostles magnified the responsibility of the church not the government. The church magisterium may have always “insisted that those in power are morally obliged to preference the needs of the poor,” but those “in power” are the leaders of the church!! It’s not the church’s job to sit back and tell governments how to take care of the indigent. It’s the church’s job to take care of the indigent. I don’t believe for one minute that God thinks it is the government’s job. Instead, I believe God intends for the church to do as He commissioned it to do. As believers, it is our job to aid those in need.

I should also say that there are plenty of needy in this country who are needy because they are what the Bible calls sluggard’s or slothful. We have an individual responsibility to not be a burden to others and to take care of ourselves. There are government programs for everything and a great number of people are recipients of these entitlements. Apparently society thinks it is entitled to the fruits of other people’s labors. This is not charity; this is madness. By the way, taxation to help the down trodden is not charity either. The church is supposed to help others by charitable, heart-filled, and loving giving, not taxation. But what do most churches do? They send charity cases to government programs.

To the professors at Catholic University I say there is a little Bible lesson you might want to refresh yourself on: Remove the plank from your own eye before attempting to remove a speck from another.