The Lord Hears The Cry Of The Poor, All Others Listen Up
September 17, 2011 Leave a comment
The answer to poverty in our lifetime is not government. It is not voting for someone who will make us feel better about the situation. It is not the vicarious experience of giving offered by paying a little more taxes. This type of arm’s length indifference is much like the behaviors of the priest and the Levite who had each passed a man lying on the road.
This man, a Samaritan, had been accosted by robbers, leaving him penniless. Both priest and Levite were well versed in the rules and regulations that governed their lives. They both acted out of those rules and regulations and not out of love. They both gave at the office.
Progressives like to think of themselves as Good Samaritans and yet they vote like how the priest and Levite responded – this problem is beyond me, the system should fix this.
Giving is meant to be a one-on-one intimacy – the poor are to be helped directly. The answer is personal involvement. In doing so, both parties benefit and, more importantly, God, not government, is honored.
We are told in Scripture that we are to do our giving in secret. The right hand should not know what the left hand is doing. Yet, we have politicians on the Left (hand) and social gospel gurus who publicly demand that government be the arbiter of who is poor and the benefactor to the poor. They take great pride in their social justice message. It is their platform.
It is common among progressive voters to look for deep pockets and then to vote in politicians who will enact laws and regulations which will divest those pockets of wealth in order to provide for the poor (basically, everyone not rich). This is wealth redistribution and it is at the heart of ‘been-there-done-that’ socialism.
Many college kids (taking worthless courses) and liberal college professors (those unable to find real jobs) voted for Obama because of his campaign rhetoric calling for wealth redistribution. Class warfare has become a war cry of the progressive voter – pitting one group against another. This is not Christ. This is not being a Good Samaritan. This behavior is more akin to Pharisee-ism than anything else. Pretense veils the eyes of many in this group of voters.
Common sense should tell you that with less government there is less need for tax money. And, with less tax money being taken out of your pocket there is more money left for you to give to the poor. But, undoubtedly, it is human nature to submit to the group thinking of socialism rather than to act individually. It is also human nature to want someone else to be responsible for a problem and for us to look good applying ourselves to that end. In other words, we, like the Levite in the Good Samaritan story, tend to be Pharisaic by staying away from the problem, letting others become involved directly.
If you want to help the poor then look around you. Get involved with your neighbors. Get off your ass (see the Good Samaritan parable for more detail), stop texting ‘socialisms’ to your buddies and do the best thing for the poor – give of yourself.
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Liberalism is a parlor game, where one, for a small stipend, is allowed to think he is aiding starving children in X or exploited workers in Y, when he is merely, in the capitalist tradition, paying a premium, tacked on to his goods, or subtracted from his income, for the illusion that he is behaving laudably (cf. bottled water).
David Mamet from his book The Secret Knowledge: On Dismantiling of American Culture
Cindy Wity 