E-Vangel
Newsletter
September
24, 2012
Pastorgraphs:
“Promoting the General Welfare”
A couple of weeks
ago, I wrote a Pastorgraph that asked, “When did JUSTICE, particularly social
justice, become a dirty word?” Well, here I go again. When did WELFARE become a
dirty word?
[Disclaimer: I’m
neither Democrat or Republican. But I’m quite sure just using certain words
like justice and welfare will inflame the passions of those on the extremes.
Too sad we cannot carry on a civil discussion without calling out the big guns.
Sorry if what I am about to say raises your blood pressure.]
Looks to me like
the Founding Fathers thought WELFARE was a pretty good idea; a “founding
principle” of the government (right there in the Preamble to the
Constitution).
“We the People of
the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union,
establish Justice,
insure domestic
Tranquility,
provide for the
common defense,
promote the general
Welfare,
and secure the
Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,
do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Wikipedia defines
WELFARE as “the provision of a minimal level of wellbeing and social support
for all citizens. … this term replaces "charity" as it was known
for thousands of years, being the voluntary act of providing for those who
temporarily or permanently could not.”
Here is how I see
it: In addition to losing civility in our national dialog, we have also lost
our sense of CHARITY. Isn’t CHARITY “The Greatest of These” that Paul talked
about in 1 Corinthians 13? (Faith, Hope, and CHARITY) Isn’t CHARITY synonymous
with LOVE?
Sure, I do not
believe WELFARE should be a means to keep able bodied people from work. And
yes, I’m informed about how the term “general welfare” has been interpreted and
reinterpreted by the courts.
I also know that
what many call WELFARE is what keeps our senior citizens (me included now), our
veterans, our students, our farmers, and many who are down-and-out, looking for
a hand up, not a hand out, able to lead productive lives. Without that help,
the general WELFARE would be
degraded, and everyone would be the worse off. The truth is that many of the
richest in our society also get deductions, write offs, and WELFARE benefits
from our government. I heard a respected economist say last week that those
whom some think of as “free-loaders” on WELFARE constitute less than 1% of the
WELFARE dollars our government spends.
I caution us all,
liberal, moderate, conservative, to take care that we don’t “write off” or
“discount” folks, particularly the poor. Read again Matthew 25 (not the part
about the apocalypse) but the part about how we treat the hungry, thirsty,
naked, imprisoned, sick and strangers in our midst. It is the only entrance
exam into heaven.
Are some of the
folks we help feed or clothe lazy? Maybe a few. But what is far worse is NOT
GIVING A HOOT about them.
It is when we lose
our compassion about the WELFARE of our neighbor’s body, soul and spirit
that we lose our moral conscience, our CHARITY, our LOVE. And when that
happens, we are in deep spiritual trouble.
So, I second the
Founding Fathers’ idea: Promoting the GENERAL WELFARE is a noble and
appropriate role of our “more perfect Union”.
Brother Bill
Christ United Methodist Ministry
Center
“Christ
in the Heart of San Diego”
3295
Meade Avenue - San Diego, CA 92116 - (619) 284-9205
From the Quote Garden:
~ Helen Keller
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