Despite how much many of us are committed to certain principles, many of us feel confined by the terms "Left" and "Right" and feel that the theoretical discussion sets itself up for irreconcilable disagreements. So, I'm going to propose a real-world example and invite discussion on how we think we should confront this problem from the perspective of the various hats we wear at once. We are (a) as citizens of this world, (b) as Christian citizens of this world, and (c) as Christians whose citizenship is in heaven. I hope that this set of three approaches to the problem will illuminate our sometimes conflicting tendencies as fleshly but in some sense immortal, beings. I encourage someone else to write the next blog entry with perhaps another real world example to discuss.
Example:
Marisa became pregnant her senior year at East High School in inner-city Rochester, NY in 2003. She had the support of her mother and grandmother, and decided to both graduate and keep the baby. The baby's father, John, her high school boyfriend, left to Iraq in 2003 right after they graduated. They both did reasonably well in school, getting Bs and having a good chance of getting into college. Marcela was especially good at writing. But, she decided that in order to take care of the baby she would be better off getting a job someplace near home, at least at first. She hoped to someday go to the local community college. John, Marisa decided, was not ready to be a responsible parent yet, so she didn't really want to marry him or live with him, even if that would make raising their daughter Tiana so much easier. Plus, she didn't want to get married as a teenager. So, Marisa kept in contact with him when she could, and received some monetary benefits from his military stipend.
For the last four years, Marisa has worked at the local supermarket as a cashier and recently got a job at a doctor's office as a receptionist and aide. She can hardly believe the health insurance available at her new job. Tiana is now turning four, and Marisa is thinking more seriously about going to school to be a nurse's assistant or maybe even a nurse. She is paid just above minimum wage and her annual income is currently $15,000 before tax. She qualifies for subsidized loans if she does get into college. John may be coming back permanently from Iraq soon, and may have his own chance to go to college as well. John's military service afforded him the opportunity to become a full citizen, and Marisa encourages him as a friend to pursue his interests in business. (She doesn't see a future for them beyond friends.) Tiana is now taking part in the local Headstart program, a federally funded program for nursery school age children in low income families. She loves the arts and crafts, but the class size is huge and the staff is low, and every year they talk about closing the program. If they do cut that or the heavily subsidized after school program, Marisa will not be able to afford private childcare or have the time available to go back to school. She already cannot find a steady job that pays her over $7.50 per hour.
Question:
Whose responsibility is it, as US citizens, Christian Americans and citizens of heaven (please distinguish if they conflict), to respond to the needs of this family? Whose duty is it to :
a) Provide Tiana with the nursery school or day care education and health care. These are currently funded by state and local subsidized programs for low income families.
b) Provide John, a US veteran and father, with higher education, health care and other opportunities to develop civilian skills for a "second" career. Higher ed for veterans is currently funded by the budget for the military in the G.I. Bill, also in the process of revision and cuts.
c) Provide Marisa, a high school graduate and mother, with opportunities for a living wage so that she can someday support herself, higher education for a career of her own some day, and child care while she is either in school or working. Currently, the minimum wage is far below a living wage, and women who have not been in the military seldom win publicly subsidized rides to college. The old welfare system, aid to families with dependent children, strongly encourages "marriage" as a solution to single parent families. Women with children who seek public subsidies are childed for laziness. What is the public's (as citizens, Christian citizens, and Christians) responsibility to Marisa?
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13 comments:
I find it interesting that the arguments from the left almost always are specific isolated examples of one person(or a few such as in this example). The arguments from the right are almost always at some larger macro-economic level(e.g. arguing government efficiency).
I believe the answer is put your trust in God to provide your daily bread. He will do so much if you live in his will. If you don't live in God's will God won't be providing you with even a drop of water in Hell.
The problem here is that most poor people expect higher standards of living. The rich expect to maintain their high standards of living.
My view is that money should be a non-issue to kingdom focussed followers of Jesus. It should not rule them. They should give generously, and should not be overly obsessed with the poor(Mark 14:5). Men should work diligently to provide for their families.
In one case Jesus even says that the followers can make a personal choice how to help the poor, "you can help them any time you want."
How should they give generously? Let's get into dialgoue about how you think this family should be provided for.
Do you think that Marisa, John and Tiana expect a higher standard of living than they deserve?
"Do you think that Marisa, John and Tiana expect a higher standard of living than they deserve?"
Yes
It seems like they have food, and shelter, and no blatant persecution. They so far are surviving. I think expecting anything more is not right. Who are we before God to demand or expect anything? Obviously we in America have a huge feeling of entitlement. We feel we should have the right to free internet, air conditioning, 6-figure paying jobs if we work hard, college education. Even worse we think we have a right not to be persecuted or even a right not to have our feelings hurt. We feel we have a right not to even encounter something offensive. We are the richest 99% of the world, including Marisa, John and Tiana.
1) Do education, health care, and money bring happiness? Does wealth enable someone to come closer to God or more easily get into heaven?
I think not. From an eternal perspective, it is probably easier for Marisa to enter heaven than for her rich doctor boss.
2) How much should society bail out Marisa from her own bad choices(having baby out of wedlock, not marrying, ...)?
If you believe that, then would you willingly give up half your income in taxes to bless Marisa, Tiana and John with access to middle class quality education, health care, and intellectual stimulation? Would you say the same thing if you made ten percent of the average middle class person per year and were at the mercy of your local economy to find a job next month?
Did Marisa make bad choices? I'd love to talk about this.
Is her personal, eternal salvation all that matters in our responsibility to her as Christian brothers and sisters?
Health care, education and money are not all that bring happiness. Of course not. But, being sick and not affording treatment, or being intelligent and not affording education, are both such frustrating (daresay miserable) roles to play within society. By the way, they're also horribly inefficient ways to run a socio-political economy that makes optimal use of resources.
I kind of feel like the replies so far have dodged the question. Here's my take:
Do ordinary citizens have a responsibility to helping out Marisa and Tiana? Only in the aggregate where they make sure the country doesn't go down in flames because the next generation is too hampered. They should make sure that Tiana is able to get an education of some kind. Beyond that, the family has the responsibility (move in with your parents).
Do Christians (of any "citizenship") have a responsibility to Marisa and Tiana? Yes. If they are a part of a church, I fully expect that the church would be providing lots of benefits for them: childcare assistance (low priced "nannies" that are church members, etc.), food donations, and so forth. If she is not a part of a church, it is a lot harder. How do you find Marisa so that you can help her out? The best you can do is advertise programs that might assist her (which she might not accept) or to make donations to local places of assistance: day care centers and so forth. In the end, Marisa may have to make the choice to move back in with her parents after all. That's not bad, that's just being financially responsible for her future.
You point out that the government is already providing much of the assistance that Marisa needs, but you don't really provide enough details for me to say whether Marisa needs more, so I won't say anything on that topic.
There was some question at the end about the father, but based on the provided information, I wasn't really sure how to answer that one either. Sorry.
I think you want to get at a different question without asking it: should we lobby the government to put more into these programs, potentially at the expense of tax increases? From the answers I provided above, you can see that I think the answer to that is no, though if the situation changed drastically, I would happily revisit that response.
I'm sure there's more to say, but this is long enough.
For other commenters, I'll head off some of your responses by noting that my comment is directed specifically at the case presented and saying things like "but not everyone has a parent around that cares enough about them to let them move in" are only useful in discussions of aggregates.
DC, I appreciate your engagement and modifications of my questions. I am confused, though, by your response.
On one hand, you say that the only real responsibility the government has is to provide Tiana with some education.
On the other hand, it seems that you accept, or even appreciate, the government programs that have stepped in to help this family. Where would they be without these programs? Do you think that we would all be better off without these programs?
I guess I'm having trouble differentiating between the abstract and the concrete in your post, then.
Are you asking the abstract question "if someone isn't well off, should the government provide for her?" or are you asking "in this specific example, where the government is doing something already (but may not continue to do so), what is our responsibility?"
I suppose I was addressing the latter, while perhaps you meant for me to address the former.
On pure opinion, I would say the following:
1) She is responsible for herself to make her future better and to her daughter to provide as many opportunities as possible. In your example, she at least toys with these concepts (though I can only speculate how much the average person in her situation does that).
2) Her family is responsible for her in the same way she is responsible for her daughter. In your example, it seems that her family agrees with me and has actively worked toward that goal. This is why I made comments about moving in with her parents.
3) The government has an aggregate responsibility to make sure that the country is improving. This means that there should be an increase in productive citizens and a decrease in "welfare" needs. However, this should be balanced against other measures of "progress" or "national well-being" (I won't list any, but I trust anyone who reads this is open-minded enough to realize that there are many important things that a country must care about). Without fuller knowledge of this hypothetical situation, I can't really speculate whether the government "should" continue to fund the programs described or to even provide additional programs.
4) We (I'll stick with Christians) have a responsibility to love individual other people. We should provide emotional support (available "community"), and monetary support as is specifically needed in the situation.
Here's the missing piece: Whose responsibility is it to let us know about the individual's problems that need to be addressed? Do we need to spend our time hunting for people to help? (We only have so much time - and there are other important things for us to do also.) Do people need to find us and tell us that they're in need? (The woman in this example is unlikely to do so.) Should we leave it up to God to connect us in this way? (Is that just a cop-out?)
This is incomplete, it isn't well-written (or maybe even well-thought-out), and it's just an opinion, but there you have it.
There have been some good points made here.
It's definitely not the governments job to take care of the poor simply because God tells us it is our job as Christians. They can take care of poor people if they want but I believe we will be held responsible. Pure and undefiled religion in the site of God is taking care of widows and orphans in their distress and keeping oneself unstained from the world. The first part tells us to take care of those who are in need.
Beyond this, the question is very complicated in some ways, if we get into is it my job or your job or that other person's job. The answer is, if the body of Christ is operating as it should it will probably take care of those who are in need. A better way to say that is God will use us, though He does not need us for any of His purposes, to take care of whoever He deems worthy of being done.
One very important aspect in this is being led by the Spirit. If we are led by the Spirit, we can know where God is working and know how He wants us to be incorporated in that. Only He knows what He wants to do in someone's life.
On the other hand, we do have guidelines set out in the Bible which also lead us.
Give to any one who asks.
As above, take care of those who can not take care of themselves.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (1 John 3:16-18)
One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Luke 3. As John the Baptist is talking to the crowd, he tells them to "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance." What does this mean? Well, he answers it clearly. To the general person, the crowd in general, not any specific group or groups, "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."
Whoever (any one, though it's not like someone who is not a Christian will care about heeding this, or those who are Christian for that matter) has more than they need should give to those who are in need up to the point where what they have left still provides for their needs but no more.
I enjoy much how one poster said they think these people want too much and the next poster asked,
"If you believe that, then would you willingly give up half your income in taxes to bless Marisa, Tiana and John with access to middle class quality education, health care, and intellectual stimulation?"
When it comes to yourself, you never want too much, but when someone else wants part of it, they're asking for too much because their needs are already provided for. This is called greed and it is not the life Christ led. So, we, who are told to imitate Paul as he imitates Christ, should also not lead such a life.
As I pointed out above though, it should not be done with taxes. God loves a cheerful giver. This does not mean we should be happy with giving little if that is all we can give cheerfully. It means God loves it when we give a lot and love doing it. So, we should pray that He would give us more generosity and love for others so that we can give more and more with more and more cheer.
Yes, questions can be complicated. Does this person have enough already? Are they really in need? Isn't it her fault she's in the situation she's in? Should we really bail her out? Doesn't she need to learn a lesson? Well, if we are not in constant communion with God, we will likely put ourself before her and also not know what God wants us to be doing. If we are in constant communion with God, we will know His will (not just His will for our lives which is self-centered but His will) and we will have joy, peace, patience, kindness, and so on. That is, if I were in constant communion with God and really trusted Him to take care of my needs and really received my joy from Him and really understood that this life is just a moment in time compared to the infinitely long time we will spend with God, I would be able to give whatever that person needs and more and never worry, because I trust God, about if it will be giving too much and still have joy if it is too much and give thanks in all things, as Scriptures say, and will not care about suffering in this life because it is such a short time and because I have learned to be content with little (like Paul said).
And, as far as finding out about her needs, if the church operated as it should, someone would know about them. We build up walls and go inside them and let a few people do all the work. How can we know about their need if they are not part of a church? Well, we should love our neighbors. If she knows any Christian, that Christian is a good neighbor to her if he/she helps her and is not if he/she does not. Some Christian, especially in America, would know about her need. They don't need to come into the walls of our church for us to know about them.
And, as a whole, we Americans probably have enough plenty to take care of most of the need in the world so worrying about this issue is not important. Beside, if God wants to feed everyone in the world, He is capable. He fed thousands with a few fish a few loaves.
From 2 Corinthians 9
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
Quote by Hudson Taylor
“I am taking my children with me and I notice it is not difficult to remember that they need breakfast in the morning, dinner at midday and supper at night. Indeed, I could not forget them if I tried. And I find it impossible to think that our heavenly Father is less tender and mindful of His children than I, a poor earthly father, am of mine. No, He will not forget us!” – HT
There are poor in this world because we Christians, myself included, are greedy and do not trust God to take care of our needs. So, the plenty He provided to us in order to help them stays with us because we love it and because we are afraid to be without it.
Well written article.
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