Quid Pro Quo For God?.
Another quick excerpt from The Politics of Heaven: American In Fearful Times by Earl Shorris . . .
“A church group may feed the hungry on Wednesdays but will not favor the government feeding or educating or housing the poor and the meek on the other six days. They cannot imagine a quid pro quo in the case of government caring for the poor. The execution of the policy of loving God is thus the maintenance of the poor in a state of desperation so they can be given a bag of bread and cheese at the close of a Sunday morning sermon.”
I think this is an interesting thought. I don’t necessarily agree with the premise as a blanket statement. But I do find it curious that many are against the government giving “hand-outs” and believe that it’s the church’s responsibility. And perhaps rightly so. But I wonder if the church would give away and be as involved as they were they not brokering a deal for eternity at the end of it? Does it operate like a silent quid pro quo? We’ll give you food . . . you listen to our salvation spill. Is that one of the reasons (not the only) that churches get so uptight about the government lending a hand?
I don’t know. Just late night thoughts as I lay me down to sleep.
Randy
Tuesday, 19. February 2008 um 11:27 am Uhr
A common issue indeed. I’m generally not a supporter of instituting support through government. Since you didn’t mention a couple thoughts I had thought I’d bring them up.
1. It(govt support) could possibly give some an excuse to not help?
and more important
2. The Gov’t does this to hold you down. Yes I believe this. I have family who have been on welfare and other programs and haven’t gotten off of it because if they make more money and cross a certain threshold they will lose support. That to me is the government holding people down and not letting them grow. This is what I personally don’t get about Christians that vote for democrats and their social programs. Nothing not even a gov’t that gives to people will make up for what we are supposed to be doing…
just thought i add a different view.
Derek
Tuesday, 19. February 2008 um 11:36 am Uhr
I highly recommend the book “The Tragedy of American Compassion” if you’re really interested in why government charity simply doesn’t work. Creating a statutory right to assistance is a sure path to pauperism. Which does a great disservice to the person receiving “assistance.”