What do the Australian Aboriginals, the American Natives, and the Welfare State of America have in common?
Oppression? Poverty? Hopelessness? ...
** Well-intentioned, harmful help. **
I sat at lunch with a friend, a black minister that I know, and he lamented, with tears in his eyes, "they are destroying my people ..." l was confused, so I asked him what he meant. And, he began to tell me how the welfare program was crippling the black community.
The statistics for the number of children born into single parent, fatherless homes in the black community is a staggering 77%, or something in that neighborhood. The family unit is obviously not doing well. The response of some is "it takes a village to raise a child" so the lack of a nuclear family is irrelevant?! Wrong. Gangs pick up on youngsters and train them to do their misdeeds since the law won't prosecute them, being still minors. That's the reality of the village.
"Remember the poor" and "if a man won't work, neither let him eat" were both penned by the same man. They do not contradict each other. But, understanding how the two work together he is not easy.
The list of entitlements seemingly is endless. Using this type of reasoning has created free cell phones for those who can't afford them. When one can collect more money sitting at home than you can out scrapping to make ends meet, why in heaven's name, would you work?
A popular word today is "systemic" and I would suggest that it fits here.
Recently heard a story about two teenagers who opened their Christmas packages and each got a chainsaw. They looked at their dad with a curious look and said thanks for these expensive chainsaws. And he replied "oh, that's not your Christmas present. Your Christmas present is all the money that you can make using those chainsaws to clear out the back of the property and whoever else will hire you."
It's complex and complicated. Colleges offer degrees that do not provide gainful employment. Kids sign up for these degrees and go into enormous debt. Then they want the government just to dissolve their debt. Who pays for that?!
"First comes love, then comes marriage. Then, comes Joe, pushing a baby carriage..." That was an old song that we sang when I was a child. Nowadays, Joe is nowhere to be found. There is no marriage. And it's like the song, "what's Love got to do with It?". Oh, we'll just let the village raise the child.
So, what can Biden or Trump do about any of this? It's really more of a spiritual problem. Throwing more government money at it is not going to fix it.
It's really a God thing. Until people turn back to God with humility and repentance, this is not going to go away. We reap what we sow. It's a natural law. To expect otherwise is foolishness.
In the meantime let's just keep enabling such behavior by underwriting the expenses. Is that the answer?
Consequences. Responsibility. Compassion. Guidance. What else needs to be on the list? Revival?!
Is self-reliance an ungodly word?
(The Title is multi-level, with several meanings.)
