Reply to Gary
Good to hear from you, Gary. I hope you and your family are well.
I agree with you that the church is obliged to care for the poor. My question is who picks up the slack when the church fails. It is a fact that the church does not (has not, has never) come close to meeting the basic human needs of the poor. Programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and others were begun by the government because of unmet needs. I cannot imagine the degree of suffering and death that would occur if the government did not step in.
Here are some words from John Calvin. If the church took them seriously, it might be able to fulfill its obligations to the poor. Calvin urged his fellow Christians to engage in "a liberal and kindly sharing of [what we possess] with others. . . . Let this, therefore, be our rule for generosity and beneficence: We are stewards of everything God has conferred on us by which we are to help our neighbor, and are required to render an account of our stewardship. Moreover, the only right stewardship is that which is tested by the rule of love. Thus it will come about that we shall not only join zeal for another’s benefit with care for our own advantage, but shall subordinate the latter to the former" (Institutes III. Vii.5).
And Calvin says this in his exposition of 2 Corinthians 8: 13-14: “God wills that there be proportion and equality among us, that is, each [person] is to provide for the needy according to the extent of his means so that no [one] has too much and no [one] has too little.” I know, I know, the Republicans have been calling this kind of talk “class warfare” whenever President Obama even tiptoes near this kind of thinking.
I agree with you that the church is obliged to care for the poor. My question is who picks up the slack when the church fails. It is a fact that the church does not (has not, has never) come close to meeting the basic human needs of the poor. Programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and others were begun by the government because of unmet needs. I cannot imagine the degree of suffering and death that would occur if the government did not step in.
Here are some words from John Calvin. If the church took them seriously, it might be able to fulfill its obligations to the poor. Calvin urged his fellow Christians to engage in "a liberal and kindly sharing of [what we possess] with others. . . . Let this, therefore, be our rule for generosity and beneficence: We are stewards of everything God has conferred on us by which we are to help our neighbor, and are required to render an account of our stewardship. Moreover, the only right stewardship is that which is tested by the rule of love. Thus it will come about that we shall not only join zeal for another’s benefit with care for our own advantage, but shall subordinate the latter to the former" (Institutes III. Vii.5).
And Calvin says this in his exposition of 2 Corinthians 8: 13-14: “God wills that there be proportion and equality among us, that is, each [person] is to provide for the needy according to the extent of his means so that no [one] has too much and no [one] has too little.” I know, I know, the Republicans have been calling this kind of talk “class warfare” whenever President Obama even tiptoes near this kind of thinking.
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