Re: Overturning the Gospels

Dear Mrs. Henneberger,

I read on MSNBC.com today your commentary entitled, "Overturning the Gospels." I think you are missing a key point that I and other Christians have repeatedly tried to stress for years in helping our nation's poor. It is true that in the Gospels Jesus repeatedly stressed that we should help the poor, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. We should not--even are commanded not to--"walk right on by--and by all means hang on to (y)our hard-earned cash." It thus follows that we should do everything we can to aid those in our society who fall into these pitiable categories. Where you and I diverge, however, is just who should provide the help. I should, YOU should, every CITIZEN should, but not through the government. Nowhere did Jesus say that the government should provide aid to the poor; instead He spoke directly to the individual. In addition to Jesus' admonitions in the Gospels to which you referred, the Bible is replete with the teaching of spheres of authority and responsibility. Among these, and building from the bottom up, are self, family, church, and government. Christians who take a Biblical worldview are simply trying to say that it is the responsibility of individuals, families, and churches to assist the poor and needy in our society. The civil government is instituted merely to protect our rights and prosecute those who encroach upon them--not to provide welfare, cash, or other assistace simply because it has the purse to do so in blind and never-ending torrents. Perhaps the freedom from empathy that you see in President Bush is simply your perception of his belief that the government is not the one to provide such aid.

In the light of Hurricane Katrina, it has become ever more obvious that our civil governments, at all levels, are woefully unequipped to provide the all-encompassing aid that you talked about in your article. Compassion as dispensed through a government program is no substitute for that that should be provided by individuals, families, and churches. Story after story is coming to light that churches and private organizations have been far more effective in meeting needs than FEMA or the President could ever hope to be. I recently heard a statisitic on the MSNBC television network (Scarborough Country, Friday, September 9) that 18,000 people in the Astrodome had been assisted by FEMA as of last Friday, September 9. In contrast, approximately 118,000 had been assisted and taken in by local churches in the same period. We also have to acknowledge the $600M+ that has been raised from private sources in record time for direct relief efforts. If we as a society would simply redirect our efforts to providing compassion and charity from the appropriate sources, my guess is that we would all--liberal and
conservative--be more satisfied with the results. Our overly-burdensome and woefully inefficient civil governments might shrink back to some semblance of their proper size as a bonus.

Thanks for an intriguing article. I enjoyed the mental debate.

More to come...