http://www.ibethel.org/sermon-
I don't mean for this post to be political. I mean for it to be religious. Not really. :o)
I've held the belief for a while that the church should be taking care of people and not the government. In a world where this is completely counter cultural, I know this idea will probably be poo-pooed on by believers and non-believers alike. I believe the church should be the entity that clothes and feeds and cares.
My thoughts on this lately:
This theory has a huge hole in it considering so many people's bad perceptions of the church. (A whole other post!)
People these days have been ingrained with the mindset that it's okay not to work and let the government take care of you. It's okay to be lazy and not take care of your family. It's okay to not ask for help. It's okay to take handouts.
How do we come back from that? In that podcast he talks about helping the poor. What does that mean exactly? Help someone who "gets fired from their job" find another job when what they really want to do is collect unemployment? Provide someone food when they, again, don't want to work and just want government assistance?
I believe people are, for whatever reason, reluctant to receive help from the church (or anyone) but more than willing it from the government. Why? I don't believe that's the government's job. The Lord told the church to care for the poor ... not to mention each other. Is it the government's job to pay for you to not work when you hit 55 or 60 because you've "earned it?" When did the responsibility for our own lives get put on the government? If I want to quit working when I hit a certain age then I need to be financially responsible so that I am able to do that. Allow me to point out, however, that back in the day people worked until they were physically unable to work anymore.
I don't really have answers ... yet. But this has been heavy on my heart for weeks and I'm confident I'll hear from the Lord on it.
Another great and insightful post. We need an Agree button. :-)
ReplyDelete