For the Bible Tells Him So (Sorta)

Well,  apparently, an Idaho legislator is going to impose his view of the Bible on us, but I don’t expect the usual suspsects to complain much.

Rep. Branden Durst (D-18) argues against government funding cuts, citing James 1:22-25 and also has done some interesting exegesis on the book of Romans. Durst writes:

When considering the fact that considerable amount of the New Testament is devoted to instructing believers to help those in need it hard to ignore a plea for help. Matthew 27:45 puts a finer tip on it when Jesus proclaims, “He will reply to them, Solemnly I declare to you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least of these, you failed to do it for Me.” The message is clear: inaction is not option for a believer.

In his first invocation of the 2009 Session, House Chaplain Tom Dougherty (pastor at Cloverdale Church of God) quoted one of my favorite chapters of the Bible, Romans 13. The chapter is traditionally known as one that talks about the authority that God has given government and its role. It states (13:8-10):

⁸Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. ⁹The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁰Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

All of this to say that if we truly hear the plea, how can I or any other legislator ignore it? I understand times are tough and that money is tight. However, it is these exact situations where I believe we have not only a civic responsibility, but more importantly moral commandment to help. Inaction, no matter how heartfelt, is not compassionate. Compassion requires action.

Indeed, the Bible is clear that it is the duty of believers to have compassion and care for the poor. However, it is not the duty of the State to do that. Indeed, Romans 13’s main theme is not the Government, but the relation of the believer to society. If one wants to state Romans 13 as a chapter about government, consider these verses:

11And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awaken out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.     
 12The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.     
 13Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in lewdness and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

I’ll be waiting for laws against envying to be proposed shortly.

The business of compassion and caring for the poor, rightly belongs to the church and to neighbors that care and treat people being cared for as complete human beings with souls and gets to core problems. It is through private efforts that the best charity is wrought. As one expert wrote a few years ago:

From 1965, the beginning of the so-called War on Poverty, to the mid-1990s, total welfare spending in the United States was $5.4 trillion.  In 1965, total government welfare spending was just over 1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), but 30 years later it had ballooned to 5.1 percent of GDP annually—higher than the record set during the Great Depression.  Until welfare reforms that emphasized work began to kick in four years ago, the poverty rate had hardly changed from where it was in 1965.   For decades, millions lived lives of demoralizing dependency, families were rewarded for breaking up, and the number of children born out of wedlock soared to the stratosphere—terrible facts brought about, in large part, by “compassionate” government programs.

A person’s willingness to spend government funds on aid programs is not evidence that the person is himself compassionate.  Professor William B. Irvine of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, explains: “It would be absurd to take a person’s willingness to increase defense spending as evidence that the person is himself brave, or to take a person’s willingness to spend government money on athletic programs as evidence that the person is himself physically fit.”  In the same way as it is possible for a “couch potato” to favor government funding of athletic teams, it is possible for a person who lacks compassion to favor various government aid programs and, conversely, it is possible for a compassionate person to oppose these programs.

It is a mistake to use a person’s political beliefs as the litmus test of his compassion.  Professor Irvine says that if you want to determine how compassionate an individual is, you are wasting your time if you ask for whom he voted; instead, you should ask what charitable contributions he has made and whether he has done any volunteer work lately.  You might also inquire into how he responds to the needs of his relatives, friends, and neighbors. 

True compassion is a bulwark of strong families and communities, of liberty and self-reliance, while the false compassion of the second usage is fraught with great danger and dubious results.  True compassion is people helping people out of a genuine sense of caring.  It is not asking your legislator or congressman to do it for you.  True compassion comes from your heart, not from government treasuries.  True compassion is a deeply personal thing, not a check from a distant bureaucracy.  

Amen.  Governor Otter is trying to be a good steward of our State’s money. If we truly want to be compassionate, I would suggest that we reform government to make it more efficient, so that we have more money to meet needs. Money is squandered by lethargic bureaucracies in public schools, and the power of our teacher’s union ensure that public schools will produce a less satisfactory result than many private schools, but at a far higher premium. We could start the process of reducing the costs of public education by lifting the cap on charter schools and allowing some innovation into this process.

If any member of the legislature will take on reform of education or other parts of government to find ways to cut inefficiencies and save money so that such deep cuts aren’t necessary, I’d suggest that be far more productive than attacking the Governor and those who don’t favor spending more than we can afford as immoral.