Thoughts on Christian Charity (Welfare)

 Introduction

    The election of certain politicians recently has gotten people within church and on social media to begin discussing thoughts and beliefs on Christian Charity, i.e. how to help the poor, homeless, widows, orphans, and unemployed.  In this article, I would like to focus on the unemployed and poor.

    While I believe that Chrisitans, not the government, should be helping the categories of the underserved and underprivileged I just mentioned, I think the discussion often involves the following: who is considered poor, who should be helped, and how.  I aim to address some of this here, primarily in terms of government welfare versus Christian charity.  As a Libertarian, I believe the church should "kick the government out of" charity, as the government often does a horrible job at it, because the government is slow, wasteful, inefficient, and corrupt.  The problem then remains that the poor need our help, and Jesus mandates that we help them.  Thus, answering the question of how to actually help them is important.

The Mandate

    Jesus very clearly told us to help the poor (and other categories of the underprivileged).

Matthew 5:42

Matthew 6:1-4

Matthew 19:21

Matthew 25:40

Matthew 26:11

Luke 6:38

Luke 6:20-21

Luke 12:33-34

Luke 14:12-14

    As for the discples who came after Jesus, i.e. the rest of the New Testament, here are some interesting verses to note:

Acts 20:35

Ephesians 4:28

Hebrews 13:16

Romans 12:13

James 2:14-17

1 Timothy 6:17-19

1 Timothy 5:8

2 Thessalonians 3:10-13

1 Timothy 6:8

What Christian Charity is Not

    It is clear from 2 Thessalonians 3:10-13 that Christian charity is not just a hand-out.  You see, one of the main problems with US welfare is that the system has huge holes in it.  I know this from my time providing counseling and therapy: people would tell me where the loopholes are and how they were working to squeeze thorugh those loopholes.  With as much effort as they spent on squeezing through those loopholes to remain on welfare and not work, they could have gotten a job.  Christian charity is not blind.  Continuing to bail out an individual who refuses to work is not how Christian charity is intended to function.

    Second, 1 Timothy 6:8 tells us to be content with food and clothing.  While this means that Christians cannot refuse to give up luxury items like video games to help the poor (they should sell these in my opinion), it also means that we are not intended to give luxury items to the poor and homeless either.  We should stick with food and clothing.  This is not to say we cannot use common sense to give people things that can help spread the gospel, our primary mission.  For instance, cheap MP3 players with the Word of God in audio book format in other languages have been used to spread the gospel to those who cannot read.  It simply means that we are not here necessarily to give people cell phones.

    Third, and this is a principle based concept, but Christians are not here to help people engage in frivolity or to feed the fleshly desires.  I should not give a poor person who is unsaved a free gaming console.  What they need is to read the Bible, not to play games.  If what I am going to give someone can be spent on their lusts, I should refrain.  Given my time working with people who suffer from substance use disorders, for example, I always recommend that no one gives the homeless or the street beggar money, for any reason.  I know from experience, from my patients own words, that they spend this on drugs quite often.  If someone is hungry, feeding them is a great thing to do.  For instance, if they really are hungry, they will eat what you give them.  If they instead refuse or try to walk away to sell it to someone, you know it isn't about food, but instead it is about money.  And that money could be going to gambling or substance use disorders.