Cedar Park Resource - Poverty and Welfare

Poverty and Welfare
A Biblical Perspective

With Special Emphasis on
the Principles found in
Dr. Marvin Olasky’s book
The Tragedy of American Compassion

By Dr. Joseph B. Fuiten
Senior Pastor
Cedar Park Assembly of God

I. God is very concerned for the poor. Many Scriptures give principles for dealing with the poor:

A. Blessings are promised for those who care for the poor and weak

Ps 41:1-3
1 Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.
2 The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
3 The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed and restore him from his bed of illness.

Proverbs 28:27
27 He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

Dan 4:27
27 Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue."

B. No interest should be charged the poor, nor should food be sold at a profit to them.

Exodus 22:25
25 "If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not be like a moneylender; charge him no interest.

Leviticus 25:35-38
35 "'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can continue to live among you.
36 Do not take interest of any kind from him, but fear your God, so that your countryman may continue to live among you.
37 You must not lend him money at interest or sell him food at a profit.
38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

C. Citizens should provide opportunities for the poor to get food.

Exodus 23:9-11
9 "Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt.
10 "For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops,
11 but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

Leviticus 19:9-10
9 "'When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.

D. Jubilee Return of property

Leviticus 25:25-28
25 "'If one of your countrymen becomes poor and sells some of his property, his nearest relative is to come and redeem what his countryman has sold.
26 If, however, a man has no one to redeem it for him but he himself prospers and acquires sufficient means to redeem it,
27 he is to determine the value for the years since he sold it and refund the balance to the man to whom he sold it; he can then go back to his own property.
28 But if he does not acquire the means to repay him, what he sold will remain in the possession of the buyer until the Year of Jubilee. It will be returned in the Jubilee, and he can then go back to his property.

Deuteronomy 15:1-5
1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.
4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.

E. Tithes should be allocated for the poor

Deuteronomy 14:28-29
28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns,
29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

F. Defending the Poor is a responsibility of the Righteous

Matthew 25:35-36
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

Romans 12:13
13 Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

Gal 2:10
10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Ephesians 4:28
28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

Proverbs 29:7
7 The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.

Proverbs 31:9
9 Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy."

Isaiah 58:6-7
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter-- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

James 1:27
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James 2:15-17
15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.
16 If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?
17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

I John 3:17-18
17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

G. Not everyone was entitled to help from the church. They had to meet qualifications.

1 Tim 5:9-13
9 No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband,
10 and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.
11 As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry.
12 Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge.
13 Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying things they ought not to.

H. First responsibility to help belongs to the family, the second responsibility for qualified widows belongs to the church.

1 Tim 5:16
16 If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.

I. Poverty has causes which are in the control of the individual

1. Alcohol and gluttony. Proverbs 23:20-21
20 Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

2. Laziness. Proverbs 24:33-34
33 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest--
34 and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man.

II. The individual Righteous person has obligations for almsgiving.

Almsgiving is money given out of mercy for the poor. The Israelite was commanded to be generous in opening his hand wide to the poor and needy <Deuteronomy. 15:11>. Gleanings from vineyards, orchards, olive groves, and fields should be made available to the poor <Leviticus. 19:9-10; Ruth 2:2,7-8>. Blessings were promised to those who were generous in aiding the poor <Proverbs. 14:21; 19:17>. Eventually, the notion developed that almsgiving had power to atone for the giver's sins.

By Jesus' time, the word righteousness was tied closely to the word alms. Thus, when Jesus taught about "charitable deeds" (or almsgiving; <Matthew. 6:2-4>), prayer <Matthew. 6:5-15>, and fasting <Matthew. 6:16-18>, he prefaced his teachings by saying, "Beware of practicing your piety [literally, righteousness] before men in order to be seen by them" <Matthew. 6:1>. In this way he taught that the giving of alms to the poor must not become a theatrical display to win people's applause; the praise that comes from God is more important.

The Book of Acts comments favorably on several instances of almsgiving. A certain disciple at Joppa-- a woman named Tabitha, or Dorcas-- was full of good works and charitable deeds <Acts 9:36>. A God-fearing man named Cornelius "gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always" <Acts 10:2>. Then, as now, God acknowledges those who give gifts of bread to the hungry and in other ways show compassion to the needy <Is. 58:6-8; 1 John 3:17>.

III. Today, the government has taken primary responsibility for the poor, yet the problem is not being solved.

Seven and a half million people fall below the federally established poverty line, needing an average of $12,000 to raise them above the line. The total cost to do this is $90 billion. At the moment, cash and non-cash payments exceed $150 billion at the Federal level, according to the Federal Government’s Statistical Abstract.

We haven’t eliminated poverty because much of that money goes for the poverty industry--bureaucrats, caseworkers, and service providers, a huge army of people who run poverty programs.

How we provide the help makes an impact on the person. Food cures hunger, and money solves poverty, but what are the long term impacts of giving these things away?

IV. The Bible never gives responsibility for the poor to the government. It always leaves it with the individual to address as an expression of his righteousness by means of "ALMSGIVING".

Pleasing God is not so difficult! Anyone who listens to what Jesus preached in Matthew 6 will pick it up right away. Yet, as obvious as it is, a great part of the American Church is missing it today. When Mohammed was fashioning Islam in the 600's, he observed Christians practicing "acts of righteousness". He was so impressed that he adopted these three acts as three of the five pillars of Islam. He added "believe in Allah" and "make a pilgrimage" to Mecca, and Islam came into existence. To Mohammed and his many wives, it was obvious that righteous people acted in certain ways, yet many Christians struggle to find out what God pleases God.

Around 70 AD a summary of the teachings of the Apostles was prepared for teaching new converts. This document, known to church historians as the "didache" or "Teaching of the Apostles", makes plain the way to please God.

John Wesley was so impressed with the document that he incorporated several of its teachings as necessary prerequisites to becoming a minister. Significantly, what he required was the same as what Jesus taught in Matthew 6. Methodism, which began with John Wesley, would do well to return to what he taught. Indeed, the Assemblies of God, my own denomination, would do well to return to what he taught.

There was a time when Christianity dominated Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Asia Minor. It was the high water mark of our faith. Coins bore a portrait of Christ and were stamped with the motto, "Jesus Christ, King of Rulers." Never since that time has the Gospel enjoyed such persuasiveness. Is it coincidence that the practice of "acts of righteousness" was also most widespread at that same time?

What have others known about pleasing God that we seem to be overlooking? Jesus taught it is his Sermon on the Mount. We have been summarizing what Jesus taught under the phrase "acts of righteousness" because, in the time of Christ, they used that terminology. He was speaking on a common topic. All the Rabbis spoke on this theme. What was unique about the teaching of Jesus is his inclusion of the heart attitude.

Jesus taught that external obedience without internal humility and devotion is inadequate. He didn't say it was unnecessary. We are living in an era of "toxic grace", forgetting the Apostle James who said "Faith without works is dead." Some of American Christianity has left the teaching of Christ, being reduced to a religion of novices and initiates in the process.

We are not wrong in emphasizing Salvation by Grace, there is no other way to be saved. But having been saved, is there nothing more to say about pleasing God? Does "Grace", by itself, cover the whole subject? If yes, then why did Jesus bother to teach? Why didn't he just die and let Paul and the others call upon the people to believe?

Jesus was a teacher because the Christian life is not defined just by the initial act of receiving Salvation. It is living for God! Pleasing God by living a righteous life is how our Salvation is played out. But the question yet remains, what would God like to see in our life? What would be pleasing to God? What are the characteristics of a righteous life?

To appreciate the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 6, you need to know that the Jews of his time believed the acts of righteousness were almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Of these, almsgiving was most important. In fact, the great Old Testament word translated "Righteous", or "Salvation" was the word they used for "almsgiving". Righteousness had been reduced to a single primary deed, giving to the poor. This idea was so prevalent that "righteous" and "almsgiving" had become synonymous. Prayer and fasting were still part of it, but they trailed almsgiving considerably.

Earlier in his "sermon on the mount", Jesus instructed them regarding how they obeyed the law. He said, "You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Did Jesus mean to say that adultery was OK so long as you did not do it lustfully? Of course not! He meant to encourage obedience that flowed from the heart.

Jesus introduced his teaching on murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, and revenge by saying, "unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." Then, having covered those matters relating to the law, he turned to more general matters that they understood to be "acts of righteousness."

His teaching on "righteous" was the same as his teaching on "the law": internals must match externals.

ALMSGIVING

"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:3 NIV)

There are two ideas in this teaching. First, give to the poor out of a true heart, not for show. Second, the Father rewards those who do so.

Jesus, who understood that he was dealing with what other Rabbi's were teaching as the principal act of the righteous life, not only told them to continue, but also affirmed that God would reward them for it. Paul makes it clear that this obligation continues in the Gentile church.

In Galatians 2, Paul recites his visit to Jerusalem where his ministry was reviewed for errors of doctrine and practice. What should Gentiles be taught regarding the Jewish law and practice?

"James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." (Galatians 2:9-10 NIV)

Not only have American Evangelicals largely ignored almsgiving, but some have actually gloried in their failure saying, "We believe in preaching, not the social Gospel." The Gospel must be preached, but why set up such an unnecessary division? God is pleased when we minister to the poor.

The prophet Isaiah, in Chapter 58:6-12, speaks to the American church. His words explain the darkness and broken condition of the church and our country:

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear: then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and the malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."

Jesus provides further insight into God's provision for those who bless the poor through almsgiving: "Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Luke 12:33-34 NIV)

Only almsgiving provides a treasure in heaven. The passage quoted above is from Luke's Gospel. Luke plainly links giving to the poor to having treasure in heaven. But lest we think Luke's interpretation is somehow misleading, Matthew also records this same passage, adding the clincher in the next paragraph:

"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be fill of darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:22-23 NIV).

Some pretty strange interpretations have come from that passage. But his Hebrew listeners understood perfectly. Jesus was simply recalling the proverbs which relate the "bountiful eye" (22:9) to the generous person, and the "evil eye" (28:22 and 23:6) to the stingy person! Generosity toward the poor fills the body with light. (It is helpful to know that Matthew originally wrote his history in Hebrew, not Greek, according to Eusebius Pamphilus in ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Page 127. Eusebius quotes Papias as saying "Matthew composed his history in the Hebrew dialect, and every one translated it as he was able." The "good eye" statement is an accurate word for word translation of the Hebrew, but misses the meaning of this Hebrew idiom.)

As you read Acts 10, this same attitude toward almsgiving is reflected in the works of Cornelius. As a Gentile "God-fearer", Cornelius attended the synogogue and followed its devotional practices. In Acts 10 we have the account of the "angel of God" coming to Cornelius. Verse 4 is significant:

"The angel answered, 'Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a remembrance before God.'"

From God's point of view, two things were noteworthy about Cornelius. He prayed and he gave alms to the poor. In the New Testament age we have this assurance, God takes note of those who please Him with acts of righteousness. We have it, not as speculation, but from mouth of the angel of God. Acts of righteousness stay before God as a remembrance and bring to the doer a reward from the Father.

If Jesus taught it, the Apostle Paul affirmed it, and the angel of God announced it, don't you think it would be ok if you practiced it? Yet the Evangelical Church is strangely silent when it comes to ministering to the poor.

When I discovered that I owed something to the poor, I realized I had failed my church in not leading it in doing more. We immediately set up an alms box in the center of the foyer. Now, every week I encourage the people to give something to the poor and needy of our city. I ask them to fast at least one meal a week and put that money into the almsgiving box. Before, I would have felt funny giving a dollar or two to some needy person. Now we feel good when our quarters and dollars are added together and many thousands of dollars are given each year. It is not the whole answer, but it puts us on the path of pleasing God by remembering the poor.

V. Historically, Poverty has been viewed as having ten causes (according to Dr. Marvin Olasky in The Tragedy of American Compassion):

Personal traits were among the first six causes: 1. Ignorance, 2. Idleness, 3. Intemperance, 4. Want of economy 5. Imprudent and hasty marriages 6. Lotteries Then institutions: 7. Pawnbrokers, 8. Brothels, 9. Gambling houses. 10. "Charities that gave away money too freely."

In Colonial and Early America,
Social Calvinists operated by a few key ideas.

1. There were three main institutions that should help: First the family, then the Church, then neighborhood were essential to change the poverty picture.

2. Hold up positive role models, so people would see good examples to follow..

3. Personal involvement was essential. Olasky writes,

"Furthermore, it was important to impregnate American society with the idea of small-scale, personal involvement, rather than large-scale administered relief. Children from their earliest school years were given texts with concepts that taught far more than the particular subject matter. William H. McGuffey placed in an 1844 McGuffey’s Reader a wonderful little dialogue between a ‘Mr. Fantom ‘ and a ‘Mr. Goodman.’ Parts of it went like this:

Mr. Fantom: I despise a narrow field. O for the reign of universal benevolence! I want to make all mankind good and happy.

Mr. Goodman: Dear me! Sure that must be a wholesale sort of a job: had you not better try your hand at a town or neighborhood first?

Mr. Fantom: Sir, I have a plan in my head for relieving the miseries of the whole world . . . .

Mr. Goodman: The utmost extent of my ambition at present is, to redress the wrongs of a poor apprentice, who has been cruelly used by his master . . . .

Mr. Fantom: You must not apply to me for the redress of such petty grievances . . . . It is provinces, empires, continents, that the benevolence of the philosopher embraces; every one can do a little paltry good to his next neighbor.

McGuffey gave Mr. Goodman a good comeback: "Every one can, but I do not see that every one does. . . . [You] have such a noble zeal for the millions, [yet] feel so little compassion for the units."

4. All answers of the Social Calvinists involved Work. The "Protestant Work Ethic" was deeply imbedded in the culture. During this time they had workhouses. Olasky describes these workhouses:

"In practice, since work was readily available, there was no talk of structural unemployment; instead, the major type of poverty dealt with was caused by a calamity such as fire and earthquake, or by crippling accident or early death (often by disease). Sufferers of that kind were to receive personal care, often in neighbors’ homes. For those who were alcoholics or of "disorderly" temperament, and refused to work, towns built workhouses. Rules were strict; by-laws seven through twelve of the Chelmsford workhouse noted that:

7. The master of the workhouse shall have power to reward the faithful and industrious by granting favors and . . . to punish at his discretion the idle, stubborn, disorderly and disobedient by immediate confinement without any food other than bread and water.

8. The master of the workhouse shall cause said house and furniture to be kept clean and in good order, and shall cause habits of cleanliness, neatness and decency to be strictly observed by all persons received into said workhouse.

9. The master of the workhouse shall cause the LORD’s Day to be strictly observed.

10. Every person who may be received into said workhouse or be a member thereof must obey the orders and regulations thereof and the commands of the master, and will be required by him diligently to work and labor as he shall direct, according to age, health and capacity.

11. Every person who shall absent himself from the said workhouse . . . shall be deemed to be an idle, stubborn and disorderly person, and punished accordingly.

12. The use of spiritous liquors is strictly prohibited except when the master, physician or overseers of the workhouse shall otherwise order; and no person shall be allowed to have or keep in their possession or bring or receive any spiritous liquors into said workhouse."

Ministers taught involvement with the poor as well as cash contributions.

"Ministers told their congregations that it was fine to contribute money, but the larger need, and more difficult task, was personal.:

To cast a contribution into the box brought to the hand, or to attend committees and anniversaries, are very trifling exercises of Christian self-denial and devotion, compared with what is demanded in the weary perambulations through the street, the contact with filth, and often with rude and repulsive people, the facing of disease, and distress, and all manner of heart-rending and heart-frightening scenes, and all the trials of faith, patience, and hope, which are incident to the duty we urge.

Churches and charity organizations understood that professionals should be facilitators of aid, not major or sole suppliers. Ruffner agreed that ‘[t]here must, of course, be officers, teachers, missionaries employed to live in the very midst of the wretchedness, and to supervise and direct all the efforts of the people.’ But he added, ‘Mark you! these officers are not to stand between the giver and receiver, but to bring giver and receiver together.

The city could reflect the countryside when discipline and love were twins, not opposites; when obligations as well as rights were emphasized; when mutual obligation rather than mere transfer of material was the rule. Effective help in the cities, as in the countryside, had to be personal; those who were better-off were to suffer with the troubled. It had to be conditional; when the recipient was responsible for his plight, he was to indicate a willingness to change." ’

There are two classes of poor: The Worthy Poor and the Unworthy Poor.

"Baltimore Alms House officials claimed that ‘of the whole number admitted, more than three-fourths were positively ascertained to have been reduced to pauperism by intemperance.’ Philadelphia officials, after visiting Baltimore, New York, Providence, Boston, Salem, and Hartford, concluded that

the poor in consequence of vice, constitute here and everywhere, by far the greater part of the poor. The experience of every Institution your committee has visited is decisive on this point. From three-fourths to nine-tenths of the paupers in all parts of our country, may attribute their degradation to the vice of intemperance.

This pattern continued over the decades. After Samuel Chipman during the 1830s visited every almshouse in New York to see for himself the causes of pauperism, he thought the three-fourths estimate was accurate. The American Quarterly Review considered the higher figure, nine out of ten, more likely. Worse still, the U.S. Commercial and Statistical Register reported that only one out of sixty-nine paupers supported by the city of Portland, Maine, in 1841-42 was poor for a reason other than intemperance.

There vision of worthy and unworthy poor, and the importance of distinguishing between the two is also the view of Scripture. Paul, in 2 Thessolonians 3:6-15 wrote,

"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone's food without paying for it. On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to make ourselves a model for you to follow. For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘If a man will not work, he shall not eat.’ We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the bread they eat. And as for you, brothers, never tire of doing what is right. If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of him. Do not associate with him, in order that he may feel ashamed. Yet do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother."

Studies from the early American period indicated that alcohol equals poverty 75 to 90% of the time in 1824. Contemporary studies reflect similar numbers. As they observed these trends in the last century, their conclusion was not to be indiscriminate. Their saying, "As the supply is, so shall the demand be." Even worse, their view was that Government money dries up private money. When the unworthy poor are indiscriminately funded, it discourages proper help.

To distinguish the unworthy poor from the worthy poor they developed.....

Principles of support.

Their principles of support involved a work test. A person should do as much as they could. So they gave them wood to chop or clothes to sew to see if they were willing to work. There were other principles which Olasky summarizes as the ....

VI. Seven marks of compassion

1. Affiliation.

The key to getting a person back on his feet was found in restoring him to his previous natural affiliations. That meant restoring families, and strengthening church and social bonds that had been weakened. The important question to be asked was "Who is obligated to help?" Then to hook them back up with that natural support base which too often had been broken.

2. Bonding with volunteers.

Compassion was not a feeling, but coming alongside someone, suffering with them. No long distant help, or money only help. The key was personal relationship. Their experience was that paid poverty workers had a very hard time developing such a bond.

3. Categorization.

Deciding who was worthy of relief and who was not. The work test helped them decide.

4. Discernment, or watching for fraud.

Social Calvinists believed in the sinful nature of man. If given a chance, a lot of people cheat just because they are sinners. Modernists believe man is good. It is the system which creates evil. They believed it was essential to keep an eye on people. As a result they developed "Rules for giving":

"To give relief only after personal investigation of each case . . . .

To give necessary articles and only what is immediately necessary . . . .

To give what is least susceptible of abuse.

To give only in small quantities in proportion to immediate need; and less than might be procured by labor, except in cases of sickness.

To give assistance at the right moment; not to prolong it beyond duration of the necessity which calls for it . . .

To require of each beneficiary abstinence from intoxicating liquors . . .

To discontinue relieving all who manifest a purpose to depend on alms rather than their own exertions for support."

Ralph Waldo Emerson reflected this attitude that not everyone who asks should be helped. He said: "I sometimes succumb and give the dollar, but it is a wicked dollar, which by and by I shall have the manhood to withhold."

5. Employment

"Labor is the life of society, and the beggar who will not work is a social cannibal feeding on that life." (Charities Review) People should work if they are able.

6. Freedom...

"The opportunity to work and worship without government restriction," was their definition of freedom.

"In 1894, Amos G. Warner’s mammoth study American Charities compiled what had been learned about governmental charity in the course of the nineteenth century:

1. It is necessarily more impersonal and mechanical than private charity or individual action.

2. There is some tendency to claim public relief as a right, and for the indolent and incapable to throw themselves flat upon it. This feeling will always assert itself whenever it is given an opportunity to do so . . .

3. In public charities, officialism is even more pronounced than under private management. The degradation of character of the man on a salary set to the work of relieving the poor is one of the most discouraging things in connection with relief-work . . . .

4. It is possible to do so much relief-work that, while one set of persons is relieved, another will be taxed across the pauper line . . . the burden of supporting the State tends to diffuse itself along the lines of the least resistance; consequently, money which is raised for the relief of the poor may come out of pockets that can ill spare it . . . .

5. . . . The blight of partisan politics and gratuitously awkward administration often falls upon the work . . . . Charitable institutions are spoils of an insignificant character, thrown frequently to the less deserving among the henchmen of the successful political bosses."

7. God.

The causes of poverty are mostly spiritual. Therefore a spiritual answer is essential to really help the person. Unfortunately, there has long been a debate on how a person went "bad" and what was necessary for his "redemption". Olasky summarizes the conflict in its historical roots:

"Underlying this demand for mass transformation was the belief that man was naturally good and productive unless an oppressive system got in the way. In contrast to the Social Calvinists and the Social Darwinists, those who believed this could be called ‘Social Universalists.’ Ignoring the experience of the 1860s and 1870s, and harkening back to the commune spirit of the 1840s and the Greeleyite message of that era, their faith was clear: the only reason some people did not work was that they were kept from working, and the only reason some lied about their needs was that they were forced to lie. Social Universalists at the end of the nineteenth century thrilled to the classic statement of their case in Edward Bellamy’s best-selling Looking Backward, 2000-1887. In the novel Bellamy’s protagonist, Julian West, goes to sleep in 1887 and awakes by a fluke in the year 2000. West, impressed by the equal division of abundant wealth in what has become an American socialist paradise, asks, ‘By what title does the individual claim his particular share? What is the basis of his allotment?’ The wise denizen of the future, Dr. Lette, replies, ‘His title is his humanity. The basis of his claim is the fact that he is a man.’"

". . . the ‘social gospel,’ emphasized God’s love but not God’s holiness, and thus urged charity without challenge. Their gospel declared that the work test was cruel, because a person who has faced a ‘crushing load of misfortunes’ should not be faulted if he does not choose to work: ‘We ask ourselves whether we should have done any better if we had always lived in one room with six other people.’ Herron, Ely, and others argued that challenge was not necessary because individuals who needed to change would do so as soon as they were placed in a pleasant environment so that their true, benevolent natures could come out. Their gospel declared that the homeless of the time primarily needed housing, not affiliation: In 1893 magazine editor B. O. Flower envisioned governmental construction of ‘great buildings, each covering a square block and from six to eight stories high.’"

The same conflict exists today. Some believe it is the fault of the system that people do wrong. Therefore, if the system is changed, man’s natural goodness will emerge. In this way of thinking, we would never try to correct a person, because that would infer that we knew better, or that there was a "better" way. Bourgeois values must not be forced on others. They said, the homeless were just like us, just without a home, ignoring the fact that the homeless are typically not like us, unless the us you refer to are alcoholic, addicts, shiftless, or insane, and have a 75% rate of substance abuse.

--We should not even say that it is better to work.

--We certainly should not tell a drug addict to stop using drugs. Rather we should give him a safe substitute, or at least a clean needle.

--Teenagers should not be told not to have sex before marriage. Rather, we should encourage them to have sex safely with condoms.

--Divorce should not be based on right or wrong. Rather it should be "No-fault".

All of these ideas spring from the notion of the goodness of man without reference to God. However, once God is allowed into the discussion, we find that man is a sinner, and there is a right and wrong.

Cut free from God, some immediate results began to emerge:

--Marriage suffered. In the 1950's, 85% of teenage mothers were married by the time their babies were born.

--Adoption was promoted. Less than 10% of single mothers chose to keep their babies.

Nobody was thrilled with this state of affairs, but at least children grew up with a father and mother. We have replace this with State aid. But to get government aid such as Aid to Families of Dependent Children (AFDC), the teenage mother had to have her own apartment. The result: Isolation. Principle #1, "affiliation", was broken.

In viewing all this, Olasky said to glorify unrestrained sexuality, minimize the importance of marriage, accept single parenting, and make divorce easy and adoption hard, was a tremendous blow to the poor. Sociologists said they were responding to a crisis, but chickens and eggs seemed to be racing each other.

Charles Murray's research showed that "even after economic circumstances were matched, children of single parents did worse, often much worse, than the children of married couples."

Behavior problems are all mental illnesses now.

"Similarly, we need to move from sentimentality to clear thinking about the problem of the mentally ill, who may constitute up to a third of the homeless. All estimates of mental illness among the homeless need to be taken skeptically. Psychiatrist Schiff notes that the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IIIR) lists alcohol and substance abuse as a mental disorder, as indeed they are, but not necessarily in the psychiatric sense. Schiff points out that mental health budgets depend on diagnosing patients as mentally ill, so that

someone who is basically nasty or aggressive is no longer just nasty or aggressive, he’s an Intermittent Explosive Disorder (DSM 312.34). Similarly, drug addicts have a way of becoming Dysthymic Disorders (DSM 300.40) . . . to let them be detoxified at general-hospital psychiatric units . . . . About the only diagnosis I’ve rarely seen employed is No Pathology (DSM V71.09)."

VII. A Return to What Works.

The value of Olasky’s work is to take us back to how we have handled poverty in the past, when the Christian ethic influenced our approach. Christianity has a long history of responding to the cry of the needy. As Christians, we must return to righteousness by helping the poor. When we take our personal righteousness more seriously, we will be able to diminish the role of government and increase the role of Christ.

ALMS, ALMSDEEDS

eleemosune ^1654^, connected with eleemon, "merciful," signifies (a) "mercy, pity, particularly in giving alms," <Matthew. 6:1> (see below), <2-4; Acts 10:2; 24:17>; (b) the benefaction itself, the "alms" (the effect for the cause), <Luke 11:41; 12:33; Acts 3:2-3,10; 9:36>, "almsdeeds"; <10:2,4, 31>.#

Note: In <Matthew. 6:1>, the RV, translating dikaiosune, according to the most authentic texts, has "righteousness," for KJV, "alms."

(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words)

Other Scriptures relating to the poor.

Matthew 6:1
1 "Be careful not to do your `acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

Matthew 6:2
2 "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

Matthew 6:3
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

Matthew 6:4
4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Luke 11:41
41 But give what is inside to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

Luke 12:33
33 Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.

Acts 9:36
36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which, when translated, is Dorcas), who was always doing good and helping the poor.

Acts 10:2
2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.

Acts 10:4
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.

Acts 10:31
31 and said, `Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.

Acts 24:17
17 "After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings.