What Accounts For Celebration?

In today’s day and age, what is considered “good news?” Read the article from the New York Times below.

November 29, 2009

The Safety Net
Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades
By JASON DePARLE and ROBERT GEBELOFF

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children.

It has grown so rapidly in places so diverse that it is becoming nearly as ordinary as the groceries it buys. More than 36 million people use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.

Virtually all have incomes near or below the federal poverty line, but their eclectic ranks testify to the range of people struggling with basic needs. They include single mothers and married couples, the newly jobless and the chronically poor, longtime recipients of welfare checks and workers whose reduced hours or slender wages leave pantries bare.

Although the program is growing at a record rate, the federal official who oversees it would like it to grow even faster.

“I think the response of the program has been tremendous,” said Kevin Concannon, an under secretary of agriculture, “but we’re mindful that there are another 15, 16 million who could benefit.”

Comments: What is good news? Welfare has lost its negative stigma. No longer is it a shameful thing to be using “food stamps” or the plastic EBT card. In fact, since this is such good news and since the program is growing, it would be even better if the program grew even faster – to accommodate another 15-16 million people.

Folks, the two worlds (or kingdoms) that people are living in is becoming more contrasted by the day. In the kingdom of darkness, poverty is celebrated. In the kingdom of light, poverty is accepted. The difference? When poverty is celebrated, nothing changes for those who are poor. They are encouraged to remain as they are – dependent, needy and often times helpless. And in order to make them feel better (that is, less stigmatized), they are not encouraged to come out of their poverty, but instead others are force to join them. This is what happens when poverty is celebrated.

Jesus said that the poor will always be around (Matt. 26:11). Therefore, they need to be accepted and assisted. You see, “poor” can be looked at in a relative manner. What defines “poor?” Is it someone who is homeless? Would this then entail that anyone who is not homeless would not be considered poor? Would poor be defined as someone who is not making as much as Bill Gates?

By and large, poor can be defined as someone who is totally dependent on another. If a person is dependent on the government for his or her food, housing, medical, then they are poor. The way out of this kind of life style is to become self-sufficient or to be able to provide for one’s own needs.

The issue behind those who are poor is that they tend not to better themselves when they are given an unlimited supply of hand outs. Why work? Why better myself when all I basically need is handed to me freely?

Our government sees poverty as a celebration. So it wants even more people depended on government. The more dependent people are on government the more it legitimizes big government.

But true celebration should not be based on how many people are on welfare, but just the opposite. The lesser amount of people there are on welfare the more successful the program is.

Those who are on welfare not only lose their desire to work, but they lose something far more important – their self-esteem. God has ordained work as a means to help people provide for their needs and to better themselves. Scores of people benefit by working not simply because they receive a paycheck now and then, but because it stimulates them mentally and morally. People grow as individuals when they live self-sufficiently.

Paul knew how the poor and needy, once they had become conditioned by not working and thus settled in a life of laziness -- how they needed to be motivated. He ordered the following: “If anyone will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thess. 3:10). Harsh? Not at all. Paul understood two things: First, lazy people become a burden on others. The 36 million people who are on welfare are being taken care of by tax payers. Now the government wants to add another 15 or more on to the list.

But here’s the dirty little secret. The government does not produce money on its own. Whatever the government has it gets from the private sector and its citizens. The more the private sector is burdened and the more the average tax payer is burdened, the lesser will be the amount of money coming into the government to pay for all the various welfare programs, especially when working people become welfare people.

Therefore, in the name of compassion, we are told that as a way to help the poor, we need to supply their needs and enable more people to become like them. This way they will not feel so stigmatized. But in the name of real compassion, we ought to help those who dependent on the government to take steps away from such dependency and become self-sufficient. This way, they can join the ranks of “taxpayers” and help share the load.

You say. “Rich, how do we do this? By utilizing their common needs as a means to motivate them. When a person is hungry, do something. All welfare recipients who have the physical capacity to work should be motivated to work so many hours a week, while being monitored both by either the private or public sector, in order to be given money to be credited to their EBT card.

Example: “How many hours did you work this week?”

“None.”

“Then you receive no credit to your EBT card for this week.”

Example 2: “How many hours did you work this week?”

“Thirty.”

“Can I see your form with the signatures from those who can verify?”

“Here. I did 15 hours of community work. 5 hours of volunteer work at my church helping to feed the homeless. And ten hours of helping to paint the local school. I got the signatures all right here.”

“Excellent. Your EBT card will be credited for the amount of work you put in.”

This is what Paul was talking about. It is no celebration to see a proliferation of poverty in our land. Celebration is when people come out of poverty and become self-sustaining.

More and more we are seeing how these two kingdoms – darkness and light are so much contrasted.