April 27, 2004

What is Justice?

I don't normally pick out Letters to the Editor in the local newspapers as something to write on. However, one came to my attention in yesterday's Tennessean that piqued my interest...so to say.

It's entitled "Liberty and justice for all is nonexistent" written by Sister Arlene Welding (click here and scroll down to see it).

Sister Welding writes that although we seem to have money to start wars with, we don't seem to have the money to help people in their struggle to survive. She also says that their organization, Ladies of Charity, receive 1,800 calls a month for financial assistance to help pay their monthly bills.

She goes on to write:

It is the duty of government to provide jobs for its citizens who want to work. During the depression years, President Roosevelt provided work for all who wanted a job and the pay was sufficient for survival.

Wait a second...did she say that it is the duty of the government? Being as respectful as I can, I have to say that this is completely wrong. It's not the duty of the government to provide for the benevolence of anyone. What President Roosevelt did was start a society of people who were dependent on the government to provide jobs and welfare. It goes completely against what our founding fathers stood for.

Churches in Nashville are overburdened with request for help also. Yes, charity has its place, but where is justice?

Churches in Nashville are overburdened with requests for help? Perhaps, but what are they really doing about it? And exactly what is "justice?"

First, I will tell you right up front that I am a Christian...no one can say otherwise. However, the churches of today have turned over to the government part of what they were originally supposed to be doing. Many churches have become large country clubs with outrageous monuments to God forgetting that we are supposed to be humble and helpers of the poor.

Sure, the giant bronze statues, the marble floors and the oil paintings of the pastors are nice, but couldn't that money have been spent on something better? Like...I don't know...helping the poor? Teaching the poor? Feeding the poor? While at the same time spreading the Gospel to them? No...instead the church wants to turn the job over to the government because it's the government's "duty"...an was an idea entrenched in our society by people like FDR.

I'm sure that the Ladies of Charity do a wonderful job in helping the poor, but it's their job. Do it, and don't get the government involved. If you think the government has too much money to spend on other things, then start asking for spending and tax reductions so that more money will be freed up for the poor.

So, what is justice? Justice is a government that stays out of people's lives. Justice is a church that understands that helping the poor is advancing the teachings of Jesus. Justice is truth...and as Pilate asked in The Passion, "Quid est Veritas?" ("What is truth?") As a Christian, I challenge other Christians to ask the same of themselves.

Comments:

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Too bad the w regime acts in totally opposite ways from your definitions of "justice."

Posted by: The Token Librul at April 27, 2004 02:23 PM

The reason the Roosevelt administration took over providing for the poor is because the church was doing precious little to alleviate the sufferings from the Great Depression.

The idea that the church once helped the needy but the government took over is pure myth.

Posted by: Joel Thomas at April 29, 2004 04:47 PM

America has no "the church," and was specifically designed not to have one, current right-wing political efforts notwithstanding. Churches, however, have usually provided some services for "the poor" throughout our history, including "poor boxes" for spare change, soup kitchens and even orphanages. FDR, however, literally saved hundreds of thousands of lives by creating jobs. And many of these jobs led to a wide variety of artistic projects by playwrights, composers, and other artists.
Compare the cancervative mantra of hate for this history to their undying, vociferous support for corporate welfare, especially for defense contractors who continue to build weapons to fight the USSR despite the Cold War's ending fifteen years ago. Against whom, exactly, will we use nuclear submarines and missile shields?

Posted by: The Token Librul at April 30, 2004 01:02 PM

What kind of socialist cow crap is THAT?

It ISN'T the government's job, it is the job of the people, and, yes, the churches. Quite frankly, the USSR wasn't heaven, since people were waiting in line for days just for bread. Tell me how THAT works?

Maybe these churches need better-fund raisers so they can actually HELP THE POOR insteaad of buying bigger buildings and putting on parties for the congregation and initializing 'small groups' and other ridiculousness.

But the gov't ought to have nothing to do with it. That's just a despicably foolish argument.

Posted by: Miss O'Hara at September 9, 2004 08:54 AM