Posted on 12/01/2008 7:56:07 AM PST by Turret Gunner A20
We already have food programs for parents who are out of work. And sure, foster care is often a disgrace, but hungry malnourished kids left in the “care” of meth-head and crack-head parents is a disgrace too. Newt was right — we need to bring back orphanages.
If anyone finds a hungry child with law-abiding, non-substance abusing parents, all that’s needed is to point them to the programs that will help. But when a hungry child is found with an addict who is using all available funds to feed their own addiction, the child needs to be removed.
Follow the bio-ethanol craze.
Burn 65 million tons of food every year.
Yup. Utterly tragic.
Once again my local lib rag had a headline story last Thanksgiving about “hungry” area residents. This one was about the local food bank, and the people who worked there were worried that the thousands of “hungry” people in the county would not have enough food. So they interviewed some woman who was both a client and who worked part-time at the pantry. They had a photo of her. Let’s just say she didn’t look like she’d missed too many meals in the last year.
My wife worked with the poor. Many people mistakenly assume that there are just tons of programs;there are not. Welfare was reformed back in Clinton’s day. I’m not saying this was not a good thing in many ways, but the idea that no one in this country goes hungry unless they want to is nonsense. The kind of programs available depend on what state you live in. There are food stamps (not so easy to qualify for), WIC Moms of infants),reduced/free lunch and not much more. The Salvation Army, Goodwill and private churches step in. This is where programs like MUST ministry come in to play. However, children do go hungry in this country-not all parents are drug addicts either. It makes people feel better to believe that the poor deserve it and anyway there are programs blah blah, but it is not always so. I’m sorry Christ calls us to feed the hungry and minister to the poor.
Easy to judge the poor...We have segments of society who are in a bad place due to unemployment, serious illness etc. Do you really believe there are ‘appropriate funds’ in all these households? I think people think this way because then they can turn away and not look at these kids without feeling guilt or perhaps a desire to help those less fortunate...they deserve it after all. These kids should have picked better parents don’t you know. I wonder how you will answer God when he asks you about this someday?
True...
Now you have to go to the store to buy him (her?) something worth $20.
We had Orphanges when I was growing up.
Surely not ideal, but a HELL of a lot more efficient!
OOooh!
I shudda read ahead!
GMTA!
It'll be AFTER THESE are mentioned; I'm sure!
1 Timothy 5:2-8 2. older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
3. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need.
4. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God.
5. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
6. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.
7. Give the people these instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame.
8. If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
I wonder if that's happening? : )
It's easy to say some people spend their stamps on drugs, but what I was more familiar with were parents spending the stamps on things like shoes, socks, and paper goods. The food stamp allotment is usually pretty generous. If you have little kids who don't eat as much as a teen, let's say, you have more stamps than you need.
I was surprised to see a group of vendors outside of a assistance center in Philly. They were selling sides of beef, household goods, clothing, it was like an outdoor department store. I guess what further surprised me is that there were police there controlling the crowds and ignoring the use of stamps for non-food items.
With the advent of the debit card system, I don't know if markets like this still exist, but they were amazing for me to see. I had a number of women clients on assistance; we can complain all day long about whether we as a society should be supporting these people, but we do. I may get flamed for saying this, but I think the system creates opportunities for fraud when you give people hundreds of dollars in food stamps and $200 for rent and heat.
I think we’re against the idea of people swindling, and we’ve become so burned by the MSM who only report problems when Repubs are in power.
It is good to hear different perspectives and experiences from conservatives. I just can’t trust the MSM or liberals.
It’s difficult to imagine anyone going hungry in this country with even one modestly responsible parent. The greatest health risk to the poor is obesity.
It infuriates me to think that people preceive want in this country as a lack of means, when it is really just a lack of will.
There needs to be more balance and discernment when money is being doled out for these programs. Unfortunately we have those who sound heartless about the poor and bury their heads...then we have those who would just give everything away without looking at the root causes of an individual family’s poverty just to feel good about themselves and bury their heads as well.
So what do we do? Christ said we would always have the poor with us and we were to help where we could. Yet even his own disciple criticized Him when Christ allowed the repentent prostitute to pour expensive perfume on his feet. “Ought not that box had been sold and given to the poor?” queried Judas Iscariat in a way that questioned Christ’s motives...indeed Christ questioned Judas’s motives when he replied “she is preparing me for my burial”. Of course we all know what Judas was going to do to Jesus!
So I have issues with the political “poor” baters (as well as with the political race “baters”) that are always around crying “give my organization or our government some money because we/they can feed the hungry better than John Q Public can”.
We should feed the hungry and clothe the naked as Christ commands for what we do for them we do for him. But we’re not to be stupid about it...in all things we do, Christians are to have the “malice of children but minds of men” and have the “wisdom of serpents but be as harmless as doves”.
I don’t think every politician,community activist or even quasi religious authoritarian has Christian charity in mind when they say...”feed the hungry you rich lazy Americans”.
But I have found nowhere in the Bible where he sid tht it was up to the government to do so -- or to take the money of those who don't want to, by force of arms. So it looks like although BILLION OF DOLLARS are spent ech year in welfare, both entitiesa are failing miserably.
Discovered! Time Warp photo of The Michelin Man as a baby!
Hunger USED to be a VERY powerful motivator!
2 Thessalonians 3:10
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
Preach to someone not on the frontline. I work with many parents/guardians to make sure their children receive the benefits they qualify for but, for whatever reason, they have chosen not to apply. I have no problem facing God and having him judge my efforts to outreach.
Do not confuse empathy with faith. Feed a man, he eats for a day, teach him to fish, he feeds his family for life without suckling at the teat of government.
What happened to the concept of self-reliance in the country?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.