"My Dad taught me that taking a handout was the greatest sin, welfare especially. Government taking from me to give to someone else or my accepting something from the government is to horrible to contemplate."
A French Catholic view on this would be that the King, too, is a Christian and is obliged to care for the weak, poor, orphan, widow, sick and crippled just as Jesus required. In a democracy, we are collectively the King, and therefore, to fulfill our duty, we must not only give charity in our private function, but when wearing the collective crown we must fulfill the role of the Christian magistrate. Rulers are in no sense exempt from Christian duties when exercising their power - each Christian is required to be Christian in all of the things which are within his purview. The power of the King is over the whole state, and he must exercise all of that power with Christianity. By our own hands we have made ourselves King, and we cannot evade the public burden of using the power of the King in Christian charity, nor will it suffice to merely be privately charitable, because our power does not end at the private, but also extends to the public, and our Christianity is a commitment that extends to every facet of life and cannot be checked at the door in any endeavor. Indeed, if it must be by the nature of something, then that something must not be done. Again that is a very Catholic view of life and duty, and it is not surprising, to me anyway, that Catholic Europe has comparable social structures and social states, while Protestant Europe and America have followed different paths.
I am curious about what you said about accepting something from the government being horrible. Will you not, then, cash the social security check when you retire, or have your doctors bill the American Medicare system? If you are unemployed, will you not take unemployment benefits?
In our Republic we are each individually a king.
The responsibility is to my own home as my castle.
The only charity is in my private function as you say.
As for Social Security, Medicare or Unemployment, I will cash those checks because that is the system that I am compelled to tolerate until I can change it. I am against withholding tax and several other taxes also but I will still pay them.
That's also why Southern Moonshiners were so against revenuers.
It was an illegal tax on private production.