Sadly, you are absolutely right. "With the shekels come shackles."
The way I read it, it's an individual responsibility to do what each of us is able to do. As necessary, to pool our resources, voluntarily, as needed.
For example, if a family in your church were the victims of a house fire...and lost everything...I would certainly hope that other members of the church would offer to help them out (spare bedroom...buy groceries...etc) until they got on their feet. If a town is nailed by a F-4 tornado, that Christians in neighboring towns would work together to help them out. And so on.
The only time, in my mind, that the state government, much less the federal government, would have need to be involved...if we acted as the above...is with a "Hurricane Agnes" type scenario that wiped out major areas of the country.
Sadly, as evidenced here, there are enough people who would say "to hell with you" that it will be impossible to make any kind of a case that private, community based charity could do the job.
Socialism gained popularity in the 19th century because the decidedly unchristian behavior of some made it possible for some very evil men to use that as an excuse to rile up the masses. The only thing that will finally relegate socialism to the dustbin of history is authentic Christian behavior on the part of the vast majority.
I have to say that in recent years our charitable giving has gotten much more personal. It’s easy in these times - there are lots of family people un and underemployed. And of course tragedy strikes where people need emergency assistance (fire, catastrophic illness). But the days of me giving to a Catholic run charitable organization (except for pro-life ones) are all but over. The bishops campaigned all those years for government handouts. My taxes are now over 50%, while half the country pays little or nothing. LEt the bishops make do with what they get from their beloved Uncle Sam. That’s my share.
“Socialism gained popularity in the 19th century because the decidedly unchristian behavior of some made it possible for some very evil men to use that as an excuse to rile up the masses. The only thing that will finally relegate socialism to the dustbin of history is authentic Christian behavior on the part of the vast majority.”
Good points, though I suspect we can never go back to the point where we were responsible for our own actions/decisions. Americans have liked the taste of the no-consequence lifestyle, so we’ll always have socialism (and abortion).