Every Man for Himself?
I don't follow politics. I've been aware of who the president was for probably 20 years (wow, that makes me feel old) and I can't remember one specific thing that made my daily life different from one government to another. I have a couple of things that I feel strongly about, and I vote - when I vote - accordingly. At the same time, I struggle with the idea of legislating morality - mostly, because it's kind of pointless. Morality without salvation is empty. It definitely didn't work for the Pharisees. As a group, Christians spend way too much time fighting with 'society' about morality and not enough time loving people and introducing them to Jesus. Even if we could all come to some sort of consensus on what constitutes morality, it seems pretty clear that our job is to spread the Good News, and His job is to help people change their lives.
So anyway, I'm not into politics. But I've heard smatterings of things lately that make me a little uncomfortable. I didn't vote for Obama - I'm passionately pro-life, and as politically immature as it may be to vote on one issue, I can't stomach doing anything else. But in the past few months, I've heard a lot of Republican Christians complaining about the social type reforms proposed. One person told me that no one is guaranteed free health care, and we shouldn't have to pay for it. Every man for himself.
So here's where I'm confused. Where is 'every man for himself' in the Bible? Are we supposed to be separating our lives here on earth with how Jesus told us things will be in his Kingdom? I'm seriously asking here, this isn't a sarcastic question. Purely on a human level, I'm uncomfortable with the judgment that someone's circumstances - because of their own choices or otherwise - should dictate whether or not they have a normal life span. This is a touchy subject for me, though, because we've been on the receiving end of some of that help. Without it, our daughter wouldn't have had the dental care she needed at age 3, and our son wouldn't have had his glasses at age 2. And none of them would be protected against diseases. So maybe I'm biased on that issue.
But seriously, we do realize that the disciples 'shared everything in common', right? That the first churches were communes? Jesus talks about helping the poor ALL THE TIME. In fact, there were laws in place way before Jesus' time about giving to the poor, the widows, the orphans. Remember Ruth? She gleaned wheat from Boaz's field after his own workers had harvested - and he was required to leave some for the people who had nothing. In Jesus' time, the economic differences between the classes were huge. I heard some crazy number recently regarding how many times Jesus says to help the poor. I don't remember what it was. Never once do I remember him saying, "Make sure you're covered, and then donate to a couple of respectable organizations." In fact, you could surmise from a lot of his teachings that the only possible good to come from having money is the opportunity to give it away.
Originally, the churches did take care of these kinds of things. Definitely Rome wasn't providing gallons of milk and boxes of cereal to moms with kids under 5. None of their ridiculous taxes went to better their lives. And yet Jesus told them to give Caesar what was his, and STILL commanded them to help others.
The early churches gave people what they needed from their communal stores, and certainly that legacy has been passed down. But somewhere we've gotten lost, and at some point (has someone traced this historically?) the government stepped in. Because we failed? Maybe a higher government tax to help others is a consequence to the people of the church, who've somehow forgotten some of Jesus' most fervent teachings.
Anyway, I guess what bothers me is the disconnect. We are forgiven EVERYTHING - none of our choices (besides accepting that forgiveness) have anything to do with it. None of us deserve even a second glance from God. But we judge people in this life who, sometimes by their own choices, are in a position where their earthly lives are in danger. Are we really going to demand the debt from our brother, after we have been forgiven so much?
There are probably all kinds of nuances that I'm missing, and again, I don't know all the details. But this is what has been on my heart lately.
