miniluv

Franics W. Poretto has "grown very tired of the accusations of "stinginess" and "hard-heartedness" from the Left because its beloved State's redistributionist programs aren't bulging with cash."

At this time, a greater fraction of Americans' tax money goes toward "charitable" programs than toward the Departments of Defense, State, and Justice combined. Anyone who refuses to "contribute" to this "investment in our people" is put into a reinforced concrete box watched over by guards armed with automatic weapons, to keep company with (incarcerated criminals). In other words: like it or not, pay up or suffer horribly.

The rationale for these exactions is that only the State can truly insure that the "human needs" of the "underprivileged" will be looked after in an adequate fashion. Or, as President Bush, a generally admirable man, put it, "When somebody hurts, government has got to move." Forgive him, Father, for he knew not what he said.

This isn't charity as a Christian understands it. This is armed robbery and worse, for a "private" thief makes no pretense about altruistic motives. The social contract, insofar as we have one, does not extend to the seizure of nearly a trillion dollars a year from persons who have no recourse and no effective way to protest, regardless of the money's ostensible employment.

Christ commanded us to practice charity toward one another as individuals, not as subjects of a rapacious State. The "charitable" action of the State undermines true Christian charity in at least five ways:

• It deprives us of the means.
• It deprives us of the opportunity to exercise our judgment about the needs of others.
• It corrupts officialdom, by creating an incentive to expand human poverty.
• It corrupts the beneficiaries of the State's transfer programs, by addicting them to no-strings-attached giveaways awarded without oversight or discipline.
• It stimulates the growth of organizations and institutions looking for a piece of the action, as lobbyists, vendors, and activists.

But to the promoters of the Ministry of Love, these observations are heresies deserving of death. At the very least, they will subject the utterer to the vilest of denunciations and imprecations.