Welfare, Government and Jesus

I read an article about the role Christianity plays in a welfare state and what the government's role should be in caring for the "least of these". Citing scripture as well as FDR's position on this subject, it displayed the arguments for and against government assistance. Most troubling about the article though was the response, and the overwhelming desire for people to eliminate or reduce government intervention and have welfare be a volunteer effort, even using scripture to back this point. So my question has become: where does government step in? "Capitalism elevates and sanctifies self-interest," yet "we are told to have the mind of Christ in elevating the interests of others over ourselves." How then can I live in a capitalistic society without being sucked into the capitalist machine?

It troubled me that the response to this article, mostly from relatively well-versed Christians, was to justify capitalism as well as to justify the rights of individualism first over the support of the "needy". How do we operate within this overwhelming attitude that many religious conservatives adhere to, the attitude that you should assist when you want to and to the extent that you want to?

I believe in giving until it hurts, and then more, but it is something I am not used to and something that society says I should not burden myself with. I should live in my nice suburban South Tampa condo, drive down to the ghetto when convenient, do my couple hours of service and drive back home, stopping by Daily Eats, of course to get my bagel with schmear and Starbucks to get a tall caramel Frappuccino.

I'm not saying either of those places are sinful to enjoy, but we should burden ourselves with giving until it hurts! We should live in the ghetto and take up the yoke of the needy! Teresa also said, "If you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." But how do we shy away from our selfish desires? How do we give so that our efforts are not in vain and love until there can be no more hurt? How do we become effective when Christians do not share the attitude of Christ? Growing up surrounded by the idea of self interest, and existing in a capitalist society, how do we live a life all about justice?

To understand God With Us

Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year, but not for the bases of what it represents, rather for what the season brings (aside from massive obsession with consumerism, greed and ruining ones credit). It is a season that brings people together, it is the time where my family always gets together. But what does this season really represent? Although it is widely accepted that Jesus was born in the Spring, this is a celebration of his birth, the coming of Emmanuel; but in Christmas, what is really meant by his birth?

Israel was a name given to Jacob after his wrestling with an angel of God. Israel, roughly meaning struggles or wrestles with God, is the story of the Hebrew nation, the constant falling away and coming back to God. His chosen people consistently struggled with God and the world, going in and out of captivity by one nation to another. What would it have been like to struggle with God in the way the Hebrews did? Promised a savior, a Messiah to rescue them from bondage and struggle, what would it be like to pray for a savior to come and rescue?

Then Jesus is born, the savior, the answered prayer. What would it be like to hear of a savior, one born in a barn and fleeing Herod's wrath. The King born into a child. How would I react? What would I feel? What would it be like to experience the birth of a savior that we had been praying for? To see and worship Emmanuel, even as a babe? When I listen to Advent music and think about the meaning behind the lyrics I wonder how it would be to experience the actual birth of the savior my people have been praying for for centuries.

I know Christ, His love is within me and I have known my savior for years, but in the mix of the holiday season, and the pressure society places on people corrupting the true meaning of Christmas, I want to go back to the root of the holiday, the meaning of the birth of the savior, to experience the birth of God With Us.