Welfare
WELFARE
The nation of Israel was instructed by God to provide for the needy of the land by the practice of leaving “gleanings” in the fields for the poor and the needy. The fields were not reaped to the very corners, nor meticulously picked up, and neglected sheaves were deliberately to be left behind.
This system had several advantages. It required no government bureaucracy to maintain or administrate it. It effectively scattered the needy throughout the land instead of concentrating them in the cities. It put the able-bodied needy into contact with landowners who could use agricultural manual labor.
God gave special commands to care for the orphans and the widows, not to mistreat them and to provide for their needs. (Exodus 22:22, Deuteronomy 14:28-29)
These concerns are reiterated in the New Covenant as obligations of charitable action by believers (James 1:27, I_Timothy 5:3-16), and limited to those who are unable to work productively (II Thessalonians 3:10).
The welfare system in the United States of America encourages unemployment of able-bodied people who otherwise would have to seek gainful employment. It positively discourages marriage and encourages illegitimate births; and it encourages concentration of welfare recipients in urban areas.
If the Biblical concept of poverty is the lack of sufficient food, clothing and shelter, then only a very small number of people in this country are in poverty. The responsibilities which God gave to human government do not include support of an indigent class of people who find the dole easier than gainful employment. Welfare in this country is an unnecessary and unfair burden on the middleclass tax-paying worker who directly or indirectly pays almost all the taxes in this country.
Clyde C. Price, Jr.
[This brief paper was written some time ago, before the explosive growth of the problem of homelessness, which is an issue different from the one addressed here.