or centuries, Christians have been the primary agents of charity and compassion
in Western culture. From the first century forward to the founding of the American
colonies, Christians took the lead in caring for the hungry, the dispossessed,
and the afflicted. This was, in fact, the hallmark of authentic Christianity.
George Grant
If a policeman can take away my cigarette, there cannot be the slightest rational objection, on a warm day, to his taking away my overcoat. In wet weather he might change my boots for me violently in the street, or suddenly garrote me with a muffler. G.K. Chesterton
Often there are economic barriers to healing that must be overcome. The Good
Samaritan left money to pay for rest and treatment. . . . Surely, then, Christian
physicians and hospitals are not required to bear, overall, a disproportionate
share of the burden. They may, like the Samaritan, be called upon to make the
initial outlay of funds, but they should be reimbursed by the community so that
the sacrifice is equalized. In the Old Testament, welfare was financed through
the tithes of all the people; in the New Testament (in addition to the tithe,
I believe), the poor were fed through general appeals for free-will offerings.
Administration of such funds in Scripture is the responsibility of the church,
not the state. What if the patient belongs to a different denomination from his
healers or to no church at all? The Good Samaritan story suggests that God's people
should give aid to the sick and injured without asking questions about religious
affiliation.
John Frame
The greatest organized wrongs which the civilized world has seen perpetrated
in modern times, upon the well-being of mankind, have been committed under the
amiable name of humanity.
R.L. Dabney
Christian philanthropy derives its efficiency, no less than its purity, from
this, that it all flows from the Christian's love of his God. . . . Christianity
and its true ministers make it their main business to address the individual;
and their topics are his own duties and sins. They separate him, they tell him
his spiritual necessities; they say, "Thou art the man;" they teach him to make
his own spiritual amendment his chief care. Thus, by sanctifying each individual,
human society is effectually regenerated; and organic evils easily disappear.
But when once the pulpit is perverted to declaim habitually against the public
sins of communities, and to agitate for their reform, the individual is encouraged
to lose sight of his own errors (the only ones he is responsible for, or able
to reform), and to occupy himself with the wrong-doings of others. But these
are of course, painted in constant contrast with his own rectitude; so that this
preaching, instead of inculcating humility and sanctity, is nothing but a ministration
of spiritual pride, arrogance, and hatred. And hence its popularity.
R.L Dabney
Civil and religious liberty is being treated openly as though it had been merely
a passing phase in human life, well enough in its own day, but now out of date.
Everywhere there rises before our eyes the spectre of a society where security,
if it is attained at all, will be attained at the expense of freedom, where the
security that is attained will be the security of fed beasts in a stable, and
where all the high aspirations of humanity will have been crushed by an all-powerful
State.
J. Gresham Machen
If you had a little money to spare, would you not lend it to me, if I assured
you it should be repaid when you wanted? I can point out to you better interest
and better security than I could possibly give you: Prov. xix. 17. "He that hath
pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord: and that which he hath given, will
he pay him again." What think you of this text? Is it the word of God or not?
John Newton
President Clinton's effort to impose socialized medicine on our nation has answered
a question gnawing at me for quite some time. The question is whether we have
reached a point where those of us who love liberty, private property rights,
rule of law and the Constitution given to us by our founding fathers should organize
to make preparations to secede from the union.
Walter Williams
The U.S. health care system is a mess, but this demonstrates not market but government
failure. . . . It's time to get serious about health care reform. Eliminate
all licensing requirements for medical schools, hospitals, pharmacies, and medical
doctors and other health care personnel. Their supply would almost instantly
increase, prices would fall, and a greater variety of health care services would
appear on the market. Competing voluntary agencies would take the place of compulsory
government licensing -- if health care providers believe that such accreditation
would enhance their own reputation, and that their consumers care about reputation,
and are willing to pay for it. Because consumers would no longer be duped into
believing that there is such a thing as a "national standard" of health care, they
will increase their search costs and make more discriminating health care choices.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Government welfare programs need to be fought not because they are too expensive
-- although clearly, much money is wasted -- but because they are inevitably
too stingy in what is really important, treating people as people and not animals.
. . . Certainly, our political leaders can break down some programmatic barriers
to compassion, but isn't it time we realized that there is only so much that public
policy can do? Certainly it's good to "empower" the poor so they are not in thrall
to the welfare establishment, but isn't it time to realize that only a richness
of spirit can battle a poverty of soul?
Marvin Olasky
The alleged critics of the Clinton Plan hasten to assure us that they too accept
the general principles, but that there are lots of problems in the details.
. . . But the details of the Clinton Plan, however diabolic, are merely petty
demons compared to the general principles, where Lucifer really lurks. By accepting
the principles, and fighting over the details, the Loyal Opposition only succeeds
in giving away the store, and doing so before the debate over details can even
get under way. Lost in the eye-glazing thicket of minutiae, the conservative
critics of Clintonian reform, by being "responsible" and working within the paradigm
set by The Enemy, are performing a vital service for the Clintonians in snuffing
out any clear-cut opposition to Clinton's Great Leap Forward into health collectivism.
Murray Rothbard
The right to anything in the civil realm is ultimately backed by the power of
the state with confiscation of life, liberty, and property. Therefore, the argument
that medical care is a right is inevitably an argument for the government to
use whatever force is necessary to protect and enforce that right!
Franklin E. Payne, Jr.
The rich are not to oppress the poor or acquire money through force, theft, or
fraud; instead the rich are to help the needy. . . . A poor person who turns
to the government to seize the possessions of his richer neighbors, no less than
a wealthy man who devotes his life to making money in the marketplace, has fallen
in love with the world.
Doug Bandow
Christian revolution begins with the individual and has its concrete effect in
culture. It always takes its stand with the eternal requirements of God against
the idolatrous attractions of the moment.
Herbert Schlossberg
