by F.R. Duplantier
Man does not live by bread alone. Why, then, does our welfare system offer nothing more?In the March issue of Philanthropy, Culture & Society, Marvin Olasky argues that "we must go beyond sentimentality and learn how to fight poverty the right way, the biblical way, the way that was practiced in America until recent decades." Olasky says "the reason why government welfare programs must be transformed is not that they are too expensive. The real problem is that they are too stingy about doing what is truly important: treating people as human beings made in God's image, not as animals to be fed, caged, and occasionally petted." He asserts that "private programs can do a better job if they are challenging, personal, and spiritual."
So, what did our forebears do differently? "During the 19th century, before the federal government ever got involved, a war on poverty much more successful than our own was waged by tens of thousands of local, private charitable agencies and religious groups around the country," observes Olasky. He concedes that "poverty fighters a century ago did not abolish poverty," but insists that "they witnessed a movement out of poverty by millions of people."
Attitudes were different in those days, among beneficiaries as well as benefactors. "The optimism prevalent then contrasts sharply with the demoralization among the poor and the cynicism among the better-off that is so common now," says Olasky. Our forebears "knew that the literal meaning of compassion is not just writing a check, but having personal involvement with the needy, suffering with them, not just giving money to them."
Olasky contends that 19th-century Americans "knew that people should be challenged. When an able- bodied man came to a homeless shelter, he often was asked to chop wood for two hours or to white-wash a building. In that way he could provide part of his own support and also help those unable to chop. They knew . . . that even the most run-down person is not just a taker; he can also be a giver. They knew that everyone is made in God's image and is capable of helping."
America has paid a terrible toll for its forgetfulness. "We've forgotten America's past successes in poverty-fighting," says Olasky. "The result has been not just the waste of billions of dollars each year, but the death of part of the American dream." Welfare, says Olasky, "kills dreams." Not only "the dreams of poor individuals who gradually become used to dependency," but also "the dreams of children who grow up without fathers," and countless other dreams that coercive measures cannot fulfill.
Olasky reports that "across America people of many faiths, income levels, and races are refusing to give up on the dream of effective compassion. More people are capturing the understanding that the major flaw of the modern welfare state is not that it is extravagant, but that it is too stingy. It gives the needy bread and tells them to be content with that alone."
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