Principles

Some of life’s best principles are absolute gems on the micro or personal level. However, oftentimes when a principle that is beneficial on a personal level is applied to a macro or governmental level, it creates a disaster. Charity and debt relief are two such principles meant for the micro and not for the macro.

Charity is beautiful to behold when the giver and the receiver get to look each other in the eye. The giver gets the gratification and joy of knowing they have helped and made life better for a fellow human being who is in need. The receiver gets the appreciation from knowing someone else cared enough to make a personal sacrifice in order to help. The receiver in one situation will often become the giver in another situation. Acts of grace are multiplied as giving is passed on.

Debt relief on a personal level is very similar to charity on a personal level. The lender and the debtor can look each other in the eye and know that the lender is making a sacrifice and the debtor is benefiting from the sacrifice. It is a beautiful act of grace when a person is forgiven a debt by another person.

The further people get from the eye to eye contact when performing acts of charity and debt relief, the less these acts are blessings and the more destructive these acts become. Welfare, at it’s core, is the act of forcing one person to pay the expenses of another person. The key word here is force. When a person is forced to pay the expenses of someone else, they don’t have a sense of gratification, they end up with a sense of bitterness. When a person is allowed, again through the force of law, to receive the benefits of someone else’s work, they no longer feel gratitude, they feel entitlement. Debt relief is very similar. Customers of lending institutions are forced to subsidize the other customers who default on their loan. The defaulter does not learn a lesson and no one is blessed.

The ONE Campaign | About the Campaign would be outstanding if it encouraged Americans to voluntarily reach into their pockets and give. However, it does not. The ONE Campaign is about forcing some people to pay the expenses of others.

I am surprised by the number of people I respect in the blogshere who have signed the Declaration. I am saddened that so many good people think it is acceptable to force others to pay for a cause they consider worthy. I am disheartened that the eighth commandment is so easily overlooked by Christians. I’m hoping some of the signers will reconsider.