richardhutnik said:
Another part of this comes in, about God judging nations. While the individualist modern western thought seems to shy away from the concept of people being collectively part of groups, and being judged because you are part of a group, and what it does, you see in the Bible, and even in the places of the Mideast, the concept of people being members of tribes and being judged by what the group does collectively. There is a whole line of thought, theological, and political connected with this. It is a line of thought, foreign to people who have modern western thought actually, wondering how the heck people in the Mideast could be angry at someone for just being an American, with people thinking, "Hey, I am not responsible for what my country does". it is a collective guilt that happens due to what your group has done or failed to do. It isn't about you at all. It is much bigger in the Old Testament texts, but you also see it in the New Testament texts. In light of this, being judged collectively, for who you are part of, it is entirely possible you can build a case of Christians being judged because the nation they are part of didn't look after the poor. The degree of guilt that Christian would come under would be based on their compliance with this lack of concern and their interest in fighting against it, and that could even come down to whether or not they support or oppose welfare programs the state has. Again, it is another angle on the original question. It is said that sins of omission do exist after all. |
Except... in most cases in which god does judge collectivly... he always had exceptions...
and It is specifically stressed that in such groups that it is the INDIVIDUAL corruption of basically every single person there that led to it.
IE Sodomites were ALL uncharitable. That outside Lot, if a begger came to their door, not one person outside of Lot would of helped that beggar.
Setting up a system where charity becomes "of the government" would seem to ENCOURAGE not DISCOURAGE such behavior.
Afterall if Welfare is the government's job, I don't have to worry about that homeless guy on the street. It's surely the government who is letting him down... and not myself afterall.
Additionally, such cases basically came all Pre-JC.
Not that it matters since that if basically anyone who lived in a first world nation truly held themself to the Christian view of charity they'd all likely fall short. Even the people in the poor who are poor.
Your average somalian would kill to be poor in the US.
