The Government Vs. Charity

Not long ago I was at a clergy meeting where we were discussing some of the social problems that affect our community. In the room were representatives of a wide array of Christian denominations, from Methodist to Lutheran to UCC to Catholic and conservative evangelicals. In the midst of the discussion about mental health care, one of the conservative evangelicals spoke up, “I cannot support any solution that involves the creation of more government programs. I am all in favor of faith-based initiatives, but more government is not the answer.”

Here, I thought to myself, is a common contemporary Christian position. The government should not be in the “good works” business. Leave that to altruistic Christians, and presumably other compassionate people of any faith or no faith. According to this view, people should not be forced by the government to give money to the poor or disabled. There is no moral benefit in the government imposing its supposedly moral views on us. Morality only applies when we choose to do the right thing, like help those in need. Moreover, government programs have an explicitly secular agenda and are all too often inefficient bureaucracies. These views lead many compassionate and generous Christians to vote against programs for the poor.

There are, however, a few key flaws with this rationale, popular though it may be. The first is simply a matter of practicality. If you care about helping the poor, the government is the only entity that can make an impact towards providing a basic standard of living. The private sector has neither the will nor the resources to tackle the job. In 2011, Americans gave roughly three hundred billion dollars to charities, more than half of which went to churches, educational institutions, and foundations. Last year the federal government provided nearly three hundred billion dollars through Medicaid alone to help the poor. If only Medicaid on the federal level was eliminated, Americans would have to triple their giving to the poor to make up the difference. That does not include any state contributions or the one hundred twenty billion dollars that went to SNAP (aka food stamps) and to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

We already know what would happen if these government programs were cut. Go look at any developing country or read about the history of the United States. We used to have shanty towns, overcrowded tenements, low life expectancy rates, and high infant mortality rates. We were a far more Christian country in the past in terms of church attendance, and yet private charitable giving did not alleviate the effects of wretched poverty. It took the scale of government intervention to make any dent in the problem.

What about the moral arguments? The government cannot legislate morality, right? In fact, American Christians have long lobbied the government to bring about a more Christian society, from the reformation of prisons to the establishment of public schools and the prohibition of alcohol. Morality is about our relations with other people in society as well as our relationship with God. Fostering morality does have a concrete material side. People who have food, shelter, employment, access to healthcare, including mental healthcare are much more likely to live well with others. If we are serious about encouraging morality, one element must be providing for the material well being of those in need.

There is no doubt that we can do things better. Programs to help the poor and disadvantaged have changed dramatically since the days of the New Deal and the Great Society. Just look at the evolution of our farm policy. Today we have faith based non-profits that use government funding to provide essential services. One example in Ames is Friendship Ark Homes, a Christian organization which provides group homes for people with intellectual disabilities and gets the vast majority of its operating income from Medicaid. If you look around Ames, you will discover that most, if not all, non profits rely on government funding in addition to private fundraising.

In this time of austerity and tight budgets, it is imperative that Christians and other people of good will work hard to help those in need. If you are serious about tackling these problems, the solution will involve the government. What we need are constructive voices about the best way to do this and not counterproductive rhetoric that claims things would be better without the government.