A friend responds:

"I don't see how sending more money, nor having the gov't spend more money, is necessarily advocating for the poor given the abysmal efficiency and track record of gov't poverty measures. And, of course, there's that teach a man to fish/give a man a fish thing. The worst thing that happened to the poor (and the church, for that matter) was the gov't takeover of charity."

I wanted to respond on the blog because it taps into something I've been meaning to write about. I often hear people say that the government took away what the church should be doing. How exactly did it do that? There is certainly no law prohibiting denominations from setting up new hospitals, new food pantries, private schools etc. There is absolutely nothing that prevents a rich church in the suburbs from diverting their $500,000+ budget away from internal expenses and toward outreach ministry to the communities around them.

Furthermore, for the individual, there is absolutely nothing preventing them from donating money to faith-based institutions to do this charity work. Want to pay less taxes? Donate more of your money! Every dollar you donate to a non-profit is one less dollar that is taxed by the government.

My conservative and libertarian brothers and sisters- the opportunity to stop sending money to the government by giving it to charities is hanging out there. Nobody can stop you. You just have to be willing to give it away.

Cross posted at Open for Ministry.