Quote:
Originally Posted by ernie
That campus I believe voted 93% republican last election. I expect many blank stares.
And you have opinions like the one student body leader who believes taking care of the poor shouldn't be done by the government but by the churches....and I'm guessing evangelical churches.
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This is a fairly patent theological response to the issue of poverty. While I have no doubt that many within the Evangelical movement (but certainly not all, or even most) have no qualms about leveraging such a position to curb government aid for the poor, this is not a faithful representation of the idea being expressed. Rather, in most evangelical circles, this is a sharp criticism of the church for utterly failing in its social responsibility. The thought is that if the church as a whole were more faithful to its mandate set forth in the mission of Jesus and the apostles, then there would be no need for government intervention. Of course, such an ideal is utopian, but the rhetoric is usually not marshalled to impel governments to dismantle the social safety net; it is most commonly levelled as an internal sanction against the church for mismanaging its resources.