Turn the Poor over to the Churches and Charities?

Line at a food bank

by Ruth A. Sheets

Back in the 1930’s during the Great Depression, my grandparents depended on several churches for their survival.  I say several because the amount any one church could give to a family was so small that my out-of-work grandfather could not feed his family on it.

With the advent of the food stamps and general welfare programs of the Federal and State Governments, poor people no longer had to go from church to church to seek help through their hard times.  They did not always have to beg at the church door.  They no longer had to sit through worship services that did not necessarily meet their needs in order to receive the pittance churches could afford to hand out.  Some of the stigma was removed from being poor.

Unfortunately, the removal of the stigma rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.  Being poor should be at least a little humiliating so people won’t want to remain in that condition.  The “haves” liked being able to reach down and give a little in order to receive the gratitude of the have-nots. 

It doesn’t matter that in order to receive welfare of any kind, individuals must be nearly in abject poverty.  Married couples have a hard time getting such help because it is assumed that if a man is in the household, he is working and earning enough to support his family or he’s a moocher. 

Many Republicans and Libertarians have chosen ending or severely (even more severely) limiting welfare and food stamps as one of their causes, saying that our nation can’t afford it anymore.  This is at a time when large companies are making record profits but bearly hiring.  This is at a time when many, if not most of the jobs companies are creating are mimimum wage jobs, which as anyone who has ever earned minimum wage knows, is not enough to live on.

I recently heard a report on NPR which included an interview with a truck driver for a food bank.  He told the interviewer and all of America that he thinks helping the poor is the job of the churches and charities and not the Government. 

I know that food banks, thrift stores, and other charitable organizations do a great good in our society.  They can sometimes take the edge off the pain of poverty.  What they cannot do is offer dignity to those who need their services.  They cannot provide a shared experience of conducting one’s life as one chooses:  going to the supermarket, buying new clothing for the kids, using things that are not other people’s discards.  They cannot provide these services on the scale needed in America at this time.

It is ironic that the folks who have the most, resent the commonwealth for trying to level the field for those who have not been as lucky.  I wonder how many of the lucky do their best to avoid paying taxes, but also give as little as they can to the charities that serve the poorest among us.  If they do give anything, it has to make a big splash in the media, “wonderful me giving to those less fortunate than I.”   

It is fascinating that those who earn the least pay the largest percentage of their income for charities, but it is the wealthiest who are celebrated for their largess.

Even if there are a few moochers  around, I’d rather take the chance to provide my fellow citizens with welfare, if needed, and food stamps, if needed, than know they have to go from church to charity to receive enough to survive, as my mother’s family did 75 years ago.