Recently someone informed me that it was hypocritical to call myself Christian, and to be against many progressive/liberal policies (the specific argument was about US-run welfare)
So my question: is it hypocritical to call myself a Christian and not support welfare programs?
There are many times in the Bible we as Christians are called to give to the poor such as "If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth." 1 John 3:17-18 NIV
So, while it is said that we must be willing to serve and give to the poor, it does not say it is the government's job to serve and give to the poor.
While I won't say if I am for or against government welfare, I do not believe the Bible tells us we must support government welfare.
No, you're not a hypocrite, for two reasons:
The Bible instructs us to be charitable (James, chapter 2, verses 14-17 says that if faith "does not lead to action, it is in itself a lifeless thing" and Proverbs, chapter 11, verses 24-25 says that "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed"). But it does not say that it has to be organized, let alone organized in so specific a way as to necessitate a government program.
Not everyone else is a Christian, and it's reasonable for Christians to support something, but not support mandating that thing for all of society.
As an extension of point #1: charity is a significant part of Christian teaching, but by definition charity ceases to exist when it is at all coerced or compelled. True charity is only possible when it is given voluntarily. Whether one supports government welfare programs or not, they remove the possibility of real charity by their very nature.
It really depends on the policy. The general idea--helping those in need when they cannot help themselves--is certainly compatible with the Gospel. But a lot of welfare programs go beyond simply helping people. By the way they're implemented, they cause recipients to grow dependent on welfare and have a greater incentive to continue participating in the program than to use it as temporary support until they're able to get back on their feet again. This is a direct contradiction of Paul's direction that "if any would not work, [would not, not can not,] neither should he eat."
It would not be hypocritical for a Christian to oppose a corrupt welfare system. But the focus should be on reforming it and trying to establish a working system, not on doing away with the concept altogether.
"is it hypocritical to call myself a Christian and not support welfare programs?"
It looks like this question could be read at least two ways - first, should we support the creation of welfare programs (as opposed to finding other, privately-funded ways to help the poor)? second, should we support welfare programs that have been instituted (as opposed to, say, evading or petitioning to opt out of paying the tax that supports them)?
The second question--do we give our financial support to existing welfare programs if the government compels us to--is easy:
Mark 12:14-17 (NASB):
They came and said to Him, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll-tax to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay or shall we not pay?"
But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, "Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to look at."
They brought one. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" And they said to Him, "Caesar's."
And Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at Him.
Of course this raises the question of whether we ought to 'render unto Caesar' things that are wrong and unjust, which brings us to our first question: Do we say that the government ought to support the poor? The Bible is mostly addressed to individuals, not governments. But there are a couple of clear cases where the rulers of cities and nations are addressed and expected to support the poor, such as Deuteronomy 15:6-8--
"For the LORD your God will bless you as He has promised you, and you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow; and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
--and Daniel 4:27--
`Therefore, O king, may my advice be pleasing to you: break away now from your sins by doing righteousness and from your iniquities by showing mercy to the poor, in case there may be a prolonging of your prosperity.'
Failure to do so when there are means to do so was the sin of the city of Sodom, according to Ezekiel 16:49:
"Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.
Now, if the welfare program is poorly conceived, the law poorly worded, the financial aspects poorly provided for, by all means, one could oppose implementing a welfare program on those grounds--but to do so only because it is a welfare program should certainly be un-Christian.
Of course the government giving its support to the needy does not excuse us from our personal obligations to charity. But the government itself does have this obligation as surely as we do individually.
There are many answers here claiming that welfare is contrary to Christianity. Here's another way.
Yes, to be totally opposed to welfare is wrong and contrary to Christian teaching.
I know that will come as a surprise to the American Christians here (much less to Christians in any other part of the world) but a close reading of the Gospels would really make it clear.
The clearest thing is that Jesus quite clearly commanded us to be generous to the poor, and to take care of those who can't take care of themselves. The parable of the sheep and the goats is all we need to be sure of this, but there are plenty of other places we are commanded to generosity in the New Testament alone. The duties in the Old Testament to look after those unable to look after themselves are equally clear. I hope that no Christian reading this is any doubt about the matter.
Let's move on to some reasons people are giving for not supporting welfare.
One final note - I haven't used the word 'hypocrite' anywhere in here. it's much to strong a word. There are many reasons why people do things we think are contrary to God's will, and I do as many as most. I wouldn't give the label 'hypocrite' just for that. And I' certainly not saying that Christians must support ALL welfare programs.
Your friend suffers from a misconception that in order to identify yourself as a Christian means you are implying you are morally perfect, desire and believe in all the right things, and never act or believe inconsistently. There is not a Christian on the planet who would meet this standard.
The whole point of believing in Christ is that we don't meet a perfect standard, and trust Jesus to allow us to know God in spite of these shortcomings, and that once we believe this, He graciously starts the process of transforming our desires, thoughts, and behaviours. However even with His grace operating in our lives, perfection will only be achieved when we die or Christ returns.
The answer is that it is not inconsistent to be hypocritical or wrong about something (not my opinion on welfare) and identify yourself as a Christian, so long as your hope is in Christ and not your own goodness. Otherwise the gospel would not be good news.
Php 3:8-14 NIV What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (10) I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (11) and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (12) Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. (13) Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, (14) I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
(Emphasis mine)
There is no command in Scripture that compels Christians to seek to create governmental programs of any kind. However, there are plenty of admonitions to love, serve, and be compassionate and generous to others personally.
Even if the government has social programs, that does not alleviate us from our own personal responsibility.
I do know people who suggest the answer to the question of "What would Jesus do?" must, of necessity, mean that we support more and more government social programs. However, a better way to answer that question is to first find out what Jesus did. He never supported government social programs, but He did care for the poor, was kind to children, had compassion on the multitudes, and ultimate sacrificed His life for all mankind.
This is a very poor argument as well, because if we are to make government do what Jesus would do and take over our responsibility, we would need to put prayer back in schools, abolish abortion, put the ten commandments up all over the place, and many other things that your friend would likely not agree with. But you can't pick and choose on this stuff.
The reality is that there are very smart, literate, God-fearing Christians who come down on varying sides of many of the hot-button issues with ample support for whichever angle they find most in-line with their God-given ethical and moral framework. Please note, I'm not saying that morality is relative and not absolute. Instead, I believe that we have varying expressions of God's Divine Essence, as imputed through the Imago Dei and as such certain aspects of God's perfect, absolute moral framework find stronger expression in some than in others. Immigration, Right-To-Life, Gay Marriage, Education (usually in the form of Science Education), and Social Justice (just to name a few) all have well-argued, Bible-based Christian points. Honestly, we need them all since none of us is a perfect manifestation of the heart of God and we need to pay attention to those whose expression of God's ethics may be stronger than ours in various areas.
With all of that said, it's easy to toss out all kinds of phrases, many of which are found in the answers and comments here. "No mandate to support state-sponsored welfare programs" and "the law is poorly-worded" are particularly attention-grabbing. Both of these are anachronistic projections of present-day scenarios onto a culture and time that are not our own. There were "state-sponsored" welfare programs, going back to The Law of Moses that required harvesters to leave a portion for the poor to come and harvest for themselves. Again - this divides people into "but, but, but, see, they had to work for it ... teach them to fish" and "yes, but they didn't plant, fertilize, water, or own that which they took - it was a benefit endowed upon them by the law of the land."
As society evolved, so too did the expression of this. When the Temple was destroyed and the people were exiled, they developed new ways to follow the Law, and the Pharisees eventually emerged as the keepers of this way. They synagogue became the primary location of worship and various means were employed to carry on the sponsored welfare. Contemporary Judaism had the "poor bowl" and "poor basket" available to those in need. The poor bowl was “a weekly dole to the poor of the city and consisted of food and clothing” while the basket was “distributed daily among the wandering paupers and consisted of food.” The "radical" Jewish Essene sect appointed "agents" in cities to provide travelers and the poor with clothing and other necessities. Pious citizens would give while on their way to the temple and people would give food to any of the poor they may encounter. They still kept Torah law which made provision for the poor both for sustenance (e.g. the aforementioned harvest laws) and worship (e.g. sin offering substitutes).
So does this make you a hypocrite for not sponsoring state-funded welfare program. It depends. Probably not, but it depends on why you do not. We're too eager to seek a cut-and-dry answer that allows us to justify our own feelings, but the heart of the matter is the heart of the person. If you do not wish to support this because you see even better ways to provide aid for those in need and you would rather leverage your resources to support those causes, then great. If, however, you simply cannot give because you're upgrading your gaming rig, or purchasing an LCD TV then you run the risk of being like the man who was blessed beyond measure and decided to create new storehouses to hold all of his goods. He died without being of benefit to himself or others.
Those who challenge you as a hypocrite may be well-founded, or not. The reality is, though, that it provides an opportunity for you to evaluate your proximity to the heart of God in this particular area.
I would argue that supporting government-run welfare programs and being Christian is hypocritical, not the other way around.
It is true that the Bible does call for Christians to give to the poor. However, this is a moral decision. Putting this in the hands of the government essentially makes it mandatory. You've lost the ability to make this moral judgement - instead giving becomes expected and enforced, and is meaningless.
In a similar, but perhaps more contrived example, what if a law was considered that made holding non-Christian beliefs a crime? Would be be hypocritical to protest against this bill because it shows that you hold non-Christian beliefs? If the government legislated all good Christian practices, would every citizen be perfectly Christian? As Chris Bowyer put it, charity (and by extension, any moral decision) is only possible when undertaken voluntarily.
One big issue with welfare programs today is that they are done in the name of the Government, rather than in the name of Jesus. The result is, more and more, society looks to Government for things that should be the role of religion. Religious programs are stripped of resources as people take money that would have gone charitably to support competing programs and must spend it in taxes instead. Ultimately, this hurts welfare recipients more than it helps, because it hurts the ability of religion to reach out to the lost among those people.
Another issue with welfare programs is something I call the "Somebody Else's Problem" perspective. When we choose to support political candidates based on their support for government-run social programs, funded through taxes, what we're doing isn't ONLY voting to care for people in need; it's also a vote for someone else to do most of the work and bear most of the cost.
I don't think that's what God wants of us.
While God wants us to love our neighbor, care for the poor, foreigner, orphans, and widows, I don't think he's satisfied with doing it through government programs. I think this is especially true because God wants to see us make the choice to help people, and once such a program is created that choice is removed, and even overruled for anyone who voted in opposition to it.
Instead, I believe God expects us to be directly involved. He wants us to be engaged in a personal way with those we encounter. Government welfare programs tend to limit our ability to engage in this way, rather than enhance it.
It depends. Are you currently tithing? Are you currently feeding the poor where you may find them? Are you ministering to your brothers to do the same? If so, then I believe you might not be hypocritical. If every follower of Jesus strived to do this, there would not be a need for welfare.
