Responsible

“I am just as guilty of judging the poor as anyone else. I’ve said things like, ‘Well, I’m sure they would just go buy some cigarettes or beer, and I don’t want to enable an addict,’ or, ‘They have government help,’ or, ‘They can always go down to the homeless shelter.’ But here’s the irony: We judge families who get government help while we fail to help those very same people. On top of that, we often advocate shutting down the very social programs that keep their kids from starving. If the government discontinued all welfare programs tomorrow, I’m not sure we would be ready, willing, or able to help all of the people in need in our communities.

We may tell ourselves, ‘It’s not my problem. I have to take care of my own family.’ But if Christians are not responsible to care for the needy, who is?”

--Johnny Carr in “Orphan Justice”