Charity must be Voluntary

I had a conversation with one of the members of the legislature the other day. I said, ‘I respect the fact that you believe in small government. I do, too. I also know that you’re a person of faith.

‘Now, when you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he’s probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he is going to ask you what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer.’

John Kasich, Ohio Governor and Presidential Candidate

 

Let's ignore the separation of church and state for the moment and just ponder this future conversation with St. Peter.

 

St. Peter: What did you do for the poor, John?

Kasich: I arranged for tax dollars to pay for their healthcare.

St. Peter: You took monies coerced from the citizens of your state and directed them to the poor to benefit you in the afterlife?

Kasich: What?  Coerced?

St. Peter: I presume the citizens were required to pay the tax or suffer some penalty of law?

Kasich: Well, yeah.  But it was for charity.

St. Peter: You realize it isn't charity unless it's voluntary?

Kasich: Funding through voluntary contributions isn't the way government does things.

St. Peter: Taking money from the person who earned it and giving it to the poor is not a virtue.  Good intentions do not change the fact that it was government-sanctioned theft.  How much of your money did you give to the poor?

 

Imagine if, instead of having government fund this directly, Governor Kasich funneled the money to a church-run charity that did exactly the same thing.  By his own admission, he is funding healthcare for the poor because he wants to have a good answer for St. Peter.  This is about his religious convictions, not secular governance.  Though it would have the same end by different means, there would be a firestorm of protest.  If the Catholic Church is all in favor of the government coercing the taxpayer to fund the poor - a task that was once handled by churches, shouldn't it be automatically opposed as a mix of church and state?  Hasn't government funding allowed churches to direct their money to other issues?  By taking the expense of supporting the poor from churches, isn't that a contribution to churches?

 

Government cannot engage in charity.  Everything government does is founded on its monopoly on the use of force.  Only government can 'legally' initiate force to make people comply.  Non-governmental entities that initiate force are called criminals.