We need jobs, and charities aren’t very good at providing them.

People don’t seem to be aware that the concept of social security and ‘welfare’ were started by conservative governments Germany and Britain as a matter of national security after they discovered that their working classes weren’t fit enough for military service. That’s the reason the programs were called some variation of ‘social security’.

Of note, despite all of the spitting and yelling about a ‘War on Christmas’, the parking lot of the fundie church down the block was empty Christmas morning, even though it was a Sunday.

Exactly this. It’s the real essence of “faith-based” social support, isn’t it? It’s all about the gracious giver, not the needy recipient. Well, plus reminding everyone involved just who’s who and the implied threat of withh0lding charity if the poor aren’t “deserving” enough. After all, you aren’t entitled to anything.

When I reminded my Fox-watching, bible-thumping sister that not once in recorded history has private charity been sufficient to alleviate poverty, she had nothing to say, and that’s the truly frustrating part — knowing that even though they have no answer, they’re not about to change their minds. And that still they’ll manage to think of themselves as the good guys, the true Christians.