Weekly Posting of the Conservative Cow Doctor

 

A Rambling Look at True Charity

Study this scenario: The first house on your street is owned by a single mom whose husband left her and their two preschoolers to move into his parent’s basement so he could save money to attend Occupy protests with his girlfriend. The single mom works the swing shift at Wal-Mart and is barely paying her mortgage and feeding her kids. Her deck is adorned with a hodgepodge of second-hand toys and a wooden utility spool serving as a table.

The second house is home to DINKs (Double Income No Kids). They are a professional couple who are cash flush and own the best of everything. They not only have patio furniture, it is all a South Pacific bamboo theme and the cushions match both the umbrella and barbeque cover.

Answer me this: With the economic disparity between these neighbors, would you feel charitable removing—forcibly—one lounge chair and cushion from the DINK couple and giving it to the single mom? (I used patio furniture rather than tax money because people view it as more personal and thus more thought provoking.) Hidden in the question is the key phrase, feel charitable. This is the single greatest cause of our 14+ trillion dollar debt because quirky politicians feel charitable when they take property from one class of people and redistribute it to another even when it must be done down the barrel of a gun. I’ve watched this syndrome for three legislative sessions and this is exactly how government enslaves its subjects under massive programs. (I’ve seen it happen time and time again.) Big government advocates just don’t understand true charity.

My Random House dictionary defines charity as “donations or generous actions to the poor”, so even Webster has adopted a Marxist slant and we must consult older references to understand the concept. The Bible is a good start. Charity is the giving (another key word) of the first fruits of your bounty to someone in need. Notice the word taking exists nowhere because it’s not charity when you take and then give away the first fruits of others. This is the paradox King David explained in 1 Chronicles 21:24 when refusing to offer a sacrifice which “costs me nothing.” One could assume furthering King David’s logic, the greater your personal sacrifice, the greater your gift, until eventually surrendering your life in exchange for another becomes the greatest gift of all. Such was the recent monumental gift of an Oklahoma mother to her daughter and the impetus for this column.

Last March, 41-year-old Stacie Crimm received the news she both had cancer and was pregnant. Fearing the deleterious affect of chemotherapy on her unborn child, Stacie chose her daughter’s life over her own and refused treatment. Doctors delivered little Dottie Mae by cesarean section when Stacie’s brain stem tumor rendered her unconscious in mid-August. Three weeks later Stacie temporarily regained consciousness, cradled Dottie in her arms and gazed into her eyes for the first and last time. Three days later, Stacie died. Imagine condensing an entire lifetime of emotion between a mother and her daughter into the few minutes Stacie and Dottie shared on Thursday, September 8th. If you have a lump in your throat, you probably understand why Stacie made the ultimate sacrifice. At one month of age, a healthy Dottie Mae left the hospital with her Uncle Ray and her four new siblings.

Many of our problems today stem from the advocates of Marxism confusing all they redistribute by force as true charity while simultaneously diminishing the value of human life. Stacie and Dottie Mae’s story put a powerful face on both points. To get things right in America, we must get right with God and to do anything else is roping the wind.


 
 
 
 
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