And then I wrote ...

by Dick Schilling, Editor Emeritus

... that as children in a Catholic school, we were sometimes challenged to consider making a small contribution to some good cause or another. I’m certain we were not always sure of what exactly we were being asked to support. The Catholic Digest, sort of a Reader’s Digest for Catholics, had an example now and then.
In one, a child came home and said she wanted a dime so she could help out Peg and her babies. Turned out, the cause was pagan babies. Another said he wanted to help buy the Pope a pair of pants. The real cause was the Pope’s drive, called Peter’s Pence.
If such things are confusing for young children, they apparently remain so for somewhat older folks, the so-called millennials, that is, those between 20 and 30. A recent survey showed 56% of them worry about economic insecurity, a socialist theme which implies governments have to “do something” to even things out. Yet those same millennials by a slight majority don’t trust government. There is opportunity for misunderstanding everywhere. There are those who claim the Declaration of Independence says all men are equal. It doesn’t. It says all men are “created” equal, implying that where they go from there is up to them.
There are those who claim the first amendment to our Constitution guarantees separation of church and state. It doesn’t. It guarantees separation of church “from” state, i.e., no state established religion. Big difference. Those same aforementioned socialists have as a goal forcing people of rich states, or those of rich status within a state, to give from their extra to help those with less or little.
Christian religions preach that that is a moral imperative, and when applied to individuals, it would certainly seem to be such. The rich man’s difficulty in getting to heaven is Biblically quoted and supported.
But the socialist “morality” that says governments have the right to take from the rich and give to the poor is not supportable. If a government, without authorization of the majority, confiscates the riches of the more fortunate, as through extra taxation, that is tantamount to theft.
Governments have no moral authority to try to arrive at an equal economic outcome for everyone. Individuals have that responsibility and in most cases the opportunity.
Governments have only the responsibility to create the opportunity, not the result.
In summary, tithing, for example, is a worthy goal for individual Christians.
Government “tithing” with somebody else’s money without the approval of its citizens is criminal.
Words have meaning.