Responding to the Compassion Forum, pt. 3
Apr 20th, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 2 Comments |
From the Compassion Forum, last Sunday, at a college in a small town in Pennsylvania:
CLINTON: [T]he incredible demands that God places on us and that the prophets ask of us, and that Christ called us to respond to on behalf of the poor are unavoidable.
And it’s always been curious to me how our debate about religion in America too often misses that.
That is a sentiment you’ll hear from many left-wing Christians. The “values voters” aren’t the only ones who want religion to influence politics:
OBAMA: . . . I am a devout Christian, . . . [and] nobody in a presidential campaign on the Democratic side in recent memory has done more to reach out to the church and talk about, what are our obligations religiously, in terms of doing good works, and how does that inform our politics?
Again, note the first person plural possessive. Our obligations are something that government can fulfill for us. Not only is Clinton functioning with the GMI Myth, as I noted before, but Obama is too.
And since he’s speaking of obligations, he — like Clinton — is edging pretty close to the GIMOO Myth as well.
So I’ll repeat my questions from last time:
What is it about government that would make it better to do something through government than through some other means (some other “organ”)?
And how does government come to have responsibilities? What is the mission of government? (Nobody thinks I have the responsibility to fix the space shuttles, or to take care of my uncle’s neighbor’s headache, or to be your loving wife. So what should we expect government to be doing, and why?)
[...] History News Network wrote an interesting post today on Responding to the Compassion Forum, pt. 3Here’s a quick excerptOBAMA: . . . I am a devout Christian, . . . [and] nobody in a presidential campaign on the Democratic side in recent memory has done more to… [...]
Why can’t you ask nice simple questions like, “What is your favorite color?” or “Where do babies come from?” or “What is the chief end of man?” ;)
This is what I want the government to do (at least today! this has been changing lately for me.): protect me and my family, punish the bad guys, and to help those who can’t (not those that are unwilling) to help themselves.
Anyway, it’s a working theory and not in any way exhaustive.
:)