The Judgment

What follows is my response to a private reply from a good friend and reader of my blogs. I have her permission to post my reply to her. She agreed with my blog, but said that the ideal would be for less government help and more help from individuals and groups. I have no quarrel with that, and posted the following to her.
Text of response: I agree that by far the best way for this woman (see prior blog) to receive the help she needs is through the generosity of individuals, churches, and businesses.  I am an individual, and I helped the woman with the bad tooth...she's one of my employees...receive the opportunity for dental care, medications, and housing.  I continue, through our church, to work with her.  That's far better than any government bureaucracy. 
You are also correct that your concept of private, individual help for all in need is very near utopia.  What do we do in the meanwhile?  Will the woman with the kids raise them on the streets until we get there?  I've seen strong evidence that where government once was the primary opportunity-maker, when private interests stepped in, government left.
In the aftermath of the Hesston, KS tornado in 1990, government set up offices to help those in need, but no one came.  It seems the Mennonites in that area and from all over had been out helping their neighbors from the first moments after the twister struck, and there was little need of government and their disaster programs, by and large.  They folded up operations and left town earlier than they had planned.
I think that notion also works in situations such as this.  Can government step in to help this woman until private interests find her and work with her?  I think that's emphatically yes, if that's the only place she can receive help.  And we need to see that the public programs are in place and funded such that she and her kids can receive the opportunities they need until private interests take over. 
Now, I may have caused some misunderstanding on the blog.  It was not my intent to say that government is the cure for our social ills.  The tea party struck a nerve in me (we had one not two miles from our home here in Wichita).  I don't like taxes and the way they are being used (in some instances) any more than anyone else.  Government is bloated, inefficient, and wasteful.  I don't like the idea that we're buying cheap products from China, shipping them boatloads of cash, then borrowing that cash back to finance a deficit that is off of the charts.  That seems to me to be just a notch or two short of lunacy. 
However, although I dare not paint each participant in the tea parties with the same brush, it is my opinion that most of those who were protesting were anglo middle class people upset at government spending, wanting to keep more for themselves, to use on themselves, to benefit themselves.  One homeless man said in an interview regarding the tea party, "Don't make no difference to me.  I don't pay taxes anyhow."  I suspect the homeless and poor were not well-represented at those events.  They wouldn't have had the transportation available to get them there in any event. 
My real thrust is the kids.  Regardless of the dumb decisions of the adults in their lives, the kids are the future of this society.  The kids are the innocent victims.  And the kids, I think, are the ones Jesus is especially concerned about...and it terrifies me to think that we're (whether individually or collectively through government) throwing them away in the interest of greed and self-indulgence.  It matters not if that is manifested in our individual unwillingness to give to those without, or whether we rally for low taxes so we can maintain our lavish (yes, compared to the rest of the world that's a good word to use) lifestyle.  The result and the judgment of the Almighty are the same.