Thought of the Day 05.27.09

“Mr. Congressman, I want you to support the new social program. See, I am a lazy man who would prefer to have the government fund my lifestyle by taxing other people, and I hope to take advantage of the services you are trying to target to the truly needy. If you come through for me, I will vote for you next election, and, if your assistance is sufficient, I may even give some back to your campaign.”

“Mr. Congressman, I want you to oppose the new social program. See, I am a Christian who believes families and the local church should be responsible for helping the needy. When people come to our soup kitchen, we share food and the Gospel with them, but I worry your program will replace our efforts and keep people from hearing our Lord’s message. I also worry people will be less generous with their time and money to us if they see the government doing charity for them. I hope you’ll agree with me that it’s better for the church to help people than government.”

See, here’s the funny thing about our current notions of the separation of church and state. Man 1 is engaging in acceptable political lobbying because his motives are merely selfish, but Man 2 is doing something illegitimate because his motives are religious. Does that conclusion seem right?