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July 25, 2008
On Foreclosures and Loving our Neighbor
I am willing to admit that I just don’t get it. Take this story for example. It says in part:
Soft housing sales, declining home values, tighter lending standards and a sluggish U.S. economy have left strapped homeowners with few options to avoid foreclosure. Many can’t find buyers or owe more than their home is worth and can’t refinance into an affordable loan.
Now, this is an election year, so some people are suggesting that the government ought to “do something” to help these poor homeowners out of the jam they are in. I’ve got a better idea. How about we let people suffer the consequences of their own decisions? I just don’t see why a poor decision to take on debt on the part of these people calls for the taxpayers to bail them out.
Call me insensitive (again), but I think people need to learn the lesson, “Owe no one anything except to love one another.” (Romans 13:8, NKJV)
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that nobody should help them. It is our moral responsibility, and we must live by the rule “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39) and “give to the poor” (Matthew 10:21). And that is exactly my point. It is the height of immorality for the state to use threat of violence and imprisonment to seize your money to give to people who made bad decisions concerning debt. God’s requirement is not for the government to love our neighbors, but for us to love them . . . voluntarily.
So, it is both morally wrong for the government to seize our money via taxation for the purposes of distributing it to other people; and it is morally wrong for us to place on the government our responsibility to help the poor and those in need. The moral thing to do, the right thing to do, is for each of us, of our own free will, is to help our neighbors who are in need.
Why more people don’t understand this . . . I just don’t get it.
