Whose Moral Compass?

Government cannot “fix” things, because government comes at problems from a fallen human (materialistic) perspective. Free money just isn’t the answer to everything. In fact, it’s not the answer to much of anything, but it is government’s favorite tool. They can use it for bribery, they can punish states and businesses by withholding it, or they can use it to wallpaper their congressional bathrooms – but it never gets at the heart of the problem. God, the real God, is central to informing us who we are and how we should behave.

Marriage was a union between a male and female who together produced, cared for, and raised children. There was a personal moral responsibility to these relationships. Two parent families with a male and female role model were the norm. Taking personal responsibility for the family and individual economic circumstance was the morally responsible way to live and was often rewarded. Being peer accountable to the community was thought of as normal. Even if an individual or family were poor, they had a sense of pride and personal respect. Taking a “handout” was not taken lightly. The one helping had a sense of doing good, the one receiving was appreciative, and when their financial picture changed (for most poverty is a temporary condition) they would help others as they remembered how someone had cared for them.

In the 1960s, the “war on poverty” was declared, which often made government the “daddy,” and removed personal responsibility. It changed the structure of the family and created dependence on the Federal Government rather than on God. Women were financially rewarded for having children out of wedlock, and more children meant more government benefits. In certain communities it became the norm for children to grow up in single parent homes without a father. The children in turn became dependents to the State. So too, the so-called nanny-state also relieved grown children of the responsibility to provide for parents or other family members, and it also encroached upon the churches’ mission of meeting the needs of the poor.

Don and Joy Veinot, Whose Moral Compass?