Robert Bolton, Puritan minister, instructs on spiritual self-examination. Some will rob the poor by not giving alms, then try to corrupt God by offering up a share of the spoil. Don’t give to the church if you’ve stolen from the poor by not giving them aid.
Would we object to the idea that the poor have so firm a right to our charity that it’s robbery when aid withheld?
How can you not ask God to take part in robbed goods?
Robert Ellis Thompson, Presbyterian minister, contrasts work of two figures: Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), Scottish Presbyterian minister who wrote on alleviating poverty, versus Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834), an economist who feared population overrunning the food supply.
Which do we rely on today? Does it depend on whether it’s our kids or their kids?
How can you work against wealth hardening your politics against Lazarus?
#christian #goodgoesround #helpthehelpless #presupp #fighthunger
!["It was about 1830 that Chalmers' ideas as to our social responsibility for the poor [took root] ... Previously ...appeals for assistance had been met by the Malthusian arguments that these destitute people had no right to exist and that to keep them alive was but to keep up a breed of paupers to live off the community. It did not require a great deal of wealth to harden Dives' heart against Lazarus."](https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/112/858/038/365/772/930/original/6893106ea317e28c.png)
