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| Five pomegranate seeds amounts to about one teaspoon |
In Greek Mythology, Persephone was abducted by Hades and taken to the underworld to be his wife.
Persephone's mother was Demeter who was the goddess of springtime and fertility. In mourning, Demeter cast the world into perpetual winter and famine stalked the land.
Other Greek gods intervened and Persephone was ransomed from the underworld, but there was a catch. While she had been a hostage of Hades, she had eaten five pomegranate seeds. Hades contended that since she had accepted his hospitality, that Persephone OWED him allegiance. After much haggling, Persephone was bound to spend five months of the year in Hades and seven months above ground. Demeter mourned while Persephone was with Hades and winter ruled the land for those five months of the year.
This is my operating model when taking mammon from the government. Ultimately, the price you pay is far in excess of the benefits you gain. If you were a farmer and took out low-interest, government-guaranteed loans, then the government can yank them and force you to refinance at prevailing, distressed buyer rates. If you don't dance to the tune the piper is calling---every minute of the day--- then you can find yourself on your back and spread-eagle.
Even though I am a "practicing" Catholic and attend Mass every Sunday, I find myself lacking sympathy for the plight that various Catholic charities find themselves in. The charities that fly under the banner of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States accepted something like $1.4 BILLION to "relocate" migrants. And now the fire-hose dispensing money stopped and the charities are screaming in pain.
A man, and a church, cannot serve two masters. He cannot serve both mammon and God.
Bringing in migrants lowered wages and increased prices and taxes. Young families find themselves unable to afford to have children. The policies of the Catholic charities of accepting US funding created a moral-hazard for struggling families where aborting unborn children might seem like the only viable solution.
As understood by Catholics, that is not what Jesus would have done.
Bob Dylan wrote a song about that..."You Have To Serve Someone" during his gospel phase. Really good song even if you don't care for Dylan.
ReplyDeleteWell said, and no good answers...
ReplyDeleteIf you become dependent on a source, you will suffer when the source dries up.
ReplyDeleteI have a problem with any church or parent church excepting government funding. One thing is that the church should simply be able to fund these things for itself; That is the expectation as I read scripture. The second is that it does create the problem of two masters.
Very well put ERJ. Back in 1972 (I think) there was a proposal on the Michigan ballot to fund parochial schools with tax money the same as public schools. There was considerable support for that proposal among people who were, or wanted to send their kids to parochial schools. I was against it because I expected the state to then control all schools according to the belief of The State and not the faith of the churches that owned the schools. A lot of friends got mad at me. They were right that the parochial schools would go out of business without the funding and I was right that the schools would have been morally corrupted. We all lost.---ken
ReplyDeleteThe whole situation is fraught w/ landmines, as we are supposed to make efforts towards helping others around the glove, which ostensibly is what USAID was formed and funded to do.
ReplyDeleteI have met and worked w/ refugees from Africa settled into the WNY town I used to live in. Scary stories, literally walked across half the continent fighting lions and jaguars and snakes by hand w/ nothing but the clothes he and his sister were wearing when the neighboring tribe attacked their village....
But at some point, one has to ask are they harming their own people by helping others? And what does the bible have to say there (I honestly don't know)? Forsake my brother for my cousin?
What's happened is the charities are no longer doing charity work, but something more subversive and sinister has taken over. There's no doubt the people as individuals are glad to not be living in a shithole anymore, but then they turn their new home into their old home, and one is forced to ask 'what was the point? Just leave them there if that's what is going to happen'. You're not helping them, if they don't improve their lot, but instead destroy yours.
It is my understanding that International Law requires that political refugees are to stop in the first country that does not overtly put their life at risk. So if they fled Rwanda they should have stopped in Kenya or Uganda. They become ECONOMIC REFUGEES if they continue. There is no moral burden to take on illegal economic refugees.
DeleteOf course, they could apply to immigrate legally and wait their turn, but they would be entering a country with a totally different language and culture.
Used to be that Italians (for instance) immigrated to cities with large Italian populations and family members and the Italian population/family members would supply all of those things USAID is paying churches to provide.
That was a more humane system.
Catholic charity's brought the Hmong to Wisconsin, and
ReplyDeletesomalia to minneapolis, and their gangs. Woody
We donate any money we choose to our church poor box, which helps parish members, or the local food pantry. We had heard rumors about Catholic Charities, as well as other organizations, and decided not to donate there.
ReplyDeleteSouthern NH