I find it ironic that so many conservatives who deplore extended dependence on government welfare (because it destroys the soul) embrace non-ending handouts “from heaven.”

In his 2005 article in The National Review, “Welfare Reform Part II,” Stephen Moore wrote that it was time to start chopping welfare programs again. Moore was not content with the cuts made as part of the 1996 Welfare Reform. It was time to make deeper cuts. In Moore’s opinion, there are deep psychological reasons for kicking people off welfare. These have to do with the alleged fact that extended receipt of welfare assistance destroys human capacity for self initiative. Here are Moore’s own words:

Welfare Reform Part II, if properly implemented, will save money and for those in need restore the dignity of a purposeful life. It will also be consistent with the original intention of aid to the poor, which was to be a temporary safety net for those out of work and out of luck. Back in 1935 the founder of the modern welfare state warned: “Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.” The speaker was Franklin Roosevelt. What a tragedy that seven decades later Uncle Sam is still undermining the human spirit with this destructive narcotic.

Moore’s article reminded me of the relationship that many Christians claim to have with their God. You can constantly hear it in their prayers. They ask for new cars, houses, spouses and better jobs. They don’t stop at material things. They ask for their God to give them courage, patience, wisdom and fortitude. See here and here, for example. The prayers often take the following tone (warning: this is my own semi-cynical paraphrasing):

Oh God, I am nothing. Please take pity on me and give me A, B and C. And tomorrow, please give me D, E and F. I want you to do my thinking for me. Please keep telling me what to do so that I don’t have to do any of that work. Give me strength, mercy, wisdom, patience. Give me give me give me. Someday. please let me into heaven and let me sit on your lap and let me be forever dependent on the things that you will give to me up there.

In short, for many people, God has assumed the role of the Welfare State. It’s a one-way street, where those who pray repeatedly ask their God to satisfy their own needs and wants.

To the extent that Stephen Moore is correct in his analysis of welfare dependence, conservative Christians should be wary of the effect of their own conceptualization of God.

How about this as an alternative, a healthier approach to God? Assume that you were given a great gift by being allowed to be born. This initial gift gave you “dignity of a purposeful life.” Assume that God’s gift of life to you was a “temporary safety net,” but it is now time for you to stop asking for help. It is time for you to pick yourself up and fend for yourself materially, intellectually and emotionally. It is time for you to wean yourself of God-The-Welfare-Administrator.

To do otherwise is to become dependent upon your God as “a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit.”