When have we given enough to God? to government?

We do an interesting thing at church over the summer for the children’s message.  Every week, one lucky kid gets an empty shoe box and has to put something inside of it by the next Sunday (with certain, appropriate constraints, as you can imagine – “nothing living or recently living” being one of them).  On Sunday morning, the surprise is revealed and our pastor has to spontaneously deliver the message based on what’s in the box.
 
This past weekend, the surprise was a dollar bill and, not surprisingly, the pastor spoke of tithing and saving.  Our pastor said one dime goes first to God from the dollar, the next dime then goes to us to save for a future need, then the following eight dimes we can do with whatever we want, which is truly a blessing.
 
Oh, if it were only true.
 
Since retiring from the military this past year, I have become far more acquainted with where my dimes go.  There is the 15 percent self-employment tax.  The 10 percent federal income tax.  And, then, the 10 percent state income tax.
 
That’s 35 percent.  Or, if we’re talking children’s sermons – 3 dimes and 1 nickel.
 
That leaves my family with four dimes and a nickel for whatever we want – like paying the mortgage, bills, groceries, and, maybe, doing something fun.  Still a blessing, but a much smaller one than the version my pastor related.
 
This is true for every one of us.  All of us give the government more than three dimes (whether you do it or your job does it for you).  This year’s “Tax Freedom Day,” as determined by the Tax Foundation, was April 24 for Virginia.  In other words, the average Virginian worked until April 24 before earning one dime for themselves (or God…because this study only accounts for taxes, not tithes).
 
That’s why when I read this weekend an article by Michael Martz in the Richmond Times-Dispatch about a fundamental “philosophical divide” between Republicans and Democrats, I grow increasingly frustrated. 

“For Gov. Terry McAuliffe, expanding health coverage to uninsured Virginians is ‘a moral imperative.’

“For House Speaker William J. Howell, R-Stafford, accepting billions of dollars from the federal government to expand Virginia’s Medicaid program would be ‘irresponsible’ and ‘financially unsustainable.’

“The battle over health care in Virginia ultimately may come down to two politically powerful men with deeply held, competing visions of their responsibility to the state.

“’It’s a deep philosophical divide,’ said Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, ‘and it’s not going to be bridged in the four years of the McAuliffe administration, period.’”

This is likely true.  But it’s not as if the state isn’t already spending a vast amount of taxpayer money on “moral imperatives.”

The state’s 2010-2012 biennial budget was about $76 billion.  The 2012-2014 biennial budget was $86 billion.  This current budget is now $96 billion.  And everyone’s talking about a “shortfall” and “cuts” because the budget didn’t grow even more than they desired (the final budget is about $1.5 billion less than originially proposed).  (DPB).
 
The reality is this budget, even without Medicaid expansion, is $9 billion in growth. 

Martz goes on to write, “Likewise, Howell and House Republicans have no plan for closing the insurance coverage gap, at least in the next two years.”

This is, of course, accepting the premise that 1) there is a gap and 2) we have to do something about it.
Sometimes there are just going to be gaps.  There will be gaps in education.  There will be gaps in health care.  There will be gaps in, yes, even wealth.
 
While I don’t think any person with a heart wants there to be gaps, most rational people realize there are only so many dimes to go around.

And, with the average American’s debt approaching $200k – not to mention how much they pay in taxes – is it any wonder, then, that US personal savings is at four percent (far less than my pastor’s proposed 10 percent)  and there has been a 40-year decline in the number of Christians who give to their church, although some reports do say other giving is on the mend – just not to God. And definitely not at 10 percent
 
This lack of saving and tithing can directly be traced to one thing – a government that takes too much because they promise a utopia that they will never be able to deliver.  That utopia can only come from God.

The bottom-line is we have a media that is complicit in advancing this “philosophical” difference by being far too willing to talk about “coverage gaps” and phantom “shortfalls” in order to advance a communal agenda that has been proven to fail. Instead, the media should be asking more fundamental questions: what are the moral values of our society? Do we fundamentally value our free will as individuals? Do we recognize that the trade-off for that freedom is being personally responsible for helping others? Do we really want to give government 3.5 times more than what even God demands or what we should be saving?
 
We are asking the government to do the impossible; we are asking them to do only what God can deliver – that is the fundamental philosophical difference.

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J.R. Hoeft is the founder of BearingDrift.com.

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