You can't beat something with nothing.
I use this phrase all the time. I use it for a reason. The reason is simple: you can't beat something with nothing.
Here is the problem: members of institutions that do not attempt to beat or replace something evil, because they have nothing to offer, are intensely envious against organizations that have in fact attempted to do something. The organizations that do nothing are committed to doing nothing. They are committed to doing nothing as a way of life. But they deeply resent the fact that other institutions are making significant gains, or at least token gains, in dealing with a particular problem.
Let us take the universal problem of alcoholism. This problem can be found in every society, at any point in its history. What has the church, synagogue, or mosque done to deal in a systematic fashion with the problem of alcoholism? The answer is clear: nothing.
People who attend worship services on a regular basis do not want to sit next to drunks, bums, and the general riffraff of society. They want to sit next to people who look pretty much like they do, dress pretty much like they do, and smell pretty much like they do. The riffraff of the world are well aware of this, so they don't step foot inside churches, at least not during worship services. They may knock on the pastor's door, trying to get a handout, but they know better than to come into the worship service. They are not welcome. People know they are not welcome.
This is nothing new. It has been true for centuries. It is why a few denominations support skid row rescue missions. But most do not.
So, in the great division of labor, the institutional churches, synagogues, and mosques defer to other organizations. But then when those organizations are successful, some members of the church, synagogue, or mosque complain that the organization is not run by, and especially not financed by, the church, synagogue, or mosque. The members of the religious groups do not want to fund the treatment centers. They do not want to interact with people who are afflicted by these problems. Yet they resent the fact that other organizations are interacting with such people -- organizations that are independent of the church, synagogue, or mosque.
You can tell exactly what is most important in a person's life by looking in his checkbook stubs or his entries in Quicken. You can do the same with religious organizations. The receipts tell you very clearly where the priorities of the organization are. If you look at the budgets of the church, synagogue, or mosque, you will find that practically nothing is devoted to dealing with programs that systematically treat specific problem areas of society.
In 1840, an organization called the Washingtonians was founded. The organization was remarkably similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. For a time, it helped men sober up. Membership may have been as high as 600,000 at its peak. But then it faded. By 1860, there was hardly a trace of it. It lacked continuity. Most organizations do.
Christians are able to run rescue missions. We don't hear much about rescue missions, but they do exist, and they fulfill an important role in American society, or any society.
In medieval times, hospitals were a development of Christianity. So were universities. But the universities were universally captured by humanists by 1900, because the Christians had already adopted Greek humanism as the foundation of the educational program. Then, when Darwinism came along, natural law theory disappeared, and so did Christian higher education.
Contemporary Christians are incapable of doing much of anything, and they have developed a theology which justifies doing practically nothing. Again, you can see it in the checkbook stubs.
What de Tocqueville described in the 1830's -- the universal presence in the United States of various voluntary organizations to deal with specific problems -- still exists, but these organizations are not often Christian. There's a reason for this. Christians don't want to write the checks, and pastors don't want to start projects that will interfere with building projects, pastoral salaries, and retirement programs. So, we hear the phrase "full-time Christian service." It means getting a paycheck from a church. Maybe a parachurch ministry qualifies. Meanwhile, voluntary societies of all kinds that have no connection with churches or Christianity flourish.
Christians don't want to write the checks, but they also don't want non-Christian organizations to get any credit for accomplishing what the church need not do, but which Christians who are members of churches should do.
What has been Christianity's solution to the need for education? It has been to promote tax-funded education. In other words, Christianity has simply deferred to the state, and the result has been anti-Christian education. Today, pastors do not preach from the pulpit against the public schools. They know better. They would lose too many of their congregations members. There are more Baptists teaching in public schools than there are Baptists teaching in Christian schools. In the 1960s, a series of Supreme Court rulings separated Christianity from state education. This did not lead to an exodus from the public schools by Christians.
Christians do not want to write the checks. It's as simple as that.
The solution offered by modern churches to members who are in financial difficulty is to send them to some government welfare agency.
The churches have defaulted, and they have not given guidance to members who might otherwise start charitable organizations. Then the leadership of the churches wail on the sidelines of life, complaining that the world doesn't pay any attention to the church. This has been going on in Protestant circles for about 300 years. Pastors complained about the Washingtonians in the 1840's. They also complained about the Second Great Awakening in the 1840's, just as their predecessors complained about the First Great Awakening in the 1740's. They don't want competition, but they don't want to write the checks. And so it goes.
You can't beat something with nothing. If someone else is doing something positive, and the church has nothing to match it, the church's task is not to criticize whatever is being done. Its task is to get busy. This takes vision. It takes a strategy. It takes money. It takes dedication and leadership.
It is easier to point the finger and complain.
Something is better than nothing. I believe that the vast majority of Christians do not believe this. Their checkbook stubs reveal this. They do not really believe this.
When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me (Matthew 25:31-40).
To avoid guilt for personal inaction, some Christians promote the welfare state. The welfare state was not what Jesus had in mind. An example of such thinking is here. This is the "new social gospel." It's the same old social gospel. It is a statist gospel, not a social gospel. It equates the state with society. These are not the same.
The social gospel is found in Matthew 25:31-40. Its implementation is revealed in checkbook stubs.
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