{"id":3417,"date":"2012-05-31T11:27:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T18:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=3417"},"modified":"2025-11-02T17:31:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T00:31:48","slug":"church-and-state-seperation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/?p=3417","title":{"rendered":"Church and State Seperation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So in this year of politics, my Facebook page is filled with commentary.\u00a0 As is the news.\u00a0 And my 14 year old is just BRIMMING with it on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

One of his constant questions is why the Democrats seem to stand for things that are good and the Republicans seem to stand for the opposite.\u00a0\u00a0 He’s read up on both (so he tells me) and doesn’t understand HOW a Republican can be so against helping the poor?\u00a0 “Aren’t they Christians?”\u00a0 (My Mother’s been taking him to church. lol)\u00a0 And its been causing me to do a lot of thinking to try and answer him.<\/p>\n

See I’m hoping to help him see the gray areas to most beliefs.\u00a0 The middle of the road attitude we use to try and be tolerant of each other.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps its just the way I think, but I believe there is never a black\/white choice.\u00a0 There are ALWAYS mitigating circumstances to everything.\u00a0 Seeing those circumstances help us to understand others and other opinions and other choices.\u00a0 Understanding helps us to see those things as different but not necessary evil or wrong.<\/p>\n

And I realized one thing about myself and my political beliefs.\u00a0 I’m kinda glad America is a bit of a welfare state.\u00a0 And in some areas I wish it was more of it.\u00a0 It’s why I like Universal Healthcare Welfare & Unemployment.\u00a0 And why do I feel this?\u00a0 Ironically, due to my Christian upbringing!<\/p>\n

Helping others was a big deal at church when I was growing up.\u00a0 And I watched my mother do it for other breastfeeding mothers for all my life.\u00a0 Being there for your fellow man was what Jesus was all about, according to what I was taught.\u00a0 And it was only when those teachings started to have the words “but” and “only if” attached to the sentiment that I broke with the church.\u00a0 You cannot offer a helping hand and then pull it back when\u00a0 “undesirables” reach for it.<\/p>\n

I got back with God when I used logic to decipher whether I believed in God or not.\u00a0 I asked myself, “Is there a force in my life?”\u00a0 *Glances around and sees way too many coincidental patterns.*\u00a0 Okay.. don’t know what it is was there is SOMETHING in my life… we can call it God if you want to!\u00a0 *wink wink* \u00a0 So I then asked myself what I thought would be the purpose of God?\u00a0 Help us strive to be the best people we can be?\u00a0 Good!\u00a0 But wait, is that even POSSIBLE in one lifetime?\u00a0 How can one lifetime teach us anything, much less everything, there is about being human?\u00a0\u00a0 Ah… but several lifetimes, well, that is another story.\u00a0 *grin*<\/p>\n

So as with politics I looked at it with logic and a humanistic viewpoint and realized we SHOULD be proud that as a country we help our fellow man.\u00a0 Yes, there are people who abuse that, there always will be.\u00a0 After all, where there is a system there will be abuse of said system. \u00a0\u00a0 But that is their lesson and their karma.\u00a0\u00a0 And yes, perhaps it should be on the shoulders of the individual instead of the government, but in a way this kind of makes it easier for all of us to “be there” for others when they are down.\u00a0 Like an insurance company spreading the burden of one man’s accident’s costs amongst those who didn’t have an accident.<\/p>\n

Yet I see people believing this is a responsibility of religion and THAT is what their tithe money should go for.\u00a0 (Although it also goes to church maintenance, salaries, overseas mission support, etc.)\u00a0\u00a0 I am sure much of the tithe money goes to help the “needy”, but it often comes with strings\u00a0 and sometimes leaves out those who don’t go to a church to participate in the giving part.\u00a0 And let’s face it, it rarely helps people above the homeless level.<\/p>\n

So I LIKE to separate my Church and State without separating my humanity to my fellow man.\u00a0 I understand people don’t like getting taxed so idiots can abuse a system, but there are so many more who are NOT abusing the system.\u00a0\u00a0 We pay taxes used to make our life better (roads, laws, etc.) and safer (police, jails, military) why deny the “help our fellow man” part?<\/p>\n

Now I agree the system should do things to curb abuse.\u00a0 I’m ok with drug tests.\u00a0 But I think if you fail a drug test your check should go to a rehab clinic holding a place for you.\u00a0 Cuz if you show up high to get an assistance check.. you got a serious problem.\u00a0\u00a0 And I love WIC, but think formula should NEVER be given out there.\u00a0 Instead coupons for the local Farmers market & breastfeeding help would be more beneficial.\u00a0 If a big business wants to “help” WIC give money instead of wonderful cheap pricing on their products. \u00a0 How much peanut butter do you think I eat in a month!!!\u00a0 (And that is a whole other blog.\u00a0 The big companies getting profits by working the social government systems in place to help the poor.)<\/p>\n

This is how I see our Welfare State.\u00a0 Paying taxes which is used to help those less fortunate is actually a little bit like paying into social security or paying Insurance premiums.\u00a0 The system is gambling that I will never need the money and I’m hedging my bets that they’ll be there if I do.<\/p>\n

Because honestly, most of us who KNOW someone who is in need…. well…. we are too poor to help.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So in this year of politics, my Facebook page is filled with commentary.\u00a0 As is the news.\u00a0 And my 14 year old is just BRIMMING with it on a daily basis. One of his constant questions is why the Democrats … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-just-ramblings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3417"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3655,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3417\/revisions\/3655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.heatherbarton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}