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"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also" – James 2:17-26
Jesus tells the parable of the Samaritan who helped the man who fell victim to robbers. He had compassion, bound his wounds, set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn to recover, giving the inn’s keeper payment to cover the costs (Luke 10:25-37). Will the good Samaritan enter the Kingdom of God? Will we?
In the parable, the priest and the Levite passed by the man. Did they miss an opportunity to earn their reward in the Kingdom of God? What if the Samaritan had only just called his local State Senator and Representative to complain about the rise in crime and lack of support for crime victims? Or, what if he only called the local police and medical professionals? Would the Kingdom of God be his reward?
I believe government overreach is stealing our accountability and our salvation. If the government kept to its original set of responsibilities, we would all have more opportunities to do the right thing and be more like the good Samaritan. I’m not suggesting we stop notifying police and our local representatives of problems when they too can help. I’m suggesting we begin to realize that delegating our responsibilities to big government causes missed opportunities to behave like the good Samaritan.
Government Is Out of Its Lane
“Champions are brilliant at the basics.” — John Wooden
Government needs to get better at the basics. It needs to protect our God given rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness before it attempts to create utopia and solve every issue. It’s mainly our fault because we vote to give government too much responsibility while consistently being disappointed in the results.
The political left believes in creating a utopia on earth. Jesus teaches that utopia is only possible in God’s Kingdom. The political left wants a bigger government even when it continues to fail to deliver desired results and even fails to do the basics. The best example is their failure to win the “War on Poverty”.
President Lyndon Johnson promised an unconditional war on poverty in 1964. After 50 years and $ trillions waging war on poverty, poverty won. (Tanner, 2014) During that time, taxpayers gave $16 trillion. In 1964, 23 percent of children lived in poverty. In 2014 it was 22 percent. A very poor return on investment.
Giving big government responsibility to solve problems is an easy sale to the electorate because it removes individual taxpayer responsibility while using someone else’s money. It’s really our money and our responsibility. If big government stayed out of the way, would more churches have stepped in to help? Would the results have been better? Can we really believe God will look favorably upon us because we paid our taxes for programs that didn’t work? And who is accountable when the programs don’t work?
I assert we need to accept responsibility because we elected these politicians. Just as the priest and the Levite will likely be held accountable to God for failing to act, won’t we be held accountable to God for delegating our responsibilities to politicians who promise results and fail to deliver? I believe we intuitively know it’s wrong. Embracing Catholic Social teaching can help us.
Subsidiarity (one of four principles in Catholic Social Teaching) teaches that the large institutions (State and Federal governments) should NOT take on responsibilities that can be performed at the local level. (United Sates Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2023) The larger institution will likely do a poor job and unless we act instead, we are delegating our responsibility, wasting our tax money, and that jeopardizing opportunities for salvation.
The Role of Government
When the government attempts to be responsible for too much, freedom is lost. When freedom is lost, the ability to improve the common good is reduced. Capitalism and individual freedom bring us closer to improving the common good. Freedom achieves results that government dependency can’t.
Our Constitution serves to limit our government to very specific responsibilities. The main responsibility is to protect the God given rights described in our Declaration of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Article 1 Section 8 sets a specific set of powers for the federal government. Beyond these the states and individuals must take responsibility.
How CT Legislators Steal Our Salvation
Like a bad parent who refuses to trust their child to make the correct decisions for themselves to learn and mature, the legislature makes decisions for us to lead us (the children) toward utopia. Politicians’ decisions, especially in CT, treat us like immature ignorant children. Here are two examples.
Connecticut electric rates are among the top five of all 50 states. (Whiting, 2024) Adding insult to injury, legislators have added the Public Benefit portion of the electric bill. This Public Benefit is a way for the legislature to force policies on the state and have the public pay for them by proxy through the electric company. There are two parts to the costs: 1) Excess costs electric companies incur due to increased regulations, and 2) extra costs are incurred because some customers can’t or won’t pay their bills. (Fitch, 2024)
Just as mom and dad used to demand you eat all your vegetables, or you get no ice cream, and you’re sent right to bed, CT politicians say, “pay the Public Benefit and don’t ask any questions”. While forcing the extra charge on our bills, they also gaslight us claiming how a regulation passed in 2023 is saving utility customers money. (O'Leary, 2025) Parents must give children freedom to be responsible and must not lie to get compliance.
Legislators must trust parents when it comes to their children’s health. Connecticut requires parents to have children vaccinated before attending schools. Vaccination coverage has increased in Connecticut while coinciding with a 2021 law that phased out non-medical exemptions. See, “Mom and Dad” know what’s best, “shut up and eat your vegetables”.
Parents should decide what is best for their children. The latest evidence about vaccine efficacy shows many contradictions. Won’t complete transparency and accurate scientific information about vaccine safety and efficacy, instead of tyrannical edicts, help parents make better decisions? Subsidiarity requires these decisions be made at the lowest level (with parents).
Summary
We have delegated some of our responsibilities to the federal and state government. We have failed to appreciate and to follow the principle of subsidiarity. How can we be expected to earn a place in God’s Kingdom when we have ignored our opportunities to be the good Samaritan?
Voters have empowered the government to do what it can’t do and what it shouldn’t do. We have decided to waste our money and sacrifice our salvation, and the government is only too happy to cooperate. Recently we have seen many evil examples unveiled by the Department of Government Efficiency activity. D.O.G.E. has uncovered serious fraud and abuse of our money. This is confirmation that the government is being asked to do more than it can and should do.
When we vote for a bigger government we allow them to steal our salvation. Please think about how you vote. Think about the good Samaritan and let’s model those behaviors. Delegating those to the government helps no one.
Big Government, that nefarious entity, swooping in to snatch away our personal responsibilities and, apparently, our salvation. Because nothing says "spiritual growth" like lamenting that social safety nets are stealing our chances to play Good Samaritan. Perhaps if we dismantle all public assistance, we'll finally have the divine opportunity to step over destitute neighbors on our way to church.