Issues Tearing Our Nation's Fabric The Center for Reclaiming America

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Welfare Reform
Chapter Twenty–Four

T here is little disagreement among either conservatives or liberals that the current welfare system is broken—a total failure—and something has to change. Total social spending on federal welfare programs has increased more than 500 percent in just thirty years, from $144 billion in 1960 to $787 billion in 1990. To date we have dumped more than $5 trillion into the welfare system, and there are more "poor" Americans today than when welfare was first started. At the outset of the anti-poverty campaign, only 3.5 percent of America’s children were on government subsidies; today, one in every eight children, or 12.9 percent, are being raised on Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).

As programs for poor families have mushroomed since the 1960s, the number of families on food stamps has exploded. Today more than 21 million Americans receive food stamp assistance, with 40 million on welfare rolls. But the real tragedy of these government programs is that they promote dangerous social pathologies that are destroying lives.

To get a welfare check, a single mother must meet two criteria: she must not work, and she must not marry an employed male. At the beginning of the "War on Poverty," nearly a third of all poor families were headed by adults who worked full-time. Today, only 15 percent of welfare families have a working adult in the home. Half of all adults of working age currently receiving assistance do not work at all.

Despite government’s claims that the welfare system does not promote long-term dependence, the record proves just the opposite. A Heritage Foundation study shows that the 4.7 million families on AFDC in 1995 have spent an average of six and a half years on welfare. The average length of stay for welfare families is 13 years, and 75 percent of all welfare recipients remain on the program five years or longer.

The current system is based on the assumption that higher welfare benefits and expanded eligibility are good for children. But this is simply not the case. Higher welfare benefits do not help children; instead, they increase dependence and compound negative feelings of self-doubt. A study by the Congressional Budget Office showed that long periods of welfare dependency can actually reduce a child’s IQ by as much as 20 percent.

Even poverty would be better than the emotional damage being done by today’s welfare system. If government assistance were entirely removed, at least two good things could happen. First, individuals in reduced circumstances would be forced to take the initiative to get work and make themselves employable. And second, many would turn to private and faith-based charities for assistance where they could receive not only physical help and emotional support, but life-saving spiritual and moral counseling.

A Better Way

The Bible speaks often about the responsibility of helping the poor, of providing support for widows and orphans, and caring for those who, through no fault of their own, have fallen on hard times. But the Bible also says, "If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat"(2 Thessalonians 3:10). In Proverbs we read, "He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given" (Proverbs 19:17). But the writer also says, "Laziness casts one into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger" (Proverbs 19:15).

Christian alternatives to poverty programs have often been rejected in the past. But more and more people today, including bureaucrats, are beginning to understand that faith-based programs provide encouragement, incentive, and moral instruction, as well as help with daily needs. Also, those who are helped by communities and churches are more likely to break the poverty addiction and return to a normal life than those who live off government programs.

Mississippi Governor Kirk Fordice is one who understands the importance of faith-building alternatives. "God, not government," he said in The Wall Street Journal, "will be the savior of welfare recipients." Fordice has sponsored programs to end federal entitlements and to put citizens back in touch with their neighbors and local churches. "What is emerging in Mississippi," the Journal opinion piece by Joe Laconte states, "is an unprecedented alliance between the governor, the State Department of Human Services, and scores of local churches."

In 1994, Gov. Fordice summoned his state’s religious leaders to the state capitol and "read them the riot act." He accused Christians of looking the other way when their brothers were in need, and he challenged those present to get busy helping the poor and needy and provide ways to break the addictions of local families to federal assistance. "The present system does absolutely nothing to inspire self-esteem, independence, or healthy family relationships," he said.

Predictably, the state government was cautious at first about the new relationship between church and state, but the rally to turn the tide of poverty did not take long to get started. "Churches are not asked to provide any financial support to welfare recipients," the Journal reported, and "families are not required to attend the churches providing help. No welfare benefits are funneled through congregations, but government assistance, averaging $858 a month per family, continues until they are independent."

Government officials in Mississippi say they believe the churches will do for the poor what government cannot: wield moral authority and instill spiritual values that will help the 50,000 AFDC families in that state to start a new life. People like Rev. Ronald Moore of Stronger Hope Church took the Governor’s challenge and launched programs to help the poor. His congregation of 200 has already adopted 17 welfare families, among whom five had found work by the time of the Journal article.

Accountability First

The biggest mistake in the kind of liberal thinking that has brought about the tragedy of modern welfare dependence is the view that "poverty causes dysfunction." For years, liberal agencies, university sociologists, and think tanks have churned out reports showing that crime, school failure, low cognitive skills, illegitimacy, poor work skills, and even drug use are the result of poverty. The argument was that eliminating poverty through government intervention would solve all the other problems. The best proof of the fallacy of these ideas is that precisely the opposite has happened. The greater the levels of assistance, and the more people involved, the worse the problems become.

Both history and common sense should tell us, as Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation argues, that it is the values and abilities nurtured by the family that will lead to high morale, self-respect, achievement, and higher income. It is true that families with high incomes tend to have good work ethics, better self-control, the ability to defer gratification, and a commitment to education, work, marriage, and community involvement.

But, as usual, the liberals have it backward. Those virtues produce individuals who earn high incomes; it does not work the other way around. In fact, lottery winners offer an interesting comparison. Seldom does sudden wealth give any of them a better life or make them better people. Dozens of studies and news stories confirm that, more often than not, a sudden improvement in one’s financial situation, unless preceded by strong moral values and a proper sense of self-discipline, leads to bitter disappointment and financial ruin.

Another fallacy of the flawed liberal agenda is the idea that it is easy to raise family income through welfare. But this is not the case. Welfare reduces initiative and work ethic and promotes illegitimacy, destructive behaviors, and welfare-addiction. In time, welfare dependence causes a lowering of income and reduced potential to escape the pathologies it creates. An important study conducted by the Office of Economic Opportunity in Seattle in the 1970s found that for every dollar of welfare assistance received by a family, the labor and earnings of poor families decreased by an average of 80 cents.

But for all the financial problems created by welfare, the emotional and moral problems are by far the worst. A national longitudinal study of youth found that boys raised in single-parent households receiving public housing aid are more than five times more likely to engage in criminal activity than boys who are not raised in such conditions. And girls raised in single-parent homes in public housing are five times more likely to bear children out of wedlock than girls who are not raised in those conditions.

Analyzing the results of these studies, Robert Rector concludes that "welfare usually operates as a form of social toxin. The more of this toxin received by a child’s family, the less successful will be the child as an adult." ("Why Congress Must Reform Welfare," Heritage Foundation, 12/95).

Christian Alternatives

When we recognize that the culture of dependency of the past forty years has destroyed millions of lives and turned a once proud and independent people into virtual slaves and wards of the state, we must also recognize our own role in halting the conditions and working to restore a sane, sensitive, and practical balance. It is not enough to say that welfare has failed and then ignore the problems that will result from welfare reform. Even as lawmakers and bureaucrats must come to grips with the chronic problems they have helped create, so Christians and others must be prepared to offer realistic alternatives.

In his book, The Tragedy of American Compassion, Marvin Olasky describes not only the painful legacy of welfare and government programs, but the hopeful results being shown by private and faith-based charities that have engaged these issues in communities all over America. Hundreds of private groups, from the National Red Cross and the Salvation Army, to local volunteer organizations and church groups, have tackled problems such as hunger, substance abuse, domestic violence, and chronic unemployment. With funds from foundations, independent donors, and small individual contributors, they are able to touch lives and teach men, women, and children new attitudes about personal responsibility and the meaning of life.

God’s design for mankind is based on the family—fathers who care for, love, and support their wives and children; mothers who honor their husbands and nurture the young; children who are obedient, respectful, and eager to learn how to make their own way in the world. In Colossians and Ephesians, Paul teaches family duty and relationship as a central tenet of the Christian life. And from beginning to end, the Old Testament teaches that the family that honors God, keeps His commandments, and respects one another will thrive and receive divine blessings.

As we reach out to touch those who are weak, who have lost jobs, or perhaps lost hope, let us not fail to teach these things: God is love, and we are His representatives—His hands and feet—designed to reach a world in need. When we do the work of the Father as it is meant to be done, we will honor Him and love one another. In the end, this is the only kind of welfare reform that will work, and it can change the world.

You can contact this organization:

National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise
1367 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 331-1103

Voice of Calvary Ministries
1655 St. Charles St.
Jackson, Mississippi 39209
(601) 353-1635

For further reading:

Marvin Olasky. The Tragedy of American Compassion. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 1992
James Q. Wilson. The Moral Sense. New York: Macmillan, 1993.
Charles Murray. Losing Ground. New York: Basic Books, 1984.

On the World Wide Web:

Regent University Welfare Reform Project: http://www.welfarereform.org/
Hudson Institute Research: http://www.hudson.org/wpc/
Leadership University: http://www.leaderu.com

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Copyright 1997, Coral Ridge Ministries. All rights reserved.