Some people eats unhealthy food, some people smoke or drink too much alcohol, others riding motorcycles or doing risky sports, others have pre-existing conditions which others don‘t have … how much people choose their lifestyle according to a minimum health risk?
These people make those decisions individually so they also must individually pay for it. Though I do believe that we should help people of true need.
- Those unable to work: the elderly, disabled, widows, orphans, and those genuinely incapacitated
- The destitute and oppressed: those in extreme poverty due to oppression, injustice, misfortune, or circumstances beyond their control
- Strangers and sojourners: foreigners living among us who are genuinely in need (not able-bodied individuals choosing dependency)
- Neighbors and brothers: fellow community members who have fallen into poverty despite working
- The hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, and imprisoned: those suffering these conditions (as Christ identifies with them in Matthew 25)
Biblically, there's a significant difference between:
Scenario A: A person injured once from risky behavior gets emergency help (mercy, Good Samaritan principle)
Scenario B: A system where the prudent are
forced by taxation to continuously pay for the
repeated, chosen consequences of others' ongoing reckless behavior (smoking for 40 years, habitual drunkenness leading to liver failure, etc.)
Scenario B seems to violate multiple Biblical principles:
- It removes consequences (contradicts Galatians 6:7)
- It's compulsory rather than voluntary charity
- It enables ongoing destructive behavior (violates Proverbs 19:19)
- It punishes the prudent to subsidize the foolish
However, Scripture also acknowledges we cannot always know if someone's condition is truly self-inflicted (the Book of Job is entirely about this). Pre-existing conditions, genetic factors, and unknown variables exist.
The Biblical answer might be: Voluntary, localized charity where the givers can use wisdom and discernment - not forced, universal systems that remove all consequences and cannot distinguish between misfortune and foolishness.
