Peter Maurin: Feeding the Poor at a Sacrifice from Easy Essays

1. In the first centuries
    of Christianity
    the hungry were fed
    at a personal sacrifice,
    the naked were clothed
    at a personal sacrifice,
    the homeless were sheltered
    at personal sacrifice.
2. And because the poor
    were fed, clothed and sheltered
    at a personal sacrifice,
    the pagans used to say
    about the Christians
    "See how they love each other."
3. In our own day
    the poor are no longer
    fed, clothed, sheltered
    at a personal sacrifice,
    but at the expense
    of the taxpayers.
4. And because the poor
    are no longer
    fed, clothed and sheltered
    the pagans say about the Christians
    "See how they pass the buck."

I'm lousy at writing short so I'll post a few of Dorothy Day's co-founder of Catholic Worker, Peter Maurin's, Easy Essays from time to time.  He was a lot better at it than I am.   He was also a lot more directly critical of Catholics and Christians than I've been because, today, they're being attacked from the other side, the right and the pseudo-left, a lot more than they were when he wrote.  I think the best defense against that is a competition among Christians to see who can get closest do doing what Jesus taught in real life.  If the churches had followed the gospels, the attacks of the neo-atheists wouldn't get any traction whatsoever.  Look at what the gentle turning of the Catholic Church by Pope Francis has done.

Update:  No, I didn't post it because I agree with everything Maurin said, he and Dorothy Day weren't opposed to government programs that fed the poor.  Maurin praised the medieval institution of churches, monasteries, convents as centers of hospitality, which were paid for through taxes.  He was not criticizing the existence of government aid programs, in all their inadequacy, but criticizing Christians for turning their backs on their direct responsibility of the poor.

See, I'm already way over his word count, I'll bet.