. . .on Compassionate Conservatism
We take compassion to be one of the characteristics of social conservatism. In this respect it differs from mere financial conservatism. At the same time, social conservatism, while recognizing the need to help those who cannot help themselves, also recognizes the danger that the state in seeking to help the unfortunate may trample on the rights of the individual or sap his initiative.
What are your reactions to the above statement? Please share them or any other thoughts you have on compassionate conservatism.
Note: In error, two sections for "Compassionate Conservatism" were added to this website. I have deleted the first section. Below I have added the last omment from that section.
Last comment from deleted (superfluous) section:
ZGraham said...
I am a strong Christian therefor I believe in compassion however there is a place where we must draw the line. Many unemployed people abuse the welfare system. Is it fair that an individual can choose not to work for his money; rather live off the government, while others choose to struggle to survive. God bless the men who struggle, and God help those who choose to be pigs and steal from the taxpayers.
posted by Ted Hewlett | Post Page
11 comments
11 Comments:
Jesus would be stunned by that comment. I don't think he would of ever considered a life dedicated to the service of others as sapping him of his initiative. Of course he wasn't conservative.
Wayne Fowler
If you want to know why more people don't see God at work in their circumstances,all you have to do is read John 6:14-15. After Jesus had fed the multitude,the people said,"This has got to be Messiah. He's going to be our King whether he likes it or not. Anyone who can take sardines and crackers and turn them into delicious fish sandwiches ought to be King."
But Jesus withdrew. He was not interested in being their welfare system. He's not interested in being yours either. If all you want from Him is His goodies.
Jesus does not hang out with people who want His benefits but don't want a relationship. When you come to Him for Him alone,then you will see Him overcome the insurmountable circumstances in your life.
It is compassionate to teach people to have hope and how to find a job and keep it . Rather than to keep them hopeless with so-called drug treatment centers and very little money to live on. It is better to give people real help with training programmes.
Now you know the difference between a compassionate Social Conservative and a liberal.
Wayne, in reference to your comment above, I don't know any social conservatives who would consider a life dedicated to the service of others as sapping one's initiative. I wonder if your stereotypical view of social conservatives has led to your misunderstanding of what I said.
The point I was making is that we should avoid having the state trample on the rights of individuals or sap the initiative of the one being helped. After all, it is not really helpful in the end if we make an individual dependent on the state to the point where he is not allowed to make crucial decisions for himself, and it is not really helpful if we rob him of the incentive to make his own life better. The person who cannot help himself needs to have help given directly. The person who has the ability to help himself needs to be given the tools to help himself. [This comment posted Nov. 27, 2007]
Ted, I'll quit trolling for a while. My original comment was inflamitory, but that comes from reading so many of the other posts where people make ridiculously "stereotypical" comments about "liberals". You know, that we want teenagers to have sex, promote abortion, just want government to take over.
I absolutely agree with you on what we don't want to do, which is make people dependent. Now you might say why do you support welfare because welfare does that. Well I don't because it does create dependency. However I will fight cuts to welfare because there is no alternative being offered and just saying go get a job is foolishly simplistic.
I'd rather we did things to help people that also gave them the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing it for themselves. But we still need to help.
The problem is as I see it is that unfettered free enterprise leads to a growing gap between rich and poor. This drives much of our social problems. There are two reasonably successful ways of dealing with this.
One is the Japanese approach. Their economy has the lowest gap between its high income earners and low income earners. People can get ahead if they work hard but no one really gets left behind. They have few government social programs but nearly everyone can afford the private ones. Trouble is I don't see any evidence our business leaders moving in that direction.
There is also the Scandinavian approach. There government offers real cradle to grave support programs and people, in general, willingly pay much higher taxes than in Canada to support them. This is combined with a brilliant strategy to give business the ability to change and adapt to the times and makes these countries amongst the most competitive in the world. But Canadians don't like paying taxes.
Either way a compromise between individual and community needs have been found that keeps most people happy.
The recent study on poverty amongst children in this country is a national disgrace. One single mother workers 16 hours a day but still lives below the poverty line. Yet we won't raise the minimum wage to a living wage. We won't support single mothers effectively otherwise either. If we thought raising the child was important we would find effective ways of supporting single parents (and others). But instead all we do is either chide them for having a child in the first place or cut them a tiny check and hope for the best.
Ted I've written all that because I don't think we are too far apart on this issue. We want similar things. Together with differing points of view we could see through to find a better way forward.
Wayne Fowler
Our Governments should not be in the gambling enterprise! There is absolutely no compassion in ripping off ones citizens.
Government should promote public virtue, not seduce its citizens to gamble in state-sponsored vice.
Our Provincial Government is supposed to serve the people of British Columbia, but its moral stance is compromised when it enters into a gambling enterprise.
Citizens should be outraged when their government begins enticing them in potentially destuctive behavior.
Instead of being a positive moral force in society, government contributes to the corruption of society. This ought to be stopped because it is not what our government should be doing.
If we the citizens of British Columbia demand respect,worth,and Compassionate Conservatism we must support Tom Landers and the BC UNITY PARTY to get rid of our present top-down system, one that regards the people like children, unable to make important decisions in their own best interests, and for the creation of a popular,democratic system in which the wisdom of the people in the creation of their Democracy is respected and protected in the B.C.Constitution.
To surrender our destiny to liberal-minded top-down governments, is to be controlled by them like we have been by their unhealthy impositions and policies. It is time for us to take back that control. Only "YOU" can accomplish this!Come and join us.
Fellow Citizens.
To have a compassionate conservative society in B.C. we must get rid of these liberal-minded BC Provincial Governments that behave as Dictators when they get elected. Once they get in power they introduce harmful unhealthy policies and laws,and ignor the citizens who elected them. Look at what they are now teaching our children as healthy and nornal in BC public schools with the help of adult homosexual activist teachers and "liberal-minded" judges and teachers unions. Clubs are formed in B.C.schools and universities where more of our kids are "enticed" into unhealthy behaviors. Kinsey "science" sex education is "imposed" on our children in public schools and universities. When teachers like Dr.Chris Kempling, signs his name to a well reaserched comment in the newspaper he gets suspended, by Wally Oppal and the liberal-minded so he can't make his mortgage payments or feed his family! Chris has a beautiful family and he is a wonderful man. This causes a lot of stress in his family and the liberal minded want to break it up! Are the people of BC brain dead to stand still for this? I sure hope not!
It should be pointed out that Chris Kempling was not suspended directly by Wally Oppal or the provincial government. However, the provincial governmenmt is responsible for allowing the BC College of Teachers and the Quesnel School Board to abuse the powsers that provincial government has delegated to them.
We as Compassionate Conservatives must remember that behind the political public policy debates, media influences,and judges making legislation using the Living Tree and Evolving Society interpretation of Canadian law, are real human beings who are affected adversely by the disintegration of families that these new laws and policies have created. Among them are millions of hurting people-husbands, wives, and children for whom everything stable and predictable has been shattered.
They represent the agonies of loving wives who committed themselves wholly and unreservedly to men who later rejected them for other lovers.
There are husbands who are struggling to raise their kids alone because their wives decided they didn't want to be mothers anymore.
And, of course, the breakup of families results in millions of pitiful children who cry themselves to sleep every night because they miss their mom or dad who is not there to give them a hug or make them a treat.
This is the legacy of no-fault divorce in law, sexual promiscuity taught as normal behaviour in school sex education classes and institutionalized atheism also taught through our schools and universities as the Big Creation Story of Darwinian humanist science that is producing hopelessness and violence. Imposed Judicial Social experimentation has produced these tiny victims who cry out for compassion and understanding. In a democracy Canadian citizens ought to have the responsibility and compassion for their cries and change the bad judicial and political policies that cause their misery. Evil prospers when good men and women choose to do nothing.
The Compassionate Thing For Our Canadian Governments To Do Is To Apologize To All Of Darwin's So-Called Lower Races! Who Only Were Given The Privilege To Vote In Canada In "1947".
All of the so-called Darwin's lower races deserve an apology from Stephen Harper and our Federal and Provincial Governments. Our education establishments were spreading "hate" through scientific racialism. The Darwinian science textbooke were showing pictures depicting six human races and six simian species, allegedly showing the proximity of the "lowest" humans to simians. Imagine how it felt when the Canadian boss-man grabbed my beard and made monkey sounds. I was once hung from a swing by my turban and the swing kicked out from under my feet. Good Samaritans passing by saved my life as the perpetraters laughed their guts out as I was about to die. Even I was socially engineered by our education establishments that I was sub-human because it was in the "science" textbooks. Where is our apology from the Canadian Governments? It is easy to blame everyone else isn't It? We are still waiting for our apology. When will it come?
I am copying an anonymous reader's comments from "New Publishing Setup" to here, as it seems to fit better. I hope replies to this reader will be made here. The comment is below:
"Is there a list of the MP's who are the Social Conservatives within causus?
"How can we mobilize this base of the Conservative party?"
October 27, 2009 1:39 PM
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