To the editor:

The debate about separation of church and state goes on. So too, the civil responsibility of each. And now, with the most recent cuts in welfare spending, the church once again emerges as a solution to the dilemma, for according to the Sunday article, “Churches’ silence on cuts bewilders advocates,” “It’s right there in the Bible…” My question is, “What’s right there in the Bible?” Matthew 25:31-46 has often been used to promote corporate Christian responsibility for the poor.

Matthew 25:31-46 addresses the earthly treatment of Jesus’ brethren. “For I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was a stranger,” etc., refers to Jesus’ spiritual body, his church. The righteous respond, “When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?” The answer is both exact and clear; “Assuredly I say to you inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto me.”

Simply put, the personal “I” used here represents Jesus’ body of believers on the earth. The passage includes judgment on the ungodly for treatment of his brethren, not how his brethren treated the poor.

If the churches’ silence on cuts bewilders advocates, maybe the advocates response should be, “What can I do on a personal level to alleviate poverty?” rather than lift the Matthew text out of context as a pretext for the churches’ failure to feed the world and become its primary service provider for material needs.

Lawrence Lind,

Lawrence