Trailers, handouts, and bailouts

When I was a child, my father would often say to me, “Son, no one owes you a living.” His intention was that I would know that I was responsible for my own life and, should I get married and have children, my own family. Evidently, Dad was wrong. Everywhere one looks it seems that an incredible number of people believe that other people owe them something — especially a living.

The Los Angeles Times reported that, by May 30, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is planning to close the last of the trailers that were provided to people that had been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. There are some 4,600 trailers still occupied and it has been nearly four years since the hurricane.

The Times wrote, “Though federal law prohibited FEMA from providing emergency housing for longer than 18 months, officials repeatedly extended the deadline in acknowledgment of the scope of the destruction.”

One current trailer occupant, said “... she and her longtime boyfriend, a construction worker, can’t afford the rents that have soared in New Orleans since the storm. ‘I don’t have no plan right now,’ she said, sobbing. ‘I don’t know where I’m going to go.’” One resident of Louisiana, however, said, that “some people had grown comfortable in their free digs.”

The issue is not whether people should receive help. Virtually no one believes that the nation should leave suffering people on their own following cataclysmic disasters. The issue is whether those affected bear responsibility for putting the pieces of their own shattered lives together and making a new life following the catastrophe.

Even my father believed that people who were in a bad situation through no fault of their own should get some help — but only if they were trying to help themselves. Dad believed in a “hand up,” rather than a “hand out.”

But, these days, it seems that everyone is looking to be bailed out. Failing corporations, mismanaged businesses, even cities and entire states are looking to be rescued. Incredibly, many of the rich, specifically those who lost millions in the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, have been clamoring for a bailout to be paid for by taxpayers. Even some of those living in mansions are asking for a hand out.

At some point, the money runs out. As California has discovered, you can only give out to so many for so long before there is nothing more to give out. At some point, people, corporations, and government entities must make adjustments, stop looking to others for their sustenance, and assume responsibility for their own lives and futures.

Years ago, a man came into my office and plopped a huge stack of bills on my desk. I looked through them and asked, “What is this?” He replied, “The Bible says that we are to bear one another’s burdens. These bills are my burden. I brought them to you so that the church can bear them.”

Even the Church who, historically, has established hospitals and orphanages, fed the starving, tended the sick, comforted the dying, and cared for the least, the lost, and the lonely, has recognized a balancing truth in the teaching of St. Paul the Apostle, who said, “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thess. 3:10 KJV). It’s almost as if Paul said, “Son, no one owes you a living.”

Surely there is a balance that encourages both compassion and responsibility, both altruism and self-reliance. Surely we can care for those who are victims of unfortunate events while at the same time helping — and expecting — them to stand on their own two feet.

[Father David Epps is the founding pastor of Christ the King Church, 4881 Hwy. 34 E., Sharpsburg, GA 30277, between Peachtree City and Newnan. Services are held Sundays at 8:30 and 10 a.m. He serves as a bishop to the Diocese of the Mid-South and is also the mission pastor of Christ the King Church in Champaign, IL. He may be contacted at frepps@ctkcec.org.]