The Colson Center is coming to Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan for a screening of the groundbreaking new documentary Truth Rising on November 12th. This event is free and open to the public. Join us from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. at the Matthews Performing Arts Center to watch this inspiring film. This event is free, but registration is required.
So secure your spot today at colsoncenter.org slash Grand Rapids. That's colsoncenter.org slash Grand Rapids. Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth for the Colson Center on John Stone Street. Laws raising minimum wage rates are intended to help people in lower income brackets make more money. But in practice, especially with the rise of robotics and AI, it's far more likely that many in this demographic will be edged out of work.
Recently, Dr. Anthony Bradley posted on X about a fully automated McDonald's. He said this: quote, This is the future of fast food. Raising the minimum wage won't save these jobs. Robots don't need unions.
Prediction. Politicians will try to slow automation with new regulations, but it's coming fast. End quote. It's interesting how the supporters of laws that sound good and seem helpful are often quiet when their good intentions don't pan out. Remember the whole Cash for Clunkers program from the early years of the Obama administration?
The program, and I quote here, fueled a car buying spree in the summer of 2009.
However, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institute, it cost $1.4 million for every job it created and did little to reduce carbon emissions. ⁇ Look, the idea of helping should not matter more than actually helping, nor can any intended good justify ineffectiveness or increased harm. Every parent already knows this. A child who says, I didn't mean to, does not magically change what that child did. In their classic book called When Helping Hurts, How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself, scholars Steve Corbett and Brian Fickert noted this, quote, few of us are conscious of having a God complex, which is part of the problem.
We're often deceived by Satan and our sinful natures. For example, consider this. Why do you want to help the poor? Really think about it. What truly motivates you?
Do you really love poor people and want to serve them? Or do you have other motives? I confess to you that part of what motivates me to help the poor is my felt need to accomplish something worthwhile with my life, to be a person of significance, to feel like I have pursued a noble cause, to be a bit like God. End quote. Well, Christ warned against making a public show, both in our worship and in how we care for others.
A number of clicks and shares don't make a good deed better. In fact, that is a measure that should not matter at all. What matters is obeying God's command to love our neighbor. Keeping our help private is an important way to avoid common temptations. For example, the desire to be seen as a good person by others.
Paul wrote, whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters. And Jesus commanded that we not practice our righteousness before men. It's a good habit to do this kind of gut check about what's motivating us to help others. Another temptation, especially for government entities dependent on constantly increased funding, is to not fix the problem. If our own self worth, our employment, or our funding is based on being there for those in need, they always have to be there as well.
No one, of course, would ever say such a thing out loud, but it's a very real temptation. And finally, it's always tempting to confuse pity with charity. This has everything to do with how we think about who people are, especially those we're trying to help. Michael Matheson Miller, who leads the Acton Institute Center for Social Flourishing, describes this as the temptation to treat the poor as objects of our pity, instead of subjects made in the image of God. To be an image bearer is to be an eye.
Not merely one of them. Christians have always cared for the poor, and of course always should. Even more, Christians normalized caring for the poor. It's not a question of if, it's a question of how. How?
If the choice is between giving for bad reasons and not giving at all, by all means give. But righteousness involves both doing the right thing and doing it for the right reasons. good intentions are necessary. but they are not enough. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint.
Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast. And you can find a version of this commentary to download and share with others at breakpoint.org.
