February 13, 2012
Mark Silk has posted a brilliant takedown of a recent column by Charles Krauthammer in which Krauthammer argued that the Judeo-Christian tradition calls all to private charity but not to government programs to help the poor. As Silk points out, when Moses laid down the Law, it was a solemn, legal obligation, with all the force we associate with a state mandate or program today because, of course, back then, the separation of Church and State would have struck the Israelites as a very odd thing.
The Krauthammer meme is one we hear often on the right and all of us who support government anti-poverty programs should have Silk's argument at the ready.
