A former Bush administration official, Michael Gerson, threw that idea out in the November issue of Christianity Today in support of the welfare state. That might explain why Gerson’s great, great grandchildren will not be U.S. citizens. Following this strategy, there will not be a United States.

“The mainstream Christian reflection has concluded that government has an important role in pursuing the common good,” he says. “It plays an important role in defending the weak and the vulnerable.”

I guess the decision makers forgot to ask me before they came to this decision. Had they, I might have suggested this country adopted a separation of church and state principle long ago. Perhaps we should stick to it.

To an assumption that welfare programs are illegal because they are not in the Constitution Gerson says, cutting the programs “would be an act of great cruelty.” He is right, unless the programs are replaced by something better.

When Franklin Roosevelt brought us socialism through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid he mortgaged our future. When Lyndon Johnson multiplied these programs with his Great Society in the 1960s, he destroyed families. Now it is pay day.

America is better than the two-party government that has created this mess. We need more political voices, be they Green, Independent, Tea, or other. You should care for your parents. Corporations should give more. Let the church be the church.

Rather than being told how to think, at the very least, let the debate begin.