Work and Marriage: The Way to End Poverty and Welfare<\/a>“].<\/p>\nFrom their data, Sawhill and Haskins concluded that young Americans who 1) finished high school, 2) got a job, and 3) got married before having children had only a 2 percent chance of falling into poverty. Since that time, conservatives as varied as Ben Sasse and Ben Shapiro have adopted this solution as their own.<\/p>\n
However, the single most elegant means of promoting this program isn\u2019t found in a report from a Washington think-tank or a political candidate\u2019s platform. Instead, it is found in Scripture. As Moses observes in Deuteronomy 10:13, the commandments of God are for our good. The godly path is the wise path, and it generally will lead to a more prosperous life.<\/p>\n
Some might have trouble locating \u201cFinish high school,\u201d in the Bible. My father didn\u2019t. If he quoted Ecclesiastes 9:10 to me about my schoolwork once, he quoted it a hundred times! He understood that discipline and hard work were essential not only to education but everywhere in life.<\/p>\n
The others are more obvious. I Timothy 5:8 was very much on my mind when I refused to marry my wife until I found a job (much to her annoyance, actually). I was not about to establish a household until I could provide for it. Sure, I was providing for it at the rate of $23,500 a year (in 2005), but that was a whole lot better than providing for it at the rate of zero!<\/p>\n
Similarly, all Christians are aware of Hebrews 13:4. Young disciples who honor the marriage bed and shun sexual immorality because of the obvious spiritual dangers will consequently also avoid the less obvious economic dangers. Single motherhood is usually a one-way ticket to poverty (and a lot of other problems besides), but the great majority of women who don\u2019t sin sexually don\u2019t end up as single mothers. If the Christian husband will remain committed to his wife, that percentage goes up to about 99.9 percent.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s way works. It doesn\u2019t work because He upends bags of money on you when you pray for riches, Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar to the contrary. It works because the Biblical values of self-discipline, hard work, and sexual continence are economically useful values. Nearly always, people who practice these things will rise.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, you don\u2019t have to have read the sociological studies and thought deeply about the long-term consequences of your actions to benefit. God has already done the thinking for you. Obey Him, and it will be well with you.<\/p>\n
Of course, all of the above is \u201cnearly always.\u201d Just as there are exceptions to nearly every proverb in the book of Proverbs, there are exceptions to this. There are godly people who find themselves in poverty through circumstances beyond their control, serious health problems being the chief of these. However, those things are the exception, not the rule, and we should not ignore the rule because of the exceptions.<\/p>\n
Sadly, the same forces that have struck at religion in America also have attacked this simple engine for prosperity. The more people deviate from God\u2019s plan for work and the family, the worse they fare economically too. The dimensions of this national disaster are becoming clearer with every passing year.<\/p>\n
The most potent cure for the disease isn\u2019t found in Washington but in the word. If people devote themselves to the teachings of Christ, the problem of poverty will, if not disappear, at least greatly diminish. Those who refuse to do so have no one to blame but themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford In 2003, social scientists Isabell Sawhill and Ron Haskins noticed\u00a0three striking differences between poor people in America and the nonpoor. First, poor people generally hadn\u2019t completed high school; the nonpoor had. Second, nonpoor people kept a steady job; poor people didn\u2019t. Third, nonpoor people got married before having children; poor people…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[381,105,64,38,676,688],"class_list":["post-3933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-education","tag-employment","tag-marriage","tag-morality","tag-poor","tag-poverty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":41146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-poverty-a-sin\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":0},"title":"Is poverty a sin?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 2, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is poverty? And is poverty a sin? Answer: Poverty is the state of being poor. Neither wealth nor poverty is a sin, though people in either state can be tempted to sin. \"Give me neither poverty nor riches - feed me with the food allotted to me; lest\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28690,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/though-poor-they-are-rich\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":1},"title":"Though Poor, They Are Rich","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant \"South of the Border\" is a delightful song that I remember from my boyhood, telling us of our neighbors \"down Mexico way.\" The tune came to mind as I was reading the reports of brethren Robert Turner and V. N. Collins in Plain Talk\u00a0some time ago.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/poverty-in-Mexico.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":62683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-harm-of-living-together-without-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":2},"title":"The Harm of Living Together Without Marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Psalm 50 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Christianity spread through the Gentile world, it faced many challenges \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0For thousands of years, the Gentiles gave little thought to God. Oh, they had their gods, but these were little more than extensions of their own desires. No, they lived in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":63277,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-poor-among-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":3},"title":"The Poor Among Us","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 13, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Poverty is an existing problem. It has always been this way and it will continue until the world ends. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Jesus said \u201cYou will always have the poor among you.\u201d - John 12:8 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Poverty comes from a variety of sources: Circumstances, incapacity, and sometimes even by choice.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":57940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/living-together-before-marriage\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":4},"title":"Living Together Before Marriage","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ray Fowler Here are some statistics on living together before marriage from Michael McManus, the president of Marriage Savers. Statistically speaking, living together is not a trial of marriage, but rather a training for divorce. The number of unmarried couples living together soared 12-fold from 430,000 in 1960 to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":58152,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/more-about-those-strange-macedonians\/","url_meta":{"origin":3933,"position":5},"title":"More About Those “Strange” Macedonians","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bonds Stocks via The Preceptor, Vol. 2, No. 1, Nov. 1952. \"Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}