Letters From Grandpa #226

LETTERS FROM GRANDPA # 226

Dearest grandchild,

Today’s letter will deal with work. While reading the Ten Commandments many focus on a day of rest, but the same commandment states “Six days you shall labor and do your work” (Ex. 20:8). Work is so important to God that the Scriptures state: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).

Nicholas Kristof, writing in the N.Y. Times, asserted that there is “overwhelming evidence” that poverty in the black community is due to “racial subjugation” and the “lingering affect of slavery”. Thomas Sowell, who is black, takes exception to this and asks for the evidence.

Sowell insists that 50 years of liberalism has done more to damage blacks than 100 years of post slavery poverty. He states that poverty rates among blacks when from 87% in 1940 to 47% in 1960. This was before any liberal welfare programs began. Over the next 20 years, he states that poverty rates among blacks fell another 18%. Notice, however, that the 40% drop in the previous 20 years had slowed to 18% after government intervention. Now, unfortunately, things are much worse.

In 1960, almost 100 years after slavery ended, 78% of black children were still raised in two parent families. After 30 years of liberalism 66% of black children were raised by a single parent. Today 77% of black children are born to single mothers. Going back a 100 years to census data we find that blacks actually had a slightly higher marriage rate than whites. The facts seem to prove that liberalism has destroyed the black family, not slavery or it’s lingering affects.

The Bible teaches: “One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys” (Prov. 18:9). Sowell grew up in Harlem. There were no destructive riots in those days. Crime rates were low and it was common in the summer to sleep outside in the park. After several decades of liberalism, however, riots are common and it is not safe to sleep outside anymore. The problem of liberalism has nothing to do with color, but it does have something to do with work. When liberalism was implemented in England, for example, the same ruinous affects were felt in the white community. Please consider this quote is from British physician Theodore Dalrymple in “Life at the Bottom”: “You cannot take a people of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization — including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain — without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large”. Government paternalism has also turned Indian reservations into pockets of poverty, alcoholism and drugs.

Walter Williams, also black, states that even during slavery most black children lived in two parent families. He quotes Herbert Gutman that from 1750-1925 75% of black children lived in families with both parents. From 1905-1925 only 3% of all families were headed by a single mother under 30. Liberalism, however, has sabotaged the black family by subsidizing illegitimate children. As long as there was no man in the house Aid to Dependent Children payments were received. If a man was found in the home the payments stopped.

The Brookings Institute states that you can avoid poverty by following 3 simple rules: 1. Graduate from high school. 2. Don’t get married until you are 21 and don’t have children before you get married. 3. Get a full time job. These rules apply to everyone regardless of color. If you do these 3 things you have only a 2% chance of being poor, and a 74% chance of being in the middle class.

Please do not resent going to work. Jesus said: “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working” (Jn. 5:17). As a young man Jesus worked as a carpenter (Mk. 6:3). When He put aside His carpenter’s tools, He didn’t quit working. He still worked, but now He was a “Carpenter of Souls”. He worked so hard helping people that sometimes He and His disciples didn’t even have time to eat (Mk. 3:21). Some time later Jesus was in a boat crossing the Sea of Galilee. A furious squall came up, the boat was being swamped. The disciples, who were seasoned fishermen, feared for their lives. Jesus was so tired, however, that He was actually sleeping through the storm and had to be awaked by His disciples (Mk. 4:35-41). Obviously Jesus had been working very hard!

Jess Hoover was the realtor who helped Granny and me buy our home. His son died of Leukemia when he was only around 20 years of age. One morning Jess visited him in the hospital and said something like: “Dog gone it, I’ve got to go to work”. His son said: “Dad, don’t ever complain about going to work. I would give anything if I could get out of this bed and go to work”. His son was right! Don't ever complain about going to work!

By the 7" day of creation God had finished His work. Then He put Adam in the garden so that he could “work and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15). There is nothing wrong with work! Paul commanded and urged people to settle down and earn their own bread (2 Thess. 3:12). That kind of bread, of course, will grow moldy and spoil. Jesus therefore encourages us to work for the “food that endures to eternal life”. When we work for God we are laying up treasure in heaven where moth and rust do not corrupt and where thieves cannot break through and steal (Matt. 6:20). Let’s get to work!

I love you,

Grandpa Boyce