Quote
This from David French, writing for the National Review (thanks to Brian):
It is simply a fact that our social problems are increasingly connected to the depravity of the poor. If an American works hard, completes their education, gets married, and stays married, then they will rarely — very rarely — be poor. At the same time, poverty is the handmaiden of illegitimacy, divorce, ignorance, and addiction. As we have poured money into welfare, we've done nothing to address the behaviors that lead to poverty while doing all we can to make that poverty more comfortable and sustainable.
Earlier this week, Walter Russell Mead highlighted disturbing research showing that the poor — far more than the rich — are disconnected from church and religion. While church attendance is dropping among all social classes, it's falling off a cliff for the poorest and least-educated Americans. In other words, the deeper a person slides into poverty, the more they're disconnected from the very values that can save them and their families.
If you were seriously bored, you could have a lot of fun with this. You could note the pronoun disagreements, and make commentary on French's own ignorance. You could wonder exactly how French established a causal relationship between atheism and poverty. You could note that historically the rich haven't entirely been bastions of fidelity and abstinence.
But you really can't argue with stupidity like this. All you can really do, in your depravity, is hope somebody catches it out walking after dark some night, stomps it into a quivering mass, and then drops it down a fucking well.
At least that's what I've been daydreaming about since I read the piece.
Update: Y'know, I'm not a Bible scholar or anything, but this quote also comes to mind:
I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
It's almost like Jesus privileged the poor over the rich. Especially when it came to things like, well, righteousness.
