Reply #29: That sounds typical.

[silverweb]

Some time ago, I was debating with an evangelical who said much the same thing. I'd been relying on the Sermon on the Mount to reach her with my point that it's our duty to help one another, but she had a different twist on it.

She had been an officer in the Salvation Army and stated that all the charity work they do for the indigent "is merely a lure or an afterthought," as their sole reason for existing is "to snare souls for Christ."

For that reason, she was dead set against any government-run aid to people -- welfare, food stamps, health care, or anything else -- because it short-circuited the "good work" of routing the needy through soul-snatching organizations like her Salvation Army.