Quote Originally Posted by doc_bean
You're really asking to questions here.
1. Wouldn't it be better if they had to get a job ?
2. What's the christian thing to do ?

I'd say they both have very different answers. For society's sake, it would of course be best if all people did their absolute best to improve said society. Be productive !
The christian thing is something different though. It isn't (imho) as important who you give your money to as it is that you give. Christianity focusses on what YOU do, not what other people do, their sins are their business and we should leave the judging up to God. So i'd say the christian thing to do would be to give them money, and let God present the bill in His due time (but don't start feeling superior either...)
I have to disagree with you here. It's our responsibility as Christians to help those in need. Not those that are too lazy to take care of themselves. Can you find any example in the gospel or the New Testament where Jesus acted or spoke in such a way to support the idea that people have an inherent right to a cushy lifestyle without performing any labor for it at all?

The poor in His day were truly in need... any man that could was out in the fields, either their own or hired out to somebody else. You didn't have people that simply didn't work because they didn't feel like it. The 'poor' were cripples, blind, lepers, etc. They had no other options.

I don't see anything in any of Jesus's teachings that state or imply that it is my duty to provide the lazy, the unemployed by choice, with all the luxeries of life. Your argument that it's not up to us what other people do with the charity we offer them opens a pandoras box of social and moral ills that Christ never hinted at, let alone commanded. By your reasoing, as Christians, we SHOULD provide whiskey to hopeless alcoholics, crack to addicts, etc. It's not our place to inhibit their decision, just to provide them with whatever they think they might want. I totally disagree with that. In fact, I think that while it has become ingrained in public policy, it is an evil that Christ would speak against. I personally believe He would be the first one to tell a 19 year old chav 'Get a job'.