To the Journal editor:

I asked ChatGPT to summarize the 2024 political platforms of the Republican and Democratic Parties. AI gathers information and analyses from an enormous database, so its conclusions are not a simplistic “liberal” or “conservative” bias.

Then I asked ChatGPT to compare and contrast how the Democratic and the Republican Party platforms conform to the Corporal Works of Mercy in Matthew 25. Why? Because in the Final Judgment, God will separate the goats from the sheep solely by this criterion. Who fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, sheltered the homeless and cared for the sick, etc.?

He won’t evaluate how often I went to church, how fervently I prayed, how ardently I flattered Him with adulation, how frequently I took holy sacraments, how tirelessly I poured coffee in the church basement, or how much money I donated toward utilities and stained-glass in an opulent church. He will ask only what actions I took to relieve the physical needs of others.

ChatGPT says the Democratic platform focuses directly on expanding government safety-net programs like SNAP to reduce hunger and food insecurity, while the Republican platform defers to encouraging self-sufficiency and supporting private charity as indirect support mechanisms.

ChatGPT says the Democratic platform focuses directly on clothing and shelter, by advocating for government programs to provide affordable housing initiatives, homeless shelters and direct provision of clothing to those in need, while the Republican platform aligns to principles of subsidiarity: leave these needs to individual charity, to private local efforts.

ChatGPT says the Democratic platform focuses directly on care for the sick by advocating strengthening the ACA, adding a public option, and expanding Medicaid so that all sick Americans have access to necessary medical care, while the Republican platform advocates repealing the ACA, promoting health savings accounts and private health insurance, and leaving control of healthcare to communities and private initiatives.

The conclusion of ChatGPT is that the Democratic Platform aligns directly with the Corporal Works of Mercy by addressing the needs of the poor, hungry, homeless, sick and imprisoned, while the Republican Platform defers wholly to other institutions, to individual responsibility, private charities, and local solutions.

We should indeed support private charities and local initiatives! But history demonstrates that the full army of charitable outreach by Christian churches, local communities, billionaire philanthropists, NGOs and local non-profits cannot put any significant dent in the hunger, homelessness and lack of necessary health care among those whom the Son of Man calls “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine.”

We need much more than the present private resources which the present Republican platform defers to and relies upon. Increasing direct federal aid from the richest nation in the world constitutes the only realistic way to invest what is necessary for the compassionate, Christian task of implementing the Works of Mercy. In the endgame, God won’t ask about my loving thoughts, my good intentions, my best wishes, my inspired hopes or my idealized speculations about how to relieve the physical needs of others. He will only judge how I “acted” toward the underserved, marginalized and vulnerable Americans among us.

Voting is an act. In the voting booth, sincere Christians must mark their ballot according to the standard that “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in. I needed clothes and you clothed me. I was sick and you looked after me….Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”