The internet thrives on outrage. It is the fuel that keeps us scrolling, returning again and again to the digital coliseum. With my mouth I profess to hate what the internet has become; a polarized political battlescape of shrieking ideologs. But do I really? A contradiction reveals itself in my actions. If I truly abhor the online culture war, the response of returning to it again would be appear to be pure insanity. But return I do, and not once. Thus, it must be surmised that combat is not only what I expect when I visit, but has become what I want, the very thirst I am seeking to slake. The partial truth is that we want to be scandalized. We want to be shocked. But the full truth might be something more like this: we want to engage with the enemy, because for everything the battle may be, it isn’t boring, and it isn’t doing nothing. Engaging in the culture war in whatever small way we are gifted feels perhaps just a little bit less like we are giving our country over to our enemies without a fight. It feels just a little bit less like we are doing nothing. At the very least, we can be out there letting the world know that it hasn’t won yet.
Today, we confront the latest chapter in this outrage cycle; the sprawling fraud scandals in Minnesota’s social service programs. Child nutrition initiatives, autism therapy services, housing assistance, and untold other humanitarian social programs have been exploited on a staggering scale. A nation that holds the Good Samaritan close to its heartbeat has been systematically betrayed by those it seeks to help, and those it put in charge of helping.
Righteous anger is fitting. Calls for justice are warranted. Yet what truly surprises me is the element of surprise itself. When your enemy meets you on an open battlefield, you are not outraged, because you are not surprised to find him there. Determined to resist, you ride out to meet him precisely where you expect him. But outrage presupposes astonishment; an encounter with an adversary you did not expect to find. Why should we not expect this?
A prudent man, knowing that thieves are prowling about, secures his home. He locks his gates, puts up hedges, employs a faithful watchdog, and sleeps lightly. He expects attempts at theft, and his preparations prove his expectation. Greater surprise would come if no one tried. But when the house stands unguarded; barriers removed, accountability shredded, valuables advertised as easy pickings, the true wonder is not the theft, but that anything remains in the house at dawn.
The Minnesota Fraud Scandals
At the center lies the Feeding Our Future scheme, a nonprofit that exploited federal child nutrition programs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Lax oversight, minimal verification, and rapid program expansion enabled widespread abuse. Federal prosecutors have charged over 78 individuals, with dozens convicted; the scheme siphoned approximately $250–300 million through fraudulent claims for nonexistent meals and shell sites. Funds were diverted to luxury purchases, international transfers back to Somalia to fund clan regimes and terrorist groups, and lavish personal lifestyles. Broader investigations into related Medicaid-funded programs including autism behavioral services, housing stabilization, and childcare, have revealed an even greater scope. Prosecutors estimate potential losses exceeding $9 billion since the late 2010s across multiple initiatives, with half or more of roughly $18 billion in federal funds deemed fraudulent. These relaxed protocols, enacted by the desires of some to extend, some to pretend, and some to signal our oh-so-great compassion, reduced barriers to entry and accountability, turning humanitarian aid into systematic and unchecked exploitation.
The resources lost? They are not dollars that float freely in the cosmos and belong to no-one. They are dollars from your pocket and mine, taken by tyrannical taxation and forced wealth redistribution. Where they might have been used in our own hands, through our own churches, families, and communities to help the needy in our own circles, they were forced from us by a socialism-influenced welfare system designed to “help the people show generosity,” like a smirking line from the Sherrif of Nottingham and his thieving prince. Following this daylight theft, the funds were left in the unprotected house figured above, to be administered by over-emotional fools at best, and nefarious crooks at worst. Indeed friends, it would be the greater shock to discover that fraud and scandal were absent in that house.
The Ancient Stoics and Biblical writers would not share our shock. They would shake their heads at the obvious likelihood of this outcome. They would lament the absence of a virtue called temperance; moderation in desires, diligence in duties. Without it, even if the system were nobly intentioned beyond reproach, it would still breed excess and corruption without fail. The result that we have uncovered is not anomalous. It is not astonishing. It is predictable, expected, and inevitable.
So, what would Seneca and St. Paul teach us about preventing such failures tomorrow? What is the absence of this thing called temperance, and what is its source?
The Stoic Virtue of Temperance: Guarding against Unchecked Desire
In Stoic philosophy, temperance (sōphrosynē) is set forth as one of the four cardinal virtues; alongside wisdom, courage, and justice. Temperence is the embodiment of self-control over the passions, moderation in both desires and actions, and a very deliberate indifference to excess; whether in wealth, pleasure, or ease. The Stoics taught that true freedom and contentment lie not in indulgence in pleasure, reputation, or wealth, but in restraining these very impulses, knowing that they inevitably pull away from reason and virtue. To set this in very simple terms, as I have written elsewhere: “Self-betterment is not about improving what we get, but improving what we want.”
The happiest man alive has not succeeded in gaining what he desires, but in learning to desire what he has.
Seneca distills this concisely in his Letters to Lucilius. “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” (Letter 2). In the Minnesota scandals, this craving was laid starkly bare. What has been revealed is no poverty of need, or of means, but pure poverty of character on the parts of fraudulent applicant, incompetent administrator, and the most foolish voter imaginable.
Marcus Aurelius reinforces the necessity of temperance in Meditations, urging constant personal vigilance against the creep of wanting better outcomes instead of better input. “Will then this (whatever has happened) prevent thee from being just, magnanimous, temperate, prudent…? Will it prevent thee from having modesty, freedom, and everything else…?” (Book 4). He reminds us that external circumstances, be they crises or opportunities, are incapable of taking a man’s virtue, his truest and most prized possession. Rather, laxity in self-examination invites (and indeed, inevitably cements) gradual moral decay certain to result in the ultimate impoverishment of outcomes for individual and nation alike. The Minnesota scandals expose nothing if not enormous systemic and individual intemperance. Civilians, discontent that they already live in a country, time, and society more plenteous with safety, ease, and abundance than any human in history has ever enjoyed, showed themselves willing to sacrifice every ounce of personal virtue to acquire more than these luxuries. Administrators (those not on the take themselves) were discontent that their nation is already the greatest provider of these luxuries the world has ever seen. They craved greater acknowledgement and fame for their lofty altruistic characters. So much so in fact, that they showed themselves willing to steal the labor of their countrymen by intent or neglect, to show themselves to the world as just a little more generous and wonderful, to win the votes of fools yet again.
As the Stoics warn, without temperance guarding both compassionate intent and institutional duty, corruption is not a risk; it is a certainty.
Biblical Wisdom on Diligence and Faithful Stewardship
The Stoics were excellent when it came to pinpointing what actions and thoughts are virtuous; what behaviors are the most conducive to human flourishing and least likely to cause suffering. Where they fell sadly short is identifying the source of virtue itself; the fount from which all virtue flows. Here, Holy Scripture and the self-evident logic of all creation must guide us. Virtues, true virtues, are no less than the immutable tenants of God’s own revealed character. He is the source of all that is good, and there can be nothing that is good that does not come from Him. As St. James testifies: “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17). It is my contention that a truly honest man does not exist who does not know this in his soul. Those who would deny it do so in word only, and are but suppressing what they truthfully know. It is deeply interwoven in the spark of the divine in every heart, God’s image impressed on every human spirit.
Temperance is most certainly among the Godliest of virtues, and more certainly still, it can only come from God. Scripture gives it great place, calling those entrusted with resources and responsible for the care and oversight of others, whether personal or official, to exercise faithful, diligent stewardship. Rulers large (civil magistrates and kings) or small (fathers, mothers), are treated as responsible before God to administer the resources given them in a manner that both reflects His righteousness and justice and protects and upholds the little children, orphans and widows, that are His very heart. The apostle Paul puts this principle as simply as might be. “Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Faithfulness here is not represented by an altruistic and well-meaning heart. The road to hell is paved with such. Rather, what is commanded is active, discerning, temperate exercise of wisdom and just dealings, guarding what has been entrusted with rigorous vigilance and restraint, resisting both the laziness of ease and the excess of greed. No two better descriptors of the Minnesota scandals will ever be found: both an absolute and wonton abandonment of Biblical temperance.
The book of Proverbs reinforces this with more beautified prose: “Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds, for riches do not last forever.” (Proverbs 27:23-24). The shepherd who regularly inspects his flocks and knows them intimately embodies proactive diligence and stewardship; moderate, consistent, and firm oversight that prevents loss through neglect, waste, theft, or hungry predator. Riches, left unattended, vanish; so too do public funds when administrators fail to give attention to clear warning signs, be they lax controls and cart-sized holes in the vault walls, or the unconditioned influx of populations with a long-standing and well-known bent for piracy and fraud.
Jesus Himself illustrates the consequences of stewardship good and poor, in the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30). The master entrusts his servants with variant sums, expecting each to manage them faithfully according to his ability. The faithful servants invest wisely and are rewarded, while the fearful one who buries his talent, neither squandering nor using it productively, is condemned for his unfaithfulness. In the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-13) Jesus commends shrewdness and levies a heavy cost/reward on fidelity at scale. “One who is faithful in little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in little is also dishonest in much.”
Can we expect wisdom in much from stewards who are not interested in the bare baseline of wisdom, the fear of God from whom all virtue comes? Can we expect honesty in much from those not honest enough to admit His existence, let alone His Lordship?
The Unsurprising Bottom Line:
Private funds were first legally stolen out of the hands that generated them, and set aside as public funds to feed the orphan and widow, the poor and the needy. They were entrusted to administrators and program operators who proceeded to ignore red flags, accept minimal or fabricated records, waive basic verification requirements, and take absolutely no care with the production of the United States working class. This reflected neither Stoic temperance nor Christian diligence and stewardship. When reimbursements soared from around three million pre-pandemic to hundreds of millions post-pandemic with little scrutiny and no eyebrows raised, the result was not abundance for the needy, but private enrichment for the vile and fraudulent. As Scripture warns, resources left without temperate, faithful oversight do not endure; they are squandered and disappear, leaving the widow and orphan unserved and public trust eroded entirely.
Preventing Repetition: Restoring Temperance and Stewardship
How can we prevent this from occurring again tomorrow? There are a few obvious answers. One need not be a political scientist to understand them. The remedies are clear, though painfully impossible without immense unity of intent on the part of God’s faithful, with voices lifted as one.
1. Restore faith qualifications for public stewardship. Since temperance is a necessity for the management of public funds and offices, and since it also flows from a commitment to Judeo-Christian values or, at minimum, classical virtue as set forth by the ancient Stoics, we must place in public office only those men and women who adhere to such values. University degrees earned in post-modern relativist academia, secular humanism, socialist ideals, and politically correct signaling; these do nothing to keep the nation whole in the absence of a determined clinging to the values on which it is built. We should return to the once-enforced expectation of a Christian profession of faith, a belief in and fear of God, and good standing membership with a legitimate church tradition in order to hold the slightest responsibility over public funds and regulations. Those absent any belief in God, or fear of Him, are fundamentally unqualified for stewardship and incapable of true temperance. They will inevitably become corrupt, as these are by nature virtues that only proceed from obedience to His principles. We can only blame ourselves when we place those without fear of God in charge, and get Godlessness in result.
2. Rebuild a virtuous citizenry. Similarly, we must immediately cease cultivating a citizenry that is free of the fear of God. Populate a nation with those who have no care for God’s ways, and they will do increasingly what is opposed to God’s character. Massively import, without restraint or assimilation, cultures lacking in the fundamental moral foundations on which our nation is grounded, and inevitably invite outcomes such as the Minnesota Fraud Scandal. This most certainly includes Somalian culture, but is not limited to it. Expand the ranks of the citizenry, through the immigration of the foreign, or through God-stripped education of our own children, with individuals that are known to have none of the moral principles that come from Judeo-Christian values, and we can utter not a syllable of surprise when the populace becomes full of thieves and scam artists instead of stewards and builders.
For Somalia and it’s like: outreach and aid can continue from afar; missionaries, targeted assistance, even foreign aid in some cases in keeping with Christ’s commands to show kindness to the stranger. But it is nationally suicidal to make them “not stranger” to us, inviting them continuously to dilute and stain our own culture with theirs. In this manner we do not succeed in helping them, but merely in becoming them more and more.
3. Devolve responsibility. Until faithful, temperate leadership and citizenry are restored, we will continue a news cycle of corruption and vice. Any respite between stories of scandal and wickedness will forever indicate only one thing; that the next scandal and wickedness is simply as yet undiscovered. With the continuous exercise of foolish import and education (point 2), we have choked and all but eliminated the voting power to elect righteous stewards (point 1). This has made intemperance in public office not a risk, but an inevitability. Godless stewards will not be, and cannot ever be, wise and just. Therefore, we must immediately cease entrusting the production of our hands to them. We must end the welfare programs entirely, not because they might not be national goods if administered righteously, but because we have every rational and reasonable evidence that they will not be. Return the financial power to help the needy back to the hands of the laboring populace, where the old values are still found. As the working populace, and not the university credentialled elite, are those most likely to have the Judeo-Christian foundation necessary to administer aid wisely, the responsibility for aid belongs in their hands. Cease the theft of welfare taxation from the purses of those producing the wealth, and trust the Christian citizen to care for the needy in his own circles.
Critics may object: “We cannot trust people to be generous to the needy.” Yet, I will tell you what we can trust. We can trust with absolute confidence that public officials and private citizenry without Judeo-Christian values will not behave according to them. True compassion requires temperance. Temperance, as all virtues, flows from the fear of God and commitment to His ways and not our own.
Seneca, Solomon, and St. Paul would urge us to clamor for these three things in the town square at any personal risk. For these three things we must and implore our legislators and lawmakers. We must not be deterred by the improbability of success. As the Stoics teach, it is our virtue, our input, that is our contentment, not the outcome. We must speak truth, demand truth, refuse all but truth, and leave the outcome to the hands of providence.
Call to Action:
The Minnesota fraud scandals are not a surprise. They are the inevitable fruit of intemperance, unchecked empathy, and the deliberate abandonment of faithful Christian stewardship. If this piece has stirred your righteous anger and clarified the path forward, do not let it sit unread. Share it.
Post it on X, forward it to friends, send it to your church group, your family chat, or your local representatives. Tag those who need to hear it most; politicians who tout “compassion” without accountability, media voices who downplay the scale, and fellow citizens still asleep to the theft of their labor. Use this suggested caption (or your own):
“The Minnesota fraud scandals aren’t shocking. They’re predictable. Billions stolen from American taxpayers, funneled to luxury and Somalia, all because we traded temperance for emotional reactionism and open doors. Seneca, Solomon, and St. Paul warned us. Time to listen. Time to act.”
Read and share: [link to article]
#Temperance #MinnesotaFraud #FaithfulStewardship #RestoreVirtue”
Truth does not spread by silence.
Spread it now. — D.S. Cook
Key Word / Search Terms
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