At church today, I scanned the news and notes section of the program and found something interesting. Every week, our pastor writes a column called "Pastor's Pen." This week, he brought up the election and some things to consider as we all went out and voted on Tuesday. Here was his first item.
Helping the poor and disenfranchised. With over 2000 specific passages in the Bible that address our responsibility to care for and empower those on the margins of society, we must put this at the top of the list. It's pretty clear Jesus did.
I find this statement to be quite interesting considering the latest attack on Obama, from the right, regarding how he wants to spread the wealth. I thought the conservative base followed the teachings of Christ? Based on their comments regarding Senator Obama, I guess they don't.
I realize that their stock answer is that they don't want the government to be the entity to re-distribute wealth. Alright, who then? Who has the power to help people as much as the US government? President Bush, for all of this many faults and bullshit, has made a difference in Africa with his AIDS and malaria program. On some small level, he understands what Christ really meant by caring for and empowering those in need.
To be honest, I don't even hear conservatives wanting to help anyone at all...even through private organizations. They lament helping anyone at all as if doing so somehow continues to degrade our culture. I find many of the things that have been said to me and to Senator Obama over the last few weeks to be insulting and morally reprehensible.
How could they miss over 2000 references to what all of us need to do to improve our country and the world? More to the point, what the fuck is the matter with them?
3 comments:
Who has the power to help people as much as the US government?
Who is the US govt M? You are, and I am. So the question really comes down to - can you make me do what you want. If you use the power of the govt, yes, you can. If you only use the power of persuasion, you may not get the same result. As the liberal/left has learned, you won't always have the govt in your pocket - sometimes the conservatives win. When that happens, the power you've pushed for doesn't just disappear, it gets used by the other guys.
I would remind you of Christ's words on taxes - render unto Caesar. There was no conflation of purpose - taxes to the govt, charity to the poor.
I've never heard religious conservatives say this, but I would venture a guess that the underlying fear is that a beneficent government is a competitor and a threat to the church. They see church attendance declining rapidly in Europe, where people get adequate health care and a minimum standard of living, and are afraid the same thing would happen here.
There's also, among the less generous, tax-hating crowd, the desire to control their money and give it to their own church, which will spend it on the "right" people, or at least on attempts to convert others.
It was no accident that Hamas won the Palestinian elections a few years ago. They provided a social safety net, something the corrupt Palestinian Authority failed to do.
To be honest, I don't even hear conservatives wanting to help anyone at all...even through private organizations.
Well, that's proof! Since you've never heard of conservatives helping, it obviously doesn't happen! Except it does. It took me all of two seconds on Google to find this. Based on 2003 IRS data, 28 of the 29 the most charitable states are red states. You know, where all of us greedy, hypocrites live. Seventeen of the 21 least charitable states are blue states.
Perhaps the reason you don't hear about conservatives wanting to help anyone is because it's right there in the Bible that charity shouldn't be flaunted.
Matthew 6:1-4:
"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."
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