Posted on 03/28/2012 8:52:15 AM PDT by kathsua
I recently watched an old episode of my mom's favorite television show, the "Billy Graham Crusades". Dr. Graham surprised me with some of his comments about the Biblical city of Sodom. He said that greed was one of the sins of the people of Sodom. According to Ezekiel 16:49 - "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."
Many members of the Republican Party have a problem with this same sin. So why do Christians in the Republican Party encourage this sin by supporting low taxes for those with high incomes? Why do Christians support Republicans who don't believe in helping the poor?
Sodom isn't the only Biblical location whose residents were punished by God for mistreating the poor. The Israeli prophets warned the leaders of Israel about the consequences of mistreating the poor before wealthy Israelites were taken into captivity and the land left to the poor.
Ezekiel 22:12 - "you take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD."
Amos 4:1 - "Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, “Bring us some drinks!”
Amos 5:11 - "You levy a straw tax on the poor and impose a tax on their grain. Therefore, though you have built stone mansions, you will not live in them; though you have planted lush vineyards, you will not drink their wine."
Luke and other gospels carry a statement by Jesus about the problem facing the rich. " Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Luke 18:24-5
Preachers often suggest the camel analogy is about something large going through a tight opening. The analogy is more likely a camel saying like the "straw that broke the camel's back" or what happens if someone lets a camel get its head inside a tent. People of that era likely used the task of getting a camel through the eye of a needle as a way to determine how difficult the task was.
The problem with getting a camel through the eye of a needle is the shape of the animal and its sometimes uncooperative nature. The long neck, legs and hump means the task isn't simple even with a very large needle. Keep in mind that a needle has a long portion connected to the eye.
Christian Republicans need to recognize that abortion and sexual morality aren't the only moral issues in politics. Mistreatment of the poor and how the rich acquire wealth are at least as important. Christians need to move away from the greedy Republicans who believe the rich should escape the taxes needed to fund government.
Apples and oranges. Giving more money to the government has nothing to do with helping the poor.
Confusing the two issues is how Dems stay in power.
If you’ll check, Repubs give far more of their personal income to charity than Dems, because Repubs understand their responsibility to help the poor is personal. Dems think someone else should do it.
I am unaware of any plank or position in the Republican party platform which victimizes the poor.
Capitalism helps all people, including the poor.
Welfare hurts them; I’d make an exception for one-time “welfare” if you want to call it that for disaster relief.
The best thing you can do for a poor man is have a good economy going and get him a good job. The absolutely best thing.
So why does this article presuppose that Republicans have anti-poor attitudes? A socialistic welfare state impoverishes EVERYBODY.
I deny this assumption.
Everything else falls apart from there.
Many may be arrogant or prideful about their status, sure. Overfed? They eat well, that's for sure, but I doubt they're all obese. Many of the rich have their own nutrionists and workout instructors to maintain an image. Unconcerned? The poor don't start and fund foundations and endowments.
From Donald Trump to Bill and Melinda Gates to "American Idol", they all give back.
Romney was criticized for his 15% effective tax rate. His charitable contributions were even higher.
Don't paint with a broad brush.
While I don’t disagree that these were sins of Sodom I vehemetly disagree that conservatives don’t care about the poor. In fact time and time again I have seen surveys that indicate it is the dems that fail to commit personal resources to assist others, not conservatives or repubs.
The truth is that the Dems just want the state to do it for them so they don’t have to be “personally involved” in the transaction - which just further indicates they don’t really care about the action, but merely feel it is a disdainful task that requires performance.
In addition, they gain the benefit of exercising power to determine to whom and for what activities the assistance is provided. Power is why they put up with it. Its the arrogant rich (as opposed to all rich) mentality that as long as they get something for it they are willing to have their “people” hand out checks to the underlings.
So if a republican doesn’t cheerfully hand over confiscatory taxes to the GOVERNMENT, somehow they’re anti-poor?
That’s a crock.
Helping the poor is the job of the individual Christian and the church.
Government help to the poor creates dependence and generational misery.
Christians shouldn't support Republicans who believe in helping the poor.
So you may as well ask "Why do Democrats want to help the poor?" The simple and short answer is votes.
Are you joking? I thought this had to be satire while reading it, but there isn’t anything in there suggesting you intended it as such.
As I understand it, you’re suggesting that it is sinful if we fail to support politicians who will use the demonstrably inefficient mechanism of state funded wealth redistribution to create programs that nominally support the poor.
That’s wrong on so many levels, I barely know where to begin.
Let’s start with the idea that the state actually supports the poor. Every piece of evidence on the federal government’s “war on poverty” shows that the only results of state intervention is to create a permanent underclass of poor people. State interventions breed poverty like mouldy sandwiches breed cockroaches. The federal war on poverty breaks up families, destroys independent work ethics, and removes any need for the impoverished to take responsibility for their condition. It promotes the murder of the unborn under the mantra of providing “health” services to the poor. It destroys American business and the ability to generate wealth.
Most importantly from a Christian perspective, the modern practice of pretending to support the poor by voting for pols who will create an unending list of entitlements destroys the meaning of charity. Charity is a personal decision and a recognition by the individual that everything we have comes from God and that we owe it back to him. It is a personal responsibility for the well-being of our neighbors. It is not the lazy feel-good garbage that leftists and statists feel when they take wealth from those who create it and distribute part of it (after taking their cut first) to programs they like.
Personal charity also ensures responsibility for the person receiving the charity. If I give a neighbor a hand up, and that person uses that help irresponsibly, I have satisfied my duty to God and it is in fact a sin to continue to enable sinful behavior through more giving. Statist redistribution, however, is premised on the idea that wealth redistribution should be amoral. In supporting the irresponsibility of recipients of wealth redistribution and failing to hold them accountable, the state is immoral.
Your post is wrong.
Maybe your shouldn’t cherrypick scripture. Try reading Proverbs, which talks a lot about the folly of the lazy and foolish.
Then there is “He who will not worked, will not eat.”
Your don’t do the poor a service by making it easy to be poor. Their difficulties might teach them to think about their life choices, like letting that boy impregnate them.
Oh, please. I trust people to spend their own hard-earned money FAR more than I trust the government. “Funding government” is NOT a worthy goal when it’s like our current government.
I don’t think you’re on the right website. We believe in personal responsibility here, not the glory of government.
"You get no moral credit for forcing other people to do what you think is right." - noted atheist Penn Jillette.
Genesis 19:5,
They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
I’ll agree to bump taxes on the rich when you agree to make homosexuality illegal.
Objecting to feeding the greedy government is certainly not a sin. What makes government greed not a sin? Further, the old testament made it clear that when it came to taxing and justice the rich were to be treated the same as the poor. When God instituted the census tax it was the exact same (one half sheckle) for rich and poor. The tithe was also 10% for everyone, rich or poor. A Christian can use his wealth for the benefit of the poor much better than the government ever could.
with all due respect - I believe your thinking about left/right, rich/poor are a cliche.
Leftists everywhere claim to help the poor, yet everywhere, they hurt them, and create more poor people. In some places its extreme, like China - where the Communists created a first-ever nationwide famine in the early 1960s.
In the United States, leftists have simply made more poor - and destroyed their morals and families. How many people do we have on food stamps now? How many poor children are born without fathers compared to 50 years ago? How many more abortions are "the poor" having now vs. 50 years ago? Its clear Obama loves the poor so much, he wants to create many more of them.
Again, with all due respect, please do your own thinking, and stop swallowing the leftist propoganda whole.
Seriously? Idiot.
Judaism teaches that one of the greatest “mitzvahs”, or good deeds one can perform is to show and encourage a poor person how they can lift themselves out of poverty and do for themselves. This goes right along with Jesus’ teaching, Give a man a fish, he’s fed for a day. Teach him how to fish, he’s fed for life. But then, ex-poor people may become ex-democrats.
No matter how much liberals proclaim, compassion for the poor is not measured by how much of my labor is handed over to a wasteful government.
While there are some poor people in this country, I do not consider a lack of cable TV and the latest iPhone as being "poor".
You are SO on the wrong board, hon!
Generosity toward the poor must remain the province of the individual, the churches and local government. Federal and state government help for the poor will turn into a great mess every time.
Judaism teaches that one of the greatest “mitzvahs”, or good deeds one can perform is to show and encourage a poor person how they can lift themselves out of poverty and do for themselves. This goes right along with Jesus’ teaching, Give a man a fish, he’s fed for a day. Teach him how to fish, he’s fed for life. But then, ex-poor people may become ex-democrats.
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