By Charles Toy
Note: When you see text within a paragraph that's a different color that indicates a hyperlink. If you click on it you will automatically open a tab to an article that will expound on the stated information.
Note: When you see text within a paragraph that's a different color that indicates a hyperlink. If you click on it you will automatically open a tab to an article that will expound on the stated information.
In the last decade we've cut taxes for the wealthy to the tune of 12 Trillions dollars which is 3 quarters if the entire national debt; We fought two unnecessary large scale wars that we didn’t have the money to pay for; We let Wall Street walk away untouched while they looted and crashed our economy reaping all the proceeds for themselves; We handed pharmaceutical companies a goose that lays golden eggs by allowing them to sell us drugs without negotiating prices; AND NOW we're taking away Meals on Wheels and Food Stamps from the poor because “we all have to make sacrifices?”
Does everyone see what a nation of sick barbarians we’ve allowed ourselves to become? Yet, we do nothing. We just keep letting it happen. Over and over again.
James 2:5-8 says: “My dear friends, pay attention. God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world. He has also promised them a share in his kingdom that he will give to everyone who loves him. You mistreat the poor. But isn’t it the rich who boss you around and drag you off to court? Aren’t they the ones who make fun of your Lord? You will do all right, if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves.”
Never again listen to any government official who claims to be a Christian and supports cutting programs for the poor and the sick. They are false Christians. If this were not true they would support any program where we as a society can reach out to the less fortunate and pull them up. IT IS the government’s job! We ARE the government. We are not evil barbarians who let our poor starve and our sick die from lack of health care.
Read Isaiah 10 and Jeremiah 22. See what God thinks of evil Kings who don't care for the poor. We're all for separation of Church and State. We support no official State religion. All must be free to worship or not worship as they see fit. Nevertheless, we expect expect our government to care for the general welfare of the nation, including that of the poor, the sick and the oppressed. It's far too big a job for the Church. To leave it to the Church is unrealistic and impossible.
We’re going to call it the way we see it. Government officials like Michele Bachmann and all the rest of her Tea Party and Republican friends, who obsess about killing off greater access to health care, don’t serve God. When they cut Meals on Wheels and Food stamps they don't serve God. They serve an ideology that is against Christ. We don’t hate them. We pray for them to one day see the light, but they’re flat wrong. 100% wrong.
Senator Bernie Sanders has summed up our sentiments quite well. So the question remain, what do we do about it?
Does everyone see what a nation of sick barbarians we’ve allowed ourselves to become? Yet, we do nothing. We just keep letting it happen. Over and over again.
James 2:5-8 says: “My dear friends, pay attention. God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world. He has also promised them a share in his kingdom that he will give to everyone who loves him. You mistreat the poor. But isn’t it the rich who boss you around and drag you off to court? Aren’t they the ones who make fun of your Lord? You will do all right, if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves.”
Never again listen to any government official who claims to be a Christian and supports cutting programs for the poor and the sick. They are false Christians. If this were not true they would support any program where we as a society can reach out to the less fortunate and pull them up. IT IS the government’s job! We ARE the government. We are not evil barbarians who let our poor starve and our sick die from lack of health care.
Read Isaiah 10 and Jeremiah 22. See what God thinks of evil Kings who don't care for the poor. We're all for separation of Church and State. We support no official State religion. All must be free to worship or not worship as they see fit. Nevertheless, we expect expect our government to care for the general welfare of the nation, including that of the poor, the sick and the oppressed. It's far too big a job for the Church. To leave it to the Church is unrealistic and impossible.
We’re going to call it the way we see it. Government officials like Michele Bachmann and all the rest of her Tea Party and Republican friends, who obsess about killing off greater access to health care, don’t serve God. When they cut Meals on Wheels and Food stamps they don't serve God. They serve an ideology that is against Christ. We don’t hate them. We pray for them to one day see the light, but they’re flat wrong. 100% wrong.
Senator Bernie Sanders has summed up our sentiments quite well. So the question remain, what do we do about it?
It's time to start talking back. There is no sin in speaking the truth.
In Matthew 10: 34-39 Jesus states: “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.”
Post this article on your wall. Talk to your friends and family about it. When they come back at you with the typical conservative propaganda talk back to them. Tell them they are wrong. Do not be swayed.
Tell them that Jesus spelled out his priorities and expectations very clearly in Matthew 25:31-46 when he said:
Matthew 25:31-46 When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For 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, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Be sure to mention a couple of things regarding this passage. Jesus is talking to "the nations." He WILL hold nations accountable. To say that doesn't include governments is ludicrous and contrary to the entire context of the Bible. Also inform them that modern definitions of "right and left" came about in 1879 and have nothing to do with right and left in this passage.
It's time to stand up. It's time to talk back. It's time to speak the truth. Liberals have allowed conservatives to shout them down for far too long. Again, Jesus said, "Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me." Isaiah 1:17 says, “Learn to do good; Seek justice, Rebuke the oppressor; Defend the fatherless, Plead for the widow.”
As Christians, we can't let the 2013 Farm Bill pass when it cuts 2.5 Billion in Food Stamps from the poorest of the poor. They didn't cause this mess and they will languish and die without proper nutrition. It's unacceptable. We must call our elected representatives and The White House and demand that they remove the cuts to Food Stamps.
Chris Hedges is an award winning journalist with a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School. In his recent article, "Rise Up or Die," he states:
"A handful of corporate oligarchs around the globe have everything—wealth, power and privilege—and the rest of us struggle as part of a vast underclass, increasingly impoverished and ruthlessly repressed. There is one set of laws and regulations for us; there is another set of laws and regulations for a power elite that functions as a global mafia.
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers."
He stresses that the least of these are already under water and you and I are next. He warns that the time has come to "Rise Up or Die."
We can't be passive any longer. We can't simply ignore politics because it's "too corrupt." We have to vote, all of us. We must become activists, all of us. We must organize marches and write letters. We must talk back to conservative friends and family. We must donate money as we can to groups that are fighting back. We must do it now. There is no more time to loose.
We're not against the free market, but the free market isn't free anyway. That's an illusion. Right now it's stacked in favor of the wealthy. They have lobbyists write many of the laws In their favor! We must have a well regulated market. Our debt problem would be solved if we stopped letting the rich game the system. They didn't "earn" all that money. They scammed it from everyone else who actually works hard for peanuts and no health coverage. The top marginal rate was 91% from 1954 to 1963. It's time for everyone to wake up from the delusion. We've been brainwashed, and we have to stop allowing it. Our lives, and the lives of our children and grandchildren depend on it.
Please read Paul Krugman;s article, "From the Mouths of Babes" too.
