Ignoring Most of Their Bible

     One of the most depressing things for me about the whole political climate is that so many of the people who have the agenda of cutting programs to the needy, those who want to provide more resources to big business and the rich, those who think that those who receive food stamps, who get free breakfasts, who get aid to families with dependent children, those who need mental help programs, those who think that we need to cut social services and close the programs that help unemployed claim to be be devout and faithful Christians.

     It seems to me that many of them have this great fear that Christianity is on the wane. That as this nation lives out its ideals about being a multi-race, multi-heritage, multi-faith nation the country they knew and loved is being trashed and insulted. The lost of prayers in Jesus' name at city council meeting, at home football games, at high school graduations means that the people there are not faithful people who are trying to live out their faith in their own private and personal lives.   There are great reasons to celebrate the separation of the Christian faith from the cultural, social, political fabric. If they would read how exciting and dynamic the early church was in the Roman world, they might be more excited. The Christian faith has always done better when it had to fight for its place in a plural religious community. So all the efforts to impose Christianity as the state religion, to impose a religious laws of values against certain people marrying, to impose Christian ideas about abortion, to require Christian practices is to fight against making the Christian faith strong and exciting.

     The second reason that I get most depressed is the evidence that so many people have not read the book they claim to believe. There are so many obvious reason: 1) The Old Testament talks a lot about how the people of God are supposed to treat and welcome the strangers in their midst.  If the Old Testament words about homosexuality are going to be held up, then why not these words that speak about how to treat the immigrants in this country? 2) When you move to the New Testament there is a very consistent message from Jesus and all the early church that our duty as Christians is to help those less fortunate- feed the hungry, give drink to the thirst, clothe the naked, care for the sick.  The whole early church welcomed the widow and children and cared for those who were the bottom of society. The idea that giving more money to the rich will mean more money for the poor just has not happened. Putting in place limits on unemployment benefits, and putting drug test of welfare receivers with the idea that it will make them get a job when there are no jobs available will only create more problems. Paul says not many in the church of Corinth were wealth, rich or powerful.  3) Jesus spoke more about the problems of money than anything else. He told the young ruler to go and sell what he had and serve the poor. There is nothing in the New Testament that favors or give special privileges to the rich. In fact, in James, the church is warned about not doing that.

     We have a horrible political stalemate in our country. We are very evenly divided between red and blue. The vision of so many people who are very much against the poor, the hungry, the unemployed claiming to be good faithful Christians forces many of us to think of finding another name for ourselves.
How can you read the Bible and study what Jesus says and not have more compassion for those who are below the poverty level. Especially when the rich 1% had their income go up by 17% last year and the minimum wage continues the same.