[John Leland 1789]

I forgot to mention that this is also in response to the thread,

Is the Tea Party unbiblical?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2557392/posts

[Not an Obomunist]

I think the whole issue comes down to this: What course of action will most glorify God?

If a large portion of your resources are taken by government, is sent through a great political machine and a small part of that is dribbled out to those the machine was ostensibly constructed to help the government will get the credit for those scraps it dispenses

If, however,an individual Christian gives of his own free will to the poor directly (or through his local church) then all of what is given goes for what it is intended and Christ himself will be glorified.