Posted on 10/30/2011 8:33:27 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It's very frustrating to see so many radical ministers, priests, and "spiritual leaders" climbing aboard the ideology of redistribution. There are many who have recently alluded -- if not outright stated -- that the OWS movement is Christian at its core. Some suggest that Jesus himself would be among them. I might agree with that last part, but for different reasons from what they suggest (Jesus sought out the crippled, blind, prostitutes, tax collectors, poor in spirit, demon-possessed, etc., to redeem them...so perhaps he would have been among the OWS crowd, in an effort to save them). Jesus would not have been among them to support their purpose or their approach, and the evidence for this is obvious. The devil (so to speak) is in the details.
Many believers are being sucked into the social justice ideology because of the one simple fact that cannot be ignored -- the Bible instructs us to feed the hungry and care for the poor and downtrodden. This message is everywhere within the text we hold so dear. Because of this fact, socialists and Marxists have used the Bible (that they largely mock) to bludgeon believers. The argument of Christian charity is inescapable. As a result, some believers have quickly embraced the redistributionist ideology. Others, like me, have sensed a false implication behind the message, which urges us to peel the onion a little further.
The social justice crowd -- which includes Barack Obama and many of his Democrat foot soldiers -- promises fundamental transformation, predicated upon the action of wealth redistribution. They promise a vague, undefined, but powerful salvation built on hope. Jesus also promised fundamental transformation, of an equally powerful but opposite kind. The "ends" or results of both types of transformation promise a better world -- a utopia
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
No.
Ain’t nothing Christian about jealousy, envy, bitterness and coveting other people’s wealth. Nothing Christian about focusing on and whining about what you don’t have. Nothing Christian about theft.
Ours was once a robust, muscular appreciation based society. Appreciation that led to the recognition and the taking advantage of opportunities. Being appreciation based and opportunity driven we were propelled to unprecedented wealth, prosperity and growth. Over the past decades we have shifted to more of a flaccid and effete culture dominated by whining and pity. Whining and pity are an outcome of focusing on the negative. All a formula for failure and decline.
Napoleon was right: three newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonettes.
Nope!
Excellent post!!
No, It's Marxist/Communist. They wouldn't even allow businesses to exist. Their government would run everything.
Yes, they do not understand "Thou Shalt not Steal" and "Thou shalt not Covet"
It’s always encouraging to hear that people get it. Thanks for taking the time to give me your positive feedback.
Some questions might be pertinent to this discussion:
Is there agreement that all individuals are imperfect?
Is the idea of individual liberty for all imperfect persons in a society compatible with Christianity? - OR
Is coercive control by some imperfect individuals in positions of power in government over all other imperfect individuals in a society more compatible with Christianity?
Is it agreed that Christian teachings encourage individual benevolence, meekness, etc.? If so, where in those teachings is use of coercive power over the lives of others advocated or encouraged?
Do imperfect individuals who gain coercive power by election to posts in government somehow become more virtuous and wise than likewise imperfect individuals in the society?
Are there examples in American history where the general welfare of the society benefitted by applying the principles of so-called "government" control of the means of production and distribution-- or coercive "redistribution" of the property of those who earned it?
A reading of Governor Bradford's diary of the experience of the Jamestown Colony might be instructive here.
America's Founders preferred liberty for individuals, and their principles made America a desired destination for over 200 years for millions of persons oppressed by their own governments. Here, they found opportunity, and many succeeded to become great philanthropists and benefactors of fellow citizens who were less fortunate.
"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816. ME 15:39
"Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread." --Thomas Jefferson: Autobiography, 1821. ME 1:122
It's no longer "Occupy Wall Street".
It's Obamaville.
Pass the meme on....
The new Hooverville; They want to Hoover your walllet.
Yup. The pundit class assigned this term for homeless encampments to blame Hoover for the Depression, although it was actually another instance of government policy triggering it.
And of course, subsequent policies just made it worse and extended it.
;)
If OWS were about "jealousy, envy, bitterness and coveting other people’s wealth" then why aren't they also demonstrating against Hollywood and Internet zillionaires?
Not to mention why aren’t they also demonstrating against sports stars who get paid millions a year for tossing a ball around?
You think the elite over the last 40 years, via campaign contributions (and very possibly "gratuities" also) to democrat and republican officials, haven't been controlling how the wealth of this country gets distributed into their pockets?
Because people are a lot more forgiving and indulgent when it comes to those who are near and dear to them. The folks that you mention are their spiritual brothers.
And of course, subsequent policies just made it worse and extended it.
I am always amazed by how biased the history of this era is.
Hoover and FDR actually had more similar policies than most
would think. Both as harmful. Looks like I'm preaching to
the quire here tho!
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