NewsReal Sunday: The Taxpayer is Not Here to Die For Your Sins

NewsReal Blog ^ | August 16, 2009 | David Swindle

[HorowitzianConservative]

As I pointed out in my last post, the Left has many arrows in its quiver as it pursues its minority objective of imposing socialized medicine on an unwilling majority. One that many have employed is the “Christian Nation” argument. It goes like this: we should have single-payer health care because that’s what Jesus would do. Apparently because Christ healed the sick and the blind he would support socialized medicine.

My NewsReal colleague John Perazzo had a great post on Friday about leftist Ed Schultz using this line of argument and then being confronted by a minister who disagreed with him. He rightfully referred to it as “the year’s greatest television moment.” Here’s the video of Schultz’s rant and the subsequent discussion:

I’ve had this argument before, specifically with my dear friend Pat, who, with my encouraging, has begun commenting on NewsReal under his alias “Clergyman P-Ray.” And to my conservative friends who provide such thoughtful comments: do be nice to Pat if only as a favor to me. His heart is very much in the right place even if his mind is not… yet. The other day I lent him my copy of David Horowitz’s Uncivil Wars with hopes that he might better understand the American Idea. So think of Pat in the context of last week’s NewsReal Sunday post.

Anyway, in one of our online back-and-forths Pat objected to my relating atheist Marxism to his Christian progressivism:

[muawiyah]

Nowhere is it reported that Jesus ever held a gun to the head of a taxpayer and demanded that he “give it up”.

[Longhair_and_Leather]

Dontcha just love how those who have no interest or desire to have a real relationship with Jesus invoke His Name whenever it suits their needs? This is the real meaning of the Third Commandment—Do not use the Name of the LORD your God in vain, for those who do so will not be found blameless.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Good point. While Christians want to help the poor, they don’t necessarily believe in ever expanding government programs to do so.

In fact, Christian charities do a lot of work behind the scenes, and get little if any credit for it. Many good Christians are doing the work themselves, not seeking credit, and not agitating for government programs.

[rigelkentaurus]

As I’ve said before on this forum, having an atheist tell me what I, as Christian should do, is a non-starter. Such deception is only worthy of Lucifer’s followers.

What we are asked to do to help others in need, is from our own inspiration, not from the point to a gun. I don’t really like to point out specific Bible passages, because it is so easy to take them out of context - but there is a section where a woman is putting a very expensive perfume on Jesus and his disciples objected about the waste. Jesus rebuked them because he knew what was in the woman’s heart and stated that she has done a beautiful thing and the poor will always be with you, but that you will not always have me.

The point whenever Jesus healed the sick was not just to heal the sick, but to further believe in him and the Father; repenting of their sins and returning to God. Jesus was not on Earth to further our worldly comfort, but to call us back to him for all eternity.

These kinds of deceptive use of Jesus’ name to further evil RAT subjugation plans just makes me furious.

[sayfer bullets]

"Frankly, I'm fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values."-William Jefferson Clinton

[loveliberty2]

One forgets that when "government"--meaning a group of imperfect persons elected to positions of power over other people's hard-earned money--is seen as the "giver" by those to whom the money (or services) is given, then the recipients' gratitude is directed to those imperfect persons and their cronies, not to "the Giver of all good gifts." That hardly seems to be in keeping with the philosophy of the great teacher who taught individual charity and compassion.

Further, if I go to my Neighbor A's house and ask him to place some of his earnings in an envelope to be given to Neighbor B for food, clothing, medical care, or whatever, and he refuses, then, legally, I must respect his decision and move on.

If I then get all the other neighbors together, we contact our Congressman and pass a law that forces Neighbor A's employer to take the amount we decide upon from his employee's paycheck, to be remitted to Washington so that bureaucrats can take almost half of it and then send a fraction of it back to help Neighbor B, what is it about that series of actions that fits the teachings of that great teacher?

Just a few thoughts to ponder.

[Nosterrex]

The last prophet to try to “reform” the government was John the Baptist, and we all know what happened to him. What is remarkable to me is that Jesus and his disciples avoided political entanglements. They did not come to reform either government or society. They came to change people's hearts and minds. Whether it is the political right or the political left, let's not play secular politics with Jesus. As Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” The Scriptures make it plain that the government exists to punish evil doers, not to provide health care for all people. As far as I know, Jesus never talked about Obamacare.