What Would Jesus Do?

You know, I don't believe that the kind of thinking depicted in the picture above ever was in His mind or heart, but it sure seems to be in the hearts and minds of many who call themselves Christians today. It's just one of those things that make me wonder......

I spent 40 years working in public schools and I spent about 15 years working part time in grocery stores. I've had plenty of exposure to people who abused the system, whose priorities were booze, cigs, cable TV, gambling, etc over taking care of their basic needs and the needs of their children. It bothered me a great deal. Made me angry and calloused toward them. The danger in that, however, is that when you start to feel that way you start to judge people (what did Jesus say about judging others?) and you develop the erroneous tendency to lump all poor people together and assume that all of them are like that. Not all poor people in America are free loaders, nor do they want to be. Because some are it seems to me that many of the people on the "Christian Right" make the judgment that all impoverished people in the United States are free loaders. So they persecute all of America's poor by not supporting funding for Government programs designed to feed them, clothe them, provide them with medical care and all of their basic needs. They do this while sanctimoniously puffing out their chests and feeling very pious as they donate a few dollars to feed the people in Africa or South America. These are the same people who have absolutely no aversion to voting for tax cuts for the most wealthy and powerful among us. In fact they think that's a good idea.  What would Jesus say about that?

You see in matters like this I always ask myself, what would HE do and then I come to one conclusion. He would not judge them, He would provide for them their basic needs of food, clothing, shelter and medical care, , and He would NEVER favor the rich over the poor.

Many on the right side of the political spectrum were angry when a federal court ordered that the Ten Commandments be removed from the rotunda of Alabama’s state judicial building in 2011. They are now equally incensed, and rightly so, by the push from some radical groups on the left flank to remove “under God” from the pledge of allegiance.

But if they really want the Ten Commandments to be a guide for our government officials, and if they really believe that it is important for us to pledge our loyalty to this nation “under God”, then why would they want our government to go against the most basic and fundamental teachings of Christ Jesus?

We NEED both parties to work together to make our government programs designed to assist the poor, the sick and the infirmed, more efficient and effective. We need them to work together to clean up the abuses. We need them to jointly develop work incentive programs for those who have become dependant on government taking care of them (and I'm sure there are many of those, but it's not up to you or me to decide or judge them). As I’ve stated in another blog post recently, Republicans must stop constantly saying "cut, cut, cut" and the Democrats have to stop just saying, "fund, fund, fund." Both parties need to look beyond the tunnel vision of their ideologies, stop trying to score political points, and take a serious look at what's happening in the real world of everyday American people. They need to get together, realize there is a serious problem in America with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and collectively start to "fix, fix, fix", a system that is currently broken.

　

"For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ " ~ Deuteronomy 15:11