Gibson writes: "Even conservative Christian students at the university where Rick Perry made his remarks about leading by a Christian example agree that it's 'un-Christian' to deny life-saving medical care to the uninsured. And plenty of Christian leaders are still calling for an end to brutal budget cuts that kill jobs and force more working families into poverty."
Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks to the first general session of the 2010 Republican Party of Texas Convention in Dallas. (photo: LM Otero/AP)
Texas Republicans Should Read the Bible
19 September 11
Reader Supported News | Perspective
exas Gov. Rick Perry recently said America should be guided by "the Christian values that this country was based upon." Even though Article 11 of the John Adams-endorsed Treaty of Tripoli states "the Government of the United States of America, is not in any sense, founded on the Christian religion," I'm sure it warmed the hearts of Christian voters in the room. However, Rick Perry is the absolute worst model of a Christian leader.
The scriptures are clear about the necessity of helping the sick and the poor. Proverbs 3:27 instructs those to not withhold good from the deserving when it's in their power to do so. Jesus defined the Christian's role of aiding the needy in Matthew 25: 35-41, adding that those who deny the needy the help they need do it to him also. Jesus also warns, speak out against religious hypocrites in Matthew 23. The idea of wealth redistribution isn't new - Luke the Apostle actually advocated for it in Acts 4, in a passage called "Believers Share Their Possessions."
Yet, Rick Perry instead chose to deny public healthcare to tens of thousands of his fellow Texans with reckless cuts to Medicaid. 4.6 million Texans are living in poverty, with a poverty rate three percentage points higher than the national average. After Governor Perry cut millions from volunteer firefighter and forest service budgets, Texas' wildfires are raging to this day.
Instead of redistributing wealth, Perry's friends in the capitol denied help to struggling people in his state in the midst of a $27 billion revenue shortfall, and chose to reward owners of $250,000 yachts with a generous tax break. Perry, who constantly criticizes federal entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare as "unconstitutional," apparently feels entitled to $600,000 in taxpayer money to spruce up his rented mansion.
Not to be outdone, Ron Paul recently hinted during the CNN-Tea Party debate that allowing the uninsured to die was "what freedom is all about," before finally relenting and saying churches and charity could likely pay for life-saving healthcare for a hypothetical uninsured patient in intensive care.
This is a pretty callous statement coming from Paul, considering his 2008 campaign manager Kent Snyder lacked health insurance and died of pneumonia two weeks after Paul's campaign concession. Snyder's mother is unable to pay the $400,000 cost of her son's medical bills, despite help from churches, charities and a website set up by his friends.
Even conservative Christian students at the university where Rick Perry made his remarks about leading by a Christian example agree that it's "un-Christian" to deny life-saving medical care to the uninsured. And plenty of Christian leaders are still calling for an end to brutal budget cuts that kill jobs and force more working families into poverty.
If America is to truly be guided by Christian values, Christians would do well to vote for those who actually practice what they preach. While Perry and Paul demand cuts to public programs and healthcare for the uninsured, President Obama is finding his inner Luke and asking the richest Americans to share their possessions to help lessen the burden of deficit reduction already on the shoulders of working families. The Tea Party's favorite candidates should take a cue from the president and truly embrace the Christian values they speak about.
Carl Gibson, 24, of Lexington, Kentucky, is a spokesman and organizer for US Uncut, a nonviolent, creative direct-action movement to stop budget cuts by getting corporations to pay their fair share of taxes. He graduated from Morehead State University in 2009 with a B.A. in Journalism before starting the first US Uncut group in Jackson, Mississippi, in February of 2011. Since then, over 20,000 US Uncut activists have carried out more than 300 actions in over 100 cities nationwide. You may contact Carl at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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BUT what about HIPOCRITES??!!
DOCTOR Ron Paul swore an oath to save lives. He should lose his medical license!!
This is propaganda babble, the Big Lie from Perry-Paul-Hitl er. Look at the pix of Perry! He's no Christian and never has been.
He's a murderer under the guise of his political power. If he gets into the highest office in the land, we're in the deepest doo-doo we could ever, ever imagine.
Pray, you ersatz Christians, because he doesn't really care about you either. You have one hope if you believe in the teachings of Christ:
"It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get to heaven." ~ Jesus Christ
N.
someone once said that if a doctor had to look a patient in the face and say "harold, this drug i want you to take is going to cost you $3000 a month. the shocked look on harold's face would stop the doctor cold.
but because harold has insurance, no one ever thinks about what things cost.
as an example, 7 yrs ago i broke my left wrist and when it healed, i was given some putty and told to squeeze it to build up my muscles and my dexterity. it worked out just fine.
recently i broke right wrist in italy where the care was wonderful and the total cost was 36 euros to get copies of x-rays to bring here. the bone doctor here insists that i have physical therapy even though i had none the last time. hell, my insurance will cover it so why not? except that i have a $30 co-pay every time i go and so ultimately those 8 visits will cost me $240.00 to do something that time, healing and my normal movements would achieve on their own. without our stupid system, my doctor might have some sensitivity to my finaces
I seriously doubt that any program, even a church-run program, can realistically distribute 100% of its allocated funds to its welfare programs, even if it worked solely through volunteer help. You throw out some serious numbers and implied allegations, which you may honestly believe, but are really just hearsay since you don't provide any real type of context for them to be judged from.
(and no, I wasn't one of those giving you a thumbs-down)
FDIC's and the FED's welfare distributed 200-300% of their funding to banks too big to fail under Bush and the same under Obama, but they have the unrestricted ability to charge whatever is needed to keep big banks solvent the federal government.
I think we, the middle class and the working poor have fallen into the right wing trap: DEVIDE AND CONQUER. If public and private workers fight each other,
they (right wing) win. So let's stop that NOW!!
1) Please define Christian. 2) How do you qualify efforts to oppose changes to a health system that reduces the uninsured or make imposible to discriminate against people for preexisting conditions? Would that be denying aid to the sick?
For a start, the Bible doesn't have an aster after "help the sick and the poor." It is totally according to the scripture to do it through a federal goverment program. There is also no additional requirements, just being sick or poor. Nothing about credo, nationality, or etc. Even sin does not disqualifies anybody. Historically, charitable acts can be done directly or through the Church. BTW, "charity" in a church is not exactly voluntary, and the allocation of resources given to the church for charitable purposes is decided by the hierarchy, not the person who donates.
BTW, if you were a sick Christian, would you be happy if, lets' say for the sake of the argument, a very wealthy Satanic Druid gives you health care conditional to becoming a Satan workshiper? And why should donations to the church (in this case of the Satanic Druid) be tax deductable? Why would part of my tax dollars go to subsidize that donation? Federal Welfare programs are what ensure freedom of religion for those in need too.
They will not even offer to pay an electric bill. They are cold. They are self-absorbed. They are no more Christian than a duck!
Especially the New Testament.
Church not Government is for the People...they take from the people.
Church not Government is for the People...they take from the people.
Are you sure that is what you meant to say?????
Progress! Bob Johnson
http://www.deism.com
As someone once told me: "Don't tell me about your God. Show me."
Jesus never had reason to take on Roman only those pretending to worship Father yet Mock the Creator by treating others so badly. Even back then there was hatred for the others that had broken away.
"When Jesus was sent back, Pilate could still have represented Antipas' failure to convict as support for his own view (according to Luke) that Jesus was not guilty of a capital offence, thus allowing him to avoid responsibility for Jesus' execution."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_Antipas#John_the_Baptist_and_Jesus
Judean Governor Pilate, however, allowed the execution to proceed so, yes, Jesus was executed, ultimately, by the Roman Empire, the 'state' at the time. While Jewish high priests of the 1st century may have favored having Jesus silenced, they had no power to execute him; that was entirely up to Pilate.
Interestingly, even open, liberal-minded religious scholars and pastors are shocked when I question their seemingly devotion to the study and tenants of the Old Testament.
His Death was a result, as many loved him. Even Romans admired his simplicity. He was not threat to them.
People who cling to bible all cling to their own quotations, their own interpretations . Old Testament was a sad documentation of what man could do to one another, we didnot learn from it.
No these Politicians use the Old testament the Way those who wrote it did..Dominance and Submission, Fear and Loathing. Man is fallible
Mouthpieces for their own sad lives. Book was a Diary of mankind, and the sins we are capable of committing.
No where in the Bible did God or Jesus ever demand we be born again. Just to ask Forgiveness for Our Sins. Simple request to gain the Kingdom of Heaven.
No where does it say anyone would not be granted this. We were all created Equal, imperfect as we are, we are the Creatures that were Created along with the First more Intelligent species we kill daily with total disregard.
Funny how Man went to the trouble to create the Ten Commandments and do not follow them at all. Man made them as a God would not need the First Three Mentioned, we already Believed in Creator all Faiths, even Pagans
Perry and Ron Paul, and Paul's scary son, Rand Paul, who is also a doctor, remind me of the brown shirts. They would have done very well in Hitler's Germany.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/jesus/arrest.html
Now boys and girls; I know its tough, but can you catch the deception here?
COUNTRY vs. GOVERNMENT?
Do democrats really see no difference between these two words?
Really?
Acts 2:44-45
All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.
Isaiah 10: 1-2
Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people
Proverbs 22:16
One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich—both come to poverty.
The right-wingers claim to be Christian in order to dupe believers. Falwell and Robertson did not start the "Moral Majority" until Carter threatened to remove the tax-exempt status of their lily-white schools. It's not Roe v. Wade that upsets their followers; it's Brown v. Topeka Board of Education.
The right has replaced Christ with Ayn Rand (they talk about putting Christ back in Christmas while simultaneously removing Christ from Christianity) and the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with the Gospels of Sarah, Glenn, Rush, and Sean.
You CANNOT serve Jesus Christ and Ayn Rand.
Reported to whom; the republican religious right inquisition?
To follow after Christ one pretty much is to busy correcting oneself, to create much evil; however, to follow after man one will assuredly heap fire upon their own head.
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