Written by karla rove   

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we’ve got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don’t want to do it.” Stephen Colbert.

Stephen Colbert's statement sums up the Gospel according to the GOP. The Guardians of Privilege have created their own version of Christianity. Their modern version of the Bible, King Greed has replaced King James. In their gospel, it's the word according to Mitt, Michelle, Rick, Herman, Paul, and Newt. And actions speak louder than words.

All the Republican candidates are profoundly and proudly Christian. Mitt looks to be the republican nominee unless another candidate is raised from the dead, or can raise/spend more money touting their particular brand of greed. The tenets of the gospel consist of variations of "I've got mine and I need more; the poor are lazy, give them a safety net, not a hammock, give me tax breaks; corporations need more tax breaks; give the rich more and more and more, and we finally will create jobs". Perhaps this new gospel has grown out of the "Prosperity Gospel", a stitched together, homegrown theology planted by the seeds of Oral Roberts preaching back in the 1980's. But with the great wealth amassed during the last 20 years comes an even better theology - forget prayer - change the laws. The Gospel of Greed know no limits, now that money is $peech, and our elected officials bought and paid for are the prostitutes making the big bucks. With tax rates still at historic low rates and many corporations having record profits during the economic downturn, we are still waiting for those job creators to make us some jobs. The tax cuts went into effect in 2004. Not many have been created since 2008. The trickle down effect? How about tinkled on?

Every disciple promised with sincere zeal to cut taxes, for the plutocracy, i.e. the wealthy and very wealthy, and corporations. And to cut social net safety programs for those of us not wealthy enough to buy our own representation. Romney admitted in the debates in January of this year the tax plan St. Newt was advocating for the very wealthy, that he, St. Mitt, would pay no taxes. St. Mitt in all earnestness claimed that he is also "unemployed" while campaigning in Florida earlier this year. It was saintly of him not to tell the same crowd he had earned over $42 million in the last two years while unemployed. I am sure he didn't want them to feel sorry for him.

St. Mitt has some very strong ideas about entitlements.

Now, to be clear, St. Mitt is not against entitlements, just those for the people who live in poverty, the poor and the middle class. He advocates lower tax rates for the very wealthy, the carried interest law for earned income (well, his anyway) and his best friends - "Corporations (are people, my friend)". The fact that they make Millions and Billions of profit every year, in some cases like Google, pay only 3 or 4 percent in corporate taxes, clearly demonstrates they have achieved saint hood as well. St. Mitt also said "I’m not concerned about the very poor”. I think we should take him at his word, since his religious zealotry preaches more budget cuts to public safety nets than St. Paul. The Gospel of Greed has several outspoken disciples who feel very strongly about giving aid to the poor:

Minnesota Rep.Mary Franson compared Minnesota food stamp recipients who use the government assistance program to wild animals. St. Mary says in her video: "Isn't it ironic that the food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever," Franson said. "Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves." Click here for details.
In 2010, while Lt. Gov .of South Carolina Andre Bauer said giving food to needy people means encouraging dependence and compared poor people to stray animals. He asked the question “Why shouldn’t you have to do something?" of people receiving food stamps and public housing. “In government we are too often giving a handout instead of a hand up.” No comments about the handouts to the wealthy or big corporations? I bet it’s because he gets healthy handouts from them. Currently he’s running for the 7th congressional district, as a disciple of the GOP.
And St. George W? Such a humble man, he does not want to be known as the person who gave the tax cuts to the very wealthy. He said in April he wishes the “Bush tax cuts” had someone else’s name attached to them because “if they were called somebody else’s tax cuts, they’d probably be less likely to be raised.” And he is proselytizing the same mythical, mystical belief as all the other saints, “If you raise taxes on the so-called rich,” he said, “you’re really raising taxes on the job creators.” All the GOP saints have been saying this for the last several years now, but they are asking us to suspend reality and believe that it could still happen. This tax cut - $1.35 Trillion; one of the largest in U.S. history has yet to produce any jobs.

The leader of the Guardians of Privilege in the House multi millionaire St. Paul Ryan, has a different opinion about how to represent “we the people”. St. Paul says "a person's faith is central to how they conduct themselves in person and in private." A courageous crusader for the poor über Rich, his budget promises to put another $3 Trillion in their pocket books. He is very clear we do not have the money to pay for social programs like Medicaid, wants Medicare privatized, and major cuts in Social Security benefits. He is preaching punishing cuts (over $3 Trillion) to social programs, while being one of 261 Representatives or forty-nine percent of Congress who are millionaires, compared to one percent of Americans. His budget, whose stated particulars include $4.6 trillion in tax cuts weighted strongly to the affluent preaches corporate wealthfare benefits in extreme form, according to Thom Hartmann.

I think St. Paul's quote on a person's faith sums it up. I just don't know what faith he is talking about - the Christian faith or faith in the Almighty Dollar. It's one thing to say I am a Christian, it's another to be Christ like.