| Submit your comments on this article |
| Government |
| Rangel: Hell Awaits Those Who Don't Support Big Government |
| 2013-09-26 |
| [Townhall.com] “Jesus said you’re going to Hell if you didn’t treat the lesser of his brothers and sisters…He said he was hungry, you didn’t give him food stamps…He was thirsty, you didn’t purify the water…he said he was naked, you didn’t give him Social Security.” This is a complete distortion of Christian social teaching, no? The analogy isn’t even applicable. Why? Because I’m pretty sure that the programs Rangel is lionizing here didn’t even exist in Jesus’ day. In any case, Rangel is essentially saying that if a so-called "Christian" disagrees with the premise of expanding government benefits to poor people (never mind that government dependency is oftentimes destructive and counter-productive) he/she is therefore indifferent to those living in poverty. This, my friends, is a non sequitur. At the same time, Rangel further implies that welfare state programs are the only programs that exist in the United States that could possibly lift poor people out of poverty. Not true. In fact, fifty years of empirical evidence suggests that the “Great Society” programs championed by LBJ and the intelligentsia (the very ones Rangel’s seems to be advocating for here) have actually hindered progress. Read some books by Dr. Thomas Sowell: He's studied these issues his entire life. Furthermore, and contrary to popular opinion, Republicans don’t want to “cut” these programs so the less fortunate will starve; they want to cut these programs to empower those struggling financially by getting them back to work and into the labor market. Remember, nearly one in six Americans collect food stamps today. That’s roughly 50 million people (!), many of whom are openly and unapologetically gaming the system. (Look no further than surfer/guitarist/beach bum Jason Greenslate living the high life in California). And yet any attempt by Republicans to rein in this out-of-control program is criticized as discriminatory and anti-American. How? Mere opposition to an anti-poverty government program doesn’t somehow magically make one pro-poverty. Republicans do indeed have some ideas for lifting up the poor. The problem is, Democrats don’t want to hear them. By the way, it’s amusing that Schultz breathlessly asks Rangel whether or not he thinks Republicans have “lost the moral and religious high ground by the way they vote?” Say, aren’t Democrats the ones who tried to strip the word “God” from their official party platform at the 2012 DNC and explicitly endorsed abortion-on-demand? The Republican Party at least happily affirms the existence of God and the dignity of human life. Can the Democratic Party say the same thing? Nope. So perhaps progressives should be the ones to re-think their own political allegiances, not Republicans. I'm catching a whiff of democrat desperation. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #14 Ptah, you are no doubt correct but Rangel is not speaking to actual Christians but to those that love to throw the term hypocricy around and he provided just enough for those folks to make like annoying for others. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2013-09-26 14:35 |
| #13 Awe rejoinder Ptah. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2013-09-26 14:23 |
| #12 No - not Baal no mo uro. Moloch is more like it - after all they also love to sacrifice their unborn children to their god. Then it was by fire - now it's by scalpel. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-09-26 13:42 |
| #11 Charles Bernard "Charlie" Rangel --- Bishop of the Church of Gimme. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-09-26 13:08 |
| #10 Amen Rambler! The whole issue of using Big Government to accomplish "the Kingdom of Heaven" is PRECISELY the trap laid for Jesus by the Devil during the Third Temptation. Having eschewed the use of God's power to feed the people (first temptation) or to draw attention to himself (second temptation), the third was based on the same reasoning pointed out in the article: if you're not going to use God's power in THOSE ways, then THE ONLY OTHER WAY was to use the power of the state. Jesus saw through this and said NO. Rangel, Obama, and many "progressive" democrat "christians" are NOT christians because, unlike Christ himself, THEY SAID YES. Unlike the first two temptations, which require miraculous power to commit, and thus unique to Jesus, EVERYONE can fall to the temptation to worship the Devil to gain power. If you really wanna be like Jesus, you don't even THINK of bolding going where HE feared to tread... Of course, after those temptations, Jesus went on to perform even bigger miracles than what the Devil suggested. Instead of miraculously being saved from falling, He defied gravity from the outset, never letting it command him, and walked on water (better). Instead of feeding Himself, he fed thousands. Twice. (better). The only temptation He never tried to do better than the devil suggested was the third, which was to use Government power to advance His agenda. Indeed, by dying at the hands of The Government, He even repudiated the need to control it to keep it off His back. As for moral high ground: Since when was wholesale lying and deception on the part of the Democrats "holding the moral high ground"? When was massive democratic FALSE WITNESS against your neighbor holding the moral high ground? |
| Posted by: Ptah 2013-09-26 11:41 |
| #9 Charity is a noble thing. Charity is good. We should try to help people who are less fortunate. But charity is supposed to be voluntary. It's supposed to be from the heart. When the government puts a gun to your head and demands your money it's not charity. It's just plain old robbery. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2013-09-26 11:36 |
| #8 Rangel... Another false prophet... |
| Posted by: Thrans Splat1574 2013-09-26 11:25 |
| #7 As someone said "Jesus said to sell what you have and give it to the poor. He didn't say to take other people's property and give it to the poor." |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2013-09-26 11:14 |
| #6 I guess "not paying your taxes" doesn't violate, huh, Cholly? You fat deceitful racist cheating punk. |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-09-26 10:38 |
| #5 They have gotten quite good at appealing to people's natural tendency to "do the right thing" to win support for pure evil. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2013-09-26 10:06 |
| #4 "There is no god but the Socially Just State™, and Chomsky is its prophet." |
| Posted by: Korora 2013-09-26 09:48 |
| #3 Charlie took the usual Constitutional oath. Just a reminder that Dante's inner 9th circle of hell is reserved for treachery, just down the hall from the 8th circle with your friends at MSNBC. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-09-26 09:07 |
| #2 Not true, newc. They do have a god. They worship at the altar of guaranteed magic government paychecks. Baal, no matter how you slice it. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2013-09-26 08:39 |
| #1 Rangel, and the whole of THAT party has no GOD to start with. NEVER has. Whats more, the Government is about Godless now too. You are on your own, slimebag. |
| Posted by: newc 2013-09-26 00:11 |