The election of 2012 draws near. Republicans are campaigning hard and say some scary things. So, Rick Santorum, a purported Christian thinks Christians should suffer. He thinks it is good for people to suffer. Excuse me while I go scream into the night…
To be fair to my Christian friends who are not in this category, I am only addressing the ones who are so far gone they are just as scary as the Islamic Taliban. Most Christians I know are peace loving people who are doing what they think is the right thing and wish no harm on the populace at large. Now, on to address this particular issue…
Okay, then, if Christians should suffer, why does this country bend over backwards to make sure the rights and privileges of Christians are favored over the rights and privileges of anyone else? Don’t agree? Take a look at the history versus what is claimed in the Bible…
“Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” [Matthew 22:21]
Why don’t churches pay taxes? Everyone pays taxes except the churches whether or not they help the community. They get a special exemption due to separation of Church and State, yet they feel the need to direct the course of politics for their own comfort.
How many states have bowed down to the churches pressure to ban homosexual marriage, evict atheist and agnostic kids from schools and Boy Scouts, pressure to kick gay soldiers out of the military when they are needed most, block choices for women who don’t want to get pregnant by making it hard for children to obtain birth control while making abortions hard to come by, pressure government not to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero of 9/11, pressure sponsors of All American Muslim to withdraw support…the list just goes on.
“Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” [Matthew 19:24]
Yet the current flock of Republican candidates who claim to be strong Christians are comfortably rich to the extent they care little about the suffering done by those who don’t have it as good as they do. They care so little about the fate of the earth so things like global warming are only a minor problem which is less serious than putting regulations on so-called clean coal and digging for more oil instead of finding solutions to save the planet we share just so they and their lobbyist friends can make more money.
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. “[2 Timothy 3:1-5]
This sounds exactly like all of the front runners of the Republican party and many Tea Party supporters. The Tea Party which can call out many slanderous things and lust for murder of those who disagree with them have the nerve to call those Occupy Movement supporters un-American for their peaceful protests.
“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” [2 Timothy 3:12].
The Christian Far Right seems to have no problem persecuting those who do not share their faith, yet will go up in arms when they feel their rights are being threatened. However, when those whose rights they trample on go up in arms, they again wave the banner that the Christian faith is under attack while avoiding the problem that THEY were the attackers. It seems as though the Christians are the persecutors and not the persecuted.
The United States is not a Christian Taliban. The First Amendment states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” The part pertaining to religion means the government cannot impose a religion on the people and the people themselves are free to practice in whatever way they choose (or not choose at all is also implied).
For the overall good of the people, the Preamble of the Constitution states:
“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
Note, the people are to promote the general welfare through the government. By welfare it means the well being. The government should not be encouraging suffering of the people for the sake of the already rich to get richer. The government gives too many benefits to the rich while the rich contribute very little to the country which has enabled them to become rich and stay rich.
People like Santorum, the rich and heartless so-called Christians, think they are above suffering. They want to make laws which make their lives more comfortable and guilt-tripping other Christians into voting for them because they claim to be for Christian values.
Giving aid and comfort to people at the butt of a rifle or the pounding of a Bible is not compassion. It is extortion. Go our way or suffer. These people think that giving more tax breaks and government handouts to the already rich will create more jobs and prosperity for this country. This has been the case since Reagen and all of this on top of deregulation has only destroyed the middle class where there is a huge gap between the very rich and the rest of us. These politicians want the people to give the rich more aid and comfort and promise if we suffer just a bit longer we might have more jobs.
And for the promise of jobs, we are competing for these jobs by the so-called job creators who get the tax breaks and government handouts with people of the rest of the world who will work for a pittance. Unless we are also willing to work for less money than can support having a home, going to college, or creating our own businesses which could hire more people…unless we cower to the ultra-wealthy quest for more money, they won’t create jobs that pay very well. They would rather do away with minimum wage and pay less than that. They long for a slave class to serve them.
Santorum and other Republican Far-Right Christians would love to end Medicaid and Medicare so private insurance companies can make more money while the poor who cannot afford it will have to go without health care and die early. They want to take away food stamps, home heating programs, discount housing and so forth even though the budget spends far more in giving the rich their benefits and these rich do NOT create jobs to make people not need these programs in the first place. They have made it next to impossible for most low income people to get business loans to start businesses in their own communities which could help the poor live the American Dream.
So yes, Santorum wants Christians to suffer and to vote for him. If you are a Christian, do you wish to suffer? Are you up for the challenge of letting people who are not Christian have their rights?
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