What would Jesus think?

Here we go again.

The old arguments are coming out once more…and here is one of the biggest lies of all…”It’s not class warfare….it’s Christianity”.

Sigh.

I know it is too much to ask, but I wish that people on both sides of the economic aisle would just stop trying to interpret God’s word to support their positions.

Listen to me carefully. Economics has nothing…NOTHING…to do with whether you are a member of the religious right or a believer in black liberation theology or you are simply a misguided liberal who walks around mindlessly chanting “What would Jesus do?”

Economics is just a fancy word for how the laws of nature apply to provide aggregate wealth accumulation. Without aggregate wealth accumulation, mankind would NOT have advanced beyond rock throwing Neanderthals, disease ridden people whose life expectancy was measured in years (not decades) IF they were lucky.

While those folk did not have a word for economics, they slowly started to understand that the aggregate accumulation of wealth allowed for longer, healthier and more comfortable lives. It provided those with scientific flair to not only invent how to create fire, but how to carry it from one place to another. Creativity begets more accumulated wealth, and that provides opportunity for more creativity….and eventually you end up with 21^st Century man.

Religion does not factor into the laws of economics.

Was Jesus a socialist? Absolutely not. I don’t think he even cared one hoot what sort of economic system the world, or a country operated under. But I can tell you he was not a socialist.

If you don’t believe me, you need to throw away your preconceived notions and take a fresh look at the gospels. Where exactly, does Jesus exhort you to take from someone else to give to the poor? Where? Where does he say that the rich must have their possessions confiscated so that the poor can eat?

He doesn’t!

Oh, and where does he define who is rich?

Jesus was not about forcing anybody to do anything. He was about personal responsibility and accountability. His numerous warnings about the dangers faced by the rich do not give you or the government or anyone else the right to take away those possessions…Jesus does not demand or even accept those actions.

So…you misguided liberals, who trot out all those tired clichés, need to take a deep and PERSONAL look at what Jesus actually says and does.

And, if you are honest with yourself, you will find that CHOICE is the over-riding principal of the gospels. God gave you free will. Jesus talks of personal responsibility, complete with the appropriate warnings of poor choices. What makes you think that you have the RIGHT and the MORAL AUTHORITY to step beyond that and DEMAND, nay, TAKE from the rich in order to make the poor have a better life?

OK…so, the reality is that you do not have the moral authority, and God did not take away our free choice, and Jesus did not demand or even condone such actions.

So how can you claim that "it is not class warfare, it is Christianity"?

Now…let’s get really personal…and I know if you are in the school of “it is Christianity”, that you are going to hate this next part….

Let me ask a few simple questions….

-         Do you have a job?

-         Are you maybe buying a house? Or renting a nice one?

-         Do you have a TV?

-         Do you have food in your cupboards, freezer or refrigerator?

-         Do you have a bank account, regardless of how small it is?

-         Did you go to the movies in the last couple of months?

-         Did you buy and consume any fast food in the last few weeks?

-         Do you own a suit, several shirts, lots of shoes?

By now, you know where I am going, don’t you?

You are nothing but a damn hypocrite!!!

If you truly believed it was about Christianity, and you have all these things, then you are not doing what you believe. You are saying it is ok to take from people who have more than you….but you are not prepared to give up what you have.

This is nothing but more liberal BS.

When you give up everything you have…keeping only enough to feed yourself and put a simple roof over your head…and use the rest to give to the poor, then come to me and say that “it is not class warfare, it is Christianity”. I still won’t agree with you but at least I will respect you for following your beliefs.

Indeed, some people are called to do this, and those people I admire greatly, and thank them for their sacrifice.

But to enable someone to give up everything to serve God, there must be others that keep the economy moving. And as I said earlier, the aggregate accumulation of wealth is what keeps economies growing and allows those who are called to it, the freedom to serve in their own way.

You, however….believe that because there is poverty in this world, that the rich should pay whether they want to or not. You support theft. You support taking by force that which is not yours. I don’t care whether what you take is given to the poor or used to put a lobster dinner on your own plate. The reason you steal does not mitigate the fact that you stole. Regardless of what liberals teach, the ends do NOT justify the means. Read your bible again...that is VERY clear.

Robin Hood was no hero…and yet he is the epitome of good V’s evil in so many people’s minds. The problem is that this is a very slippery slope. At what point does it become NOT ok to steal from the rich and give to the poor? Who has that moral authority?

No…you fools who believe this crap have simply bought the lies handed down by the liberal/progressive movement for 70 years or more. They knew that they could not change the laws of economics which are as fundamental as any other natural law.

But they could sure as hell change religion and use it to change the way people think.

I have one small piece of advice to anyone who is indoctrinated into believing that the first church was a socialist undertaking.

Take your head out of your collectivism asses, and read the scriptures without the leading of left leaning spiritual leaders. Read them seeking the truth, not the theory that so many liberal churches spew. Seek God’s truth and honestly question everything your pastor, preacher and mother has EVER told you about God and Jesus. And question the motivations behind the ideology...it is not always altruistic. Use your God given common sense and logic to question everything you are fed.

I know you are sitting there, all hot and bothered, saying “how dare this guy say these things!!”.

You know something? That is your problem, not mine.

I don’t profess to know everything the bible says….I can’t quote every verse learned by rote, and I certainly refuse to pull out specific verses to support my economic beliefs even though I know I am taking them out of context. But I do know who God is. And I know that he does not condone stealing from one person and gving to another (if you don’t like the truth, just change stealing with “taking by force” or if you want to soften it further, taxation!)

It is time for people to stop hiding behind religion as the reason for taking stuff from others…

What would Jesus think?

…..devereaux