Christians vs. The Religious Right on the issue of Poverty

[_moksha]

It seems like sooner or later there will be a theological/ideological throwdown between Christians and the Religious Right over the issue of helping the poor.

Whether you belong to either of these groups or think of yourself as an atheist, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Pastafarian, what are your thoughts about this throwdown?

[Guest]

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[_Quasimodo]

It seems like sooner or later there will be a theological/ideological throwdown between Christians and the Religious Right over the issue of helping the poor.

Whether you belong to either of these groups or think of yourself as an atheist, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Pastafarian, what are your thoughts about this throwdown?

I'm very pleased with your separtion of Christians and the religious right. They don't seem to have very much in common.

I would love to see a real confrontation between these very separate points of view, but I don't see it in the cards. True Christians are too busy trying to help the poor and needy and the religious right is too busy trying to get their candidate elected and denying benefits to the undeserving.

[Guest]

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[_LittleNipper]

It seems like sooner or later there will be a theological/ideological throwdown between Christians and the Religious Right over the issue of helping the poor.

Whether you belong to either of these groups or think of yourself as an atheist, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Pastafarian, what are your thoughts about this throwdown?

As a Christian I feel it is important to help the poor. But that help needs to come with a message and not one that says secularism is good and government is our salvation. Help needs to come from the heart of individuals and not become the political football of politicians to promote their personal political agenda. Example: "There is no God, Comrade Stalin gave you the food, so sing his praises and those of this great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

[_bcuzbcuz]

It seems like sooner or later there will be a theological/ideological throwdown between Christians and the Religious Right over the issue of helping the poor.

Whether you belong to either of these groups or think of yourself as an atheist, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Pastafarian, what are your thoughts about this throwdown?

As a Christian I feel it is important to help the poor. But that help needs to come with a message and not one that says secularism is good and government is our salvation. Help needs to come from the heart of individuals and not become the political football of politicians to promote their personal political agenda. Example: "There is no God, Comrade Stalin gave you the food, so sing his praises and those of this great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

Or, "Here is some rice, but first, take this Bible and we'll pray."

[_LittleNipper]

[]
As a Christian I feel it is important to help the poor. But that help needs to come with a message and not one that says secularism is good and government is our salvation. Help needs to come from the heart of individuals and not become the political football of politicians to promote their personal political agenda. Example: "There is no God, Comrade Stalin gave you the food, so sing his praises and those of this great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

Or, "Here is some rice, but first, take this Bible and we'll pray."

There is nothing wrong with offering both forms of food. What is wrong, is for me to take your money -- unwillingly, and use it to further my agenda. This is what big govenment does. And if someone is starving, I see no Christian issue against giving that individual food and drink and then the Word. But the Word is the most important food, because it is eternal in nature. In this way that individual has the opportunity to spiritually grow beyond his circumstances and not be enslaved to them.

[_huckelberry]

As a Christian I feel it is important to help the poor. But that help needs to come with a message and not one that says secularism is good and government is our salvation. Help needs to come from the heart of individuals and not become the political football of politicians to promote their personal political agenda. Example: "There is no God, Comrade Stalin gave you the food, so sing his praises and those of this great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

As a Christian I believe it is important to help the poor. It is important to help the community we live in and the government which is part of that community. It would be silly to think government is our salvation.We may have to save it from time to time though. Stalin is even deader than the USSR.

If some people begrudge the help that goes to people through the government(which should not be the only help) that is the loss of the person selfishly begrudging. It helps the community anyway.

[_Themis]

As a Christian I feel it is important to help the poor. But that help needs to come with a message and not one that says secularism is good and government is our salvation. Help needs to come from the heart of individuals and not become the political football of politicians to promote their personal political agenda. Example: "There is no God, Comrade Stalin gave you the food, so sing his praises and those of this great Union of Soviet Socialist Republics."

As a Christian I believe it is important to help the poor. It is important to help the community we live in and the government which is part of that community. It would be silly to think government is our salvation.We may have to save it from time to time though. Stalin is even deader than the USSR.

If some people begrudge the help that goes to people through the government(which should not be the only help) that is the loss of the person selfishly begrudging. It helps the community anyway.

You make some good points. I think the extreme right and left see Government as bad, when it is good. Democratic government is supposed to be a representation of the people, even if it is not perfect, while a communist government is a representation of only a fraction of the people who make the decisions. Government are there in principle to see to the needs of the people. If there are no poor, or other groups are taking care of the poor, then the government need not spent money on the problem. I have yet to see anywhere in the world where the government does not have a role to play here.