The Republican Religious Right's actions speak politically as if they would have you believe that God supports favoring the interests of the rich over the interests of the poor. Over the last 10 years the gap between the rich and poor has grown larger year to year with the majority of the nations wages stagnant and the 1% raking in record profits but to no avail, the religious right insist on contining to beat the same economic and political drum favoring policies for the rich.
The Religious Right would also have you believe that God is anti-government and anti-tax because government has tried to put discipline on money's abuses but you will find their points of view nowhere in scripture, in fact you will find just the opposite, but an entire religio-political ideology has been built around that very supposition pushed by the right wing establishment and embraced by the Religious Right.
The problem for the Republican Religious Right is that God has clearly spelled out how He has encouraged support for and ordained government(Romans 13: 1-7):
1- "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities". Not just physical behavior but right down to the core, the soul. Wow!
2- "Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves". Wow again! Not just penalties but judgement. Is God serious about government or what?
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. 4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. 5 Therefore you must be subject, not only because of wrath but also for conscience’ sake. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God’s ministers attending continually to this very thing. 7 Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor
The Religious Right are those who have decided to rebel against God's ordinance of government not for the sake of the poor or helpless but instead for promoting, through a spirit of greed, a money serving economic and political ideology for the rich and powerful where they eagerly exchange God ordained government oversight for a false & destructive self-correcting economic market creed. Their ideology promotes fearfulness of government as you have seen and heard throughin and throughout this nation but such a fear, and worse an ideology, is addressed in the scriptures above. Many of these religious people(not all christians) are not at the core evil but have, under delusion, embraced an evil cause that puts money over people. They have been seduced by the falsely promoted needs of a system exercising it's authority through the power and allure of money. It is certainly a shame for the secular but especially the Christian but let me digress.
God approves of government, He supports it in no uncertain terms so there is no need for the religious rightwing or any of us to be so afraid especially when we have the checks and balances that our modern government provides. The scripture in Romans 13 was written down even during a time when the prevailing government was a brutal repressive narcissistic tyrannical dictatorship whose leader claimed to be God so how ridiculous the Religious Right and Tea Party look whining and crying about the U.S. government. One can only speculate how many showers of scriptural approval may have rained down about government into the written Word had a more benevelent democratic government been the prevailing power of that day. The rightwing should feel ridiculous about their big overblown anti-government warcry.
Believe it or not it was even during the same time of this brutal repressive narcissictic tyrannical dictatorship that Jesus Himself said when asked about taxes: "Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s" Matthew 22:21. WHAT!!!
One has to wonder what Jesus thinks of the religious right's inflated bombastic U.S. anti-government ideology after putting up with the Roman Empire.
So with God's approval of government what we should be concerned about is the mishandling, even subverting of govenment by staffing it with incompetent anti-government ideologues that are afraid of it's proper efficient function placed there by the rightwing for that very purpose of confounding the operation of government in the name of service to the rich. This is the ideology that ran our government from 2000 to 2008. Nuff said.
God did not create govenment to run any other way than effectively and with the complexity of society and it's increasing population there must be the interjection of adequate government in order for society to run properly. As Christians we should not be afraid of something that God created and what we need to do is to take it back from the rich and powerful that would abuse it for their own ends disregarding the majority of the population along with the poor and needy but then that is another story you should be fully informed on if you have followed this blog. Also I believe the rightwing's strong opposition to healthcare reform is a clear manifestation of this misguided anti-gov't ideology which if anything has become a blight on the breadth of God's compassion and love.
Govenment should be as correct before God as is possible and as righteous as is possible. History has shown us that the poor and disadvantaged cannot depend on individual volunteerism from the people. To work effectively it must be concerted with an organizing entity. That entity is government and so thusly the scriptures: 3. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil, 4. For he is God’s minister to you for good. For the first time in history it is an entity for the people to use, so use it, don't be afraid of it and whatever you do don't surrender it to the merchants.
In the millenium I'am sure individual volunteerism will be the standard maybe because we will all give individually or because we will all give freely to the government directly under Jesus ( ponder that for a moment) but today in this world we as Christains should show the world our love and mercy by supporting programs that help the needy. The world has never seen a government with such checks and balances on power. Only the rightwing in service to the rich and powerful bemoan and demonize government because government will discipline the rich and powerful's behavior as they lust for more and more.
Follow the money trail and things will become clear. Jesus's teachings on money and the rich require courage to be embraced in this society.
Let's be courageous Christians not fearful Christians.
A little note to keep in mind: When your vote counts you have better control over your government but the rich, through the political rightwing and attempts to trash campaign finance reform have tried to buy off your vote and control the government themselves.
If you don't like government don't cowardly give in and promote fear of it, work to change it.
TAKE IT BACK.
TAKE IT BACK.
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