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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsLiberty University: "Some People Deserve To Starve"
From Liberty Universitys Freedom Center:
Of course, Christians are supposed to be at the tip of the spear in alleviating poverty, especially when it comes to other believers. That doesnt mean, however, that we are under any obligation to help indolent bums.
Such people are not entitled to our generosity. They have chosen the path of poverty, to paraphrase Proverbs 10:4. There is another reason, though, why Christians should promote a culture of work: Work is central to mans makeup.
Christians, then, should be vocal proponents of fostering a culture of work in civil society. Not only are we charged biblically to earn our own living, as Paul put it, but the ritual of work is the method by which God intended for us to cultivate His creation. Its part of our DNA.
Todays leftists, on other hand, are fundamentally opposed to fostering a culture of work. Instead, politicians like Elizabeth Warren and AOC are zealously engineering a culture of dependency where citizens are rewarded with government cash for sitting around on their duffs.
Of note, the Freedom Center was launched as Falkirk Center, a smashup of Jerry Falwell Jr.s and Charlie Kirks names. But days later, Falwell was exposed as a literal cuckold who jerked off in the corner while watching a young pool boy fuck his wife.
Link to tweet
sarcasmo
(23,968 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,933 posts)They do not adhere to the teachings of Jesus but they follow Paul without hesitation or questions.
Elessar Zappa
(13,950 posts)Theyre just flat out evil.
Blue Owl
(50,330 posts)leftieNanner
(15,078 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,933 posts)Paul brought bigotry into the equation among of a lot of other crap!
Never cared for Saul Paul.
calguy
(5,304 posts)Maybe that's why I left the church as soon as I left the house.
I mean, I tried, I really tried... but I just couldn't buy what they were selling.
multigraincracker
(32,658 posts)after Jesus died.
ZZenith
(4,119 posts)yardwork
(61,588 posts)These people are a disgrace. And lying is against the Ten Commandments.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)WWJD.
crickets
(25,959 posts)The Sheep and the Goats - Matthew 25:31-46
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A31-46&version=NIV
44 They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?
45 He will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.
There is a certain subset of 'Christians' who really, really dislike this message from Jesus. So they just ignore it.
Screw Paul. I prefer to remember the parable of the Good Samaritan.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke%2010:25-37&version=NIV
37 The expert in the law replied, The one who had mercy on him.
Jesus told him, Go and do likewise.
All those Sunday school classes paid off in learning the Bible, which is useful in a way I guess, but I couldn't wait to get away from many of the people. They do not practice what they preach, and these days what they preach... oof.
yardwork
(61,588 posts)GeoWilliam750
(2,522 posts)Especially the first part
crickets
(25,959 posts)I didn't really include enough of the second story, though it's at the link.
People may forget (myself included) that a priest and a Levite passed him by before the victim was aided by the Samaritan, as well as the significance of those chosen as examples. The first two were of a social class generally held in high regard, while Samaritans were looked down upon as pagan and heretical. Jesus' point was that a person's actions were more important than their station in society or birth into one of the Jewish tribes.
Jesus' parables were sometimes more subtle in condemning the hypocrites of his day than people give him credit for. It's amazing how his teachings remain timely because so many who claim to follow him still don't. get. his point.
Try to love everybody, and treat them the way you'd want to be treated. He went out of his way to explain that there are no exceptions. Why the heck do so many people find that so hard to understand?
Celerity
(43,260 posts)these so-called fucking christians are so unlike their christ
cilla4progress
(24,724 posts)MAGAT 1.0
Blue Owl
(50,330 posts)RKP5637
(67,101 posts)rurallib
(62,403 posts)I admit I do not know a lot about the bible but my observation as a self chosen outsider is that most of the rules that so-called "christians" follow come from Paul.
As I say I am not much into religion, but where was the handoff from JC to Paul. As I understand it the two never met and Paul became a follower after JC was dead.
Seems to me that some of the problems with christianity is because they are following the wrong dude. From what little I know about Paul he seems to be a jerk who made a lot of stuff up - much as is still happening.
Sorry if this is inappropriate. Been eating at me for a while.
A HERETIC I AM
(24,365 posts)Isnt Christianity, but rather Paulianity and/or Peterianity.
Gotta love those women hating holier than thou types.
crickets
(25,959 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,337 posts)was a nightshift office worker and never got out in the sun?
Paul was born further up North as well closer to Santa Claus.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)But what can one expect? It's just Liberty University. I'll just quote Sarah Bessey: "People should never be the collateral damage of your theology."
A HERETIC I AM
(24,365 posts)That requires you to wear stupid clothing, stupid hair cuts, participate in stupid rituals or arbitrarily hate your fellow humans.
keep_left
(1,783 posts)Apparently, Charlie Kirk is so unimpressive that they terminated his contract after less than two years of having his name on the building! Since then, the "Freedom Center" has been associated with neo-Nazi Seb Gorka, Republican election fraudster Jenna Ellis, and theocracy advocates Eric Metaxas and Mike Huckabee. So much for "freedom". And speaking of the "culture of work", all of these clowns are notorious for their cushy sinecure jobs with "think" tanks. You would think that they would have more sense than to lecture the poor brown people about the "dignity of work" while doing so little of it themselves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_University#Standing_for_Freedom_Center
Flatrat
(47 posts)and cult institutions like Liberty University only serve to accelerate the decline of religion and its influence in the US.
Lars39
(26,109 posts)Martin Eden
(12,862 posts)It's a rationalization to justify greed and indifference to suffering.
WWJE -- Who Would Jesus Emaciate?
Ray Bruns
(4,092 posts)I cant find the verse where Jesus said, Feed my flock, unless to worthlessness bums.
Johnny2X2X
(19,018 posts)Chainfire
(17,519 posts)RussBLib
(9,006 posts)It's all they know.
JHB
(37,158 posts)If memory serves, Paul was admonishing those in Thessalonica who were supposed to be earning their room and board by going out into the streets and spreading the Word, but instead sat around debating theology among themselves.
A modern equivalent would be a case where a church had volunteers in to decorate their fellowship hall for some occasion, and offered pizza or something for those who helped. And cut off those who merely showed up to chow down: "No streamers, no slices!"
It had nothing to do with feeding the poor, it was about feeding people who'd committed to something and were goldbricking.
GoodRaisin
(8,920 posts)Clearly addressing loafing workers, by Paul.
Not a mandate by Christ to stereotype all poor people as loafers and take away their food stamps.
Autumn
(45,026 posts)Fuck those charlatans and their religion too.
keithbvadu2
(36,724 posts)forgotmylogin
(7,522 posts)Not enough to feed a huge crowd, but still managed to break it into enough pieces to make sure everyone got some?
ShazzieB
(16,352 posts)Usually called the miracle of the loaves and fishes. Jesus fed a crowd of 5,000 with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. (John 6:1-14)
uponit7771
(90,329 posts)Takket
(21,550 posts)rethugs have murdered Jesus
jmowreader
(50,546 posts)Ten million drag queens will agree with him on that.
The whole essay is...well, a bit strange. Extremist rabble-rousing doesn't exactly qualify as work, but that's how Falwell Jr, Kirk and the rest of that bunch put food on the table.
Joinfortmill
(14,408 posts)Lonestarblue
(9,959 posts)1. You shall have no other gods before Me except for Trump.
2. You shall make no idols (worship of money and white supremacy do not count).
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (but you can call everyone else any revolting name you choose).
4. Keep the Sabbath day holy (no way, too out of touch because of lost profits).
5. Honor your father and your mother (just father, mothers are chattel for procreating).
6. You shall not murder (except for the evil Democrats, the schoolchildren, the shoppers at malls, the Jews in synagogue, the concert attendees, the LGBTQ at a nightclub, anyone but us).
7. You shall not commit adultery (hmm, thats so old schoolnext, pedophilia not mentioned so okay).
8. You shall not steal (well, elections dont count).
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (unless the neighbor is a liberal, an immigrant, a Muslim, a Jew, a black or brown person, a woman who might have had an abortion, a family that might or might not have an LGBTQ child, and whats wrong with lying anyway!).
10. You shall not covet (rich people deserve all their millions and billions earned on the backs of workers whose lives we never covet).
Celerity
(43,260 posts)slightlv
(2,785 posts)after we had visited my mom. It had been bothering me. I'm not a Christian, but we'd both been brought up "in the Church", and she'd converted to Catholicism to marry her husband. Figuring she knew more than me because of that, I said, "Jesus said to Peter, upon you shall I build my Church"... but the church seems to be built completely around Paul and all his beliefs and faults. In effect, it seems Christ wanted the church, in modern terms, to be built on empathetic democratic terms and instead it's built on competing hard nosed republican terms. Am I wrong?"
She admitted that's the way she saw it, too... and couldn't tell me what went wrong, except that it was an early power struggle and Paul won. Politics from the early ages.
Mblaze
(257 posts)That doesn't mean, however, that we are under any obligation to help indolent bums. Such people are not entitled to our generosity. They have chosen the path of poverty."
That came directly from their pinched minds, not Jesus. Nowhere that I know in the New Testament does it say that those in need must pass an employment test before they are rendered aid. It does, however, teach Christians not to judge others and even says that if a man asks for your coat you should give them your cloak as well. We are hearing them quote a lot from Paul and Psalms but were not hearing much from Jesus. Jesus seems to have been abandoned by Liberty University.
Duppers
(28,117 posts)"Show me a preacher or a minister who has ever hit a lick at a snake."
- Mr. Duppers
Initech
(100,056 posts)Mr. Ected
(9,670 posts)I see sin in this. I see evil. I choose the other way.
It's so much easier when you don't have another set of rules to abide by other than your own moral compass.
DonCoquixote
(13,616 posts)People will be worked liek slaves and still be poor
keep_left
(1,783 posts)...is the exploitation and defrauding of wage earners (James 5:4) and the oppression of the poor, widows, and orphans (Deuteronomy 24:14-22). Years ago, anyone with even a modicum of a religious background recognized such actions as serious sins. Woody Guthrie even wrote lyrics to the unfinished song "The Unwelcome Guest" (later set to music by Billy Bragg) in which the words obliquely but clearly reference Scripture.
https://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/The_Unwelcome_Guest.htm
scarletlib
(3,410 posts)Jesus never said anything like that. He never condemned the poor, criminals, prostitutes, etc.
His message was one of love and acceptance of others. He said we had an obligation to take care of our fellow humans.
These wack job evangelicals prefer the Old Testament and a vengeful, wrathful god to Jesus.
They pervert the very meaning of what it means to be a follower of Christ.
I say this as someone who has read both testaments & the New Testament many times.
While I am no longer a practicing/churched Christian, I value the words of Jesus. Anyone who tries to live his words will live a decent, humane life and respect and love everyone regardless of wealth etc.
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,489 posts)At least where I came from, if people are hungry, just feed them with no prejudice.
Selfishness, self-centeredness, pride and arrogance were looked down upon back in the day, while humility and charity was admired.
Plus, that helps all people to come together as a community (which is what Rethugs don't want).
DemocraticPatriot
(4,336 posts)to their legal defense fund.... and my "thoughts and prayers"...
/snark
hunter
(38,309 posts)His believers will try to convince you this is blasphemy of the worst sort, but their hateful god is not the sort of god any rational person would choose to worship.
A loving and omnipotent god doesn't give a damn about their fearful and irrational "beliefs."
These believers have created their own hells to live in.
I will not have these hells imposed upon me or anyone else.
I do not think religious tolerance is a good thing when the religions we are supposed to tolerate are cruel.
Hekate
(90,620 posts)It's fair to say that Jesus, and followers of his like Jimmy and Roslyn Carter, and Fred Rogers, would not recognize Libert University or Freedom Center as anything but the work of Satan.
DBoon
(22,353 posts)See how THAT turned out?
When you treat people with barbaric contempt, they will treat you in kind
Kid Berwyn
(14,857 posts)Rev. Sun Myung Moon hugs Jerry Falwell Sr.
Explains the most very conservative interpretation.