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| Name: |
lotowner
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| Subject: |
Who Follows This Theology?
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Date:
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4/8/2012 7:36:07 PM
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It's Easter, and I would like to talk a bit about state government with my fellow Christians.
Eric Fleischauer
Capital considerations
To my non-Christian readers and friends, I apologize. This is rude. I risk the insult in part because you might find the discussion of interest and in part because there aren't many of you.
To my Christian readers, I say, the Lord is risen! We today celebrate the greatest of miracles, the confirmation that our great teacher who suffered the agony of the cross was also the son of God and our savior. His words — which seemed wise, if radical, before death — suddenly merited bold font and red ink.
We Christians disagree on much, but we agree on his teachings. We agree that we are to love not just our neighbors, but our enemies. We agree that we are to give to the poor without reservation and heal the sick. We agree that hoarding our material wealth is an impediment to salvation. We agree that if we fail to put Christ's teachings into practice, we are like a man who built a house without a foundation.
Jesus, of course, was not speaking to a state, but to his followers. His Judaic local government spurned his actions and words. The Roman Empire was ruled by atheists and polytheists. The followers of Jesus had no control over the government or the policies it implemented.
Alabama is different. Self-proclaimed Christians represent between 85 and 94 percent of the population.
We are not a Christian state, because we wisely promised in our constitution not to use state government as an evangelical tool. But we are very much a state of Christians. We have exclusive control over the laws of Alabama, and we provide almost all of its funding.
If we are to live as Christ lived and to follow his teachings, how shall we govern?
Some would say we should give unflinchingly. Our first priorities should be to feed the hungry and heal the sick and comfort the stranger; only upon accomplishing those imperatives should we worry ourselves about the more mundane chores of running a state.
Pragmatism
I'm more pragmatic and perhaps less Christ-like. I think we can accept Christ's teachings — his mandates that we love our neighbor and provide for the needy — with a recognition of our limited resources and secular realities. We can recognize that taxes, if too high, can hurt everyone by preventing economic growth.
I take a pragmatic approach in juggling my faith and my view of how we should govern ourselves with some trepidation. At no point did Jesus suggest refraining from assisting the needy because, alas, the recipients might become dependent. He did not encourage the rich man to hold back some of his wealth and invest it, rather than giving it all to the poor, because in that way he could maximize his long-term giving. Nor, apparently, was he willing to acknowledge the many temporal advantages that could have come from avoiding the brutal, bloody anguish of death. His advocacy — for the poor, for the stranger and for us — was unyielding.
If, as a state of Christians, we nonetheless accept an awkward compromise between faith and pragmatism, where does it lead us?
When it comes to Christ's commandment to evangelize — a commandment we must follow without using the state — our frustration is obvious. It is only with the greatest reluctance that we refrain from Christ-centered prayers at government meetings. We want Christian emblems in our courts and schools. We want state-funded religious education. We constantly complain that the 94 percent of us who are Christians are hampered by a constitutional provision protecting the 6 percent of us who are not.
Other commandments
We are oddly silent, though, about Christ's other commandments. We watch as our state officials reduce health care for the poor — already the worst in a nation of less Christian states — and we are quiet. Some of us even applaud. We make no complaint when funding is cut that would provide breakfasts to poor children who otherwise would go hungry. Even as we remember Christ's focus on healing the mentally ill, we are detached when our state closes its mental hospitals.
We are not just passive, but enthusiastic, when our Christian-elected Legislature passes a law that "attacks every aspect of an illegal alien's life," even though most of those aliens came here to escape the extreme poverty of their former homes. Even though most are Christians and many are children. And even though Christ cared nothing for man-made borders, even when it came to Samaritans.
We justify our collective departures from Christ's teachings by pointing at state resources, which are indeed scant. Yet we tolerate the most regressive tax system in the nation, one that burdens the poor, who are blessed, to benefit the rich.
My point is not that any of these issues are easy. Hampered by pragmatism, my faith does not lead me to the conclusion that we should welcome every immigrant and reform our tax system to the point that we can provide food, medicine and housing to every poor person.
But even on this day of rejoicing for my risen savior, I mourn. Why, as Christians who both control and finance our government, are we not straining to use it to provide for the poor and welcome the outcast?
Is Jesus weeping?
Contact Eric Fleischauer at eric@decaturdaily.com or www.mile304.com.
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| Name: |
Coosaman
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| Subject: |
Who Follows This Theology?
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Date:
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4/8/2012 8:15:57 PM
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WOW, I salute your boldness and your stance for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I agree with some of your points and disagree at the same time. I personally believe in the trickle down effect, when it comes to helping our wealthy. The reason is simple I have never been given a job by a poor man. I also believe that we the church should be solely responsible for helping the poor and needy it is not the job of our government that is our job. We are called to help those who are in need, however we are not called to help the lazy and that is what seems to be the case oh so many times in today's society. If we as Christians would band together and do as we are told to do (that is spread the gospel, feed the poor etc...), we would not have the dependence on our government that we have today. We have made Jesus into a middle class man who dressed up to go to synagogue on the Sabbath and then go home and go to work on Sunday only to do it all over again the next week. This could not be farther from the truth. Jesus was a homeless man who devoted his whole life to serving the one true GOD.
If you would take note I said this is all what I believe just my opinion. Some of it may be my political views mixed with my deep southern Baptist heritage. I do agree that Jesus is weeping but I believe it is how far we have fallen in the last 2000 years while claiming to be Christians. Almost like the church in Corinth if you ask me.
Thank you for posting such a powerful thread.
MATT
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| Name: |
wix
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| Subject: |
Who Follows This Theology?
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Date:
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4/8/2012 9:05:25 PM
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Let's see, our liberal citizens are willing to pervert the very basic teachings of Christ in an effort to gain favor for an illegal segment of their little world. To elect the Head Idiot, these underling idiots have gathered together a collection of disadvantaged misfits, welfare sponges, plaintiff lawyers, homosexuals, criminals, illegal aliens, some of the most despicable looking women on earth, and other forms human waste, and they play on what they purport to be Christian guilt to attempt to defeat a law passed to protect US citizen from the illegal rape of government benefits such as free healthcare, welfare, SSI, child support, free education and free housing by any potential democrat who can swim, crawl, run, or walk into our country. Don't mistake illegal activity for Christian teaching.
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| Name: |
copperline
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| Subject: |
Who Follows This Theology?
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Date:
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4/8/2012 9:29:29 PM
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Always great to here this kind of thought and the earnest devotion of a Christian. It's a good EAster message for the forum. Maybe if try, we can find pieces of common ground.
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| Name: |
MartiniMan
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| Subject: |
Not me for the most part
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Date:
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4/8/2012 10:34:13 PM
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I have yet to find in the Gospel's where Christ said use the government and their power to point the gun at us and force us to do something. When Christ talks about giving to the poor he is referring to charity....a voluntary act done out of concern for our fellow man. That is why study after studay has documented that conservatives are far more generous to charity than liberals. We live the Gospel like Christ expected and do not take solace in forcing others with the power of government to do something at odds with their free will. As for illegal aliens, we are indeed expected to treat them with charity. But that does not mean we condone their first act on our soil, which of course is a crime. How about this idea, we treat illegal Mexicans the way the Mexican gov't treats theirs? Look it up and you will see just how generous and compassionate we are....
Ah....... free will, something liberals simply cannot abide. And sanctimonious liberal government media types wrapping themselves in one portion of the Christian flag while they ignore all the others makes me think of the term hypocrite. Or maybe they better represent the Scribes and Pharisees that appear clean on the outside but filled with corruption. Really, government media liberals shoud refrain from this kind of nonsense......but they can't help themselves.
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| Name: |
HARRY
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| Subject: |
Who Follows This Theology?
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Date:
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4/9/2012 8:22:46 AM
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Maybe if we just loved our neighbor as God commanded us we wouldn't be having this discussion
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