This article is a prime example of the dangers of religious righteousness, and the selective hearing, so to speak, of so many fundamentalist religious believers, who want to carefully pick and choose those aspects of their religion that cater to their own prejudices. Representative Stephen Fincher of Tennessee claimed that Jesus would essentially be opposed to the poor receiving help from the government to help their plight. He goes so far as to say that it is not only anti-Christian, but, moreover, these are acts of theft, for all intents and purposes.
Fincher is quoted as saying:
"The role of citizens, of Christianity, of humanity, is to take care of each other, not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country."
I wonder if he favors the traditionally Republican platform of promoting a system of de facto corporate welfare, or how he voted in regards to the huge corporate bail out in 2008.
Well, I did some research
Also, he favors a greatly inflated military budget, despite the military budget being viewed as already far too huge, and burdensome, on the American taxpayer. Most Americans would like to see the military budget reduced. But not Fincher, who apparently seems to believe that Jesus would likely agree with his emphasis on huge expenditures for advanced military weaponry of all sorts.
The article also revealed that Fincher himself was not opposed to receiving generous amounts from govenrment sponsored farming subsidies, to the tune of well over three million dollars!
Also, the hypocrisy does not end there. Here, according to Bloomberg.com, is one of the main problems with Tea Party members of Congress, which certainly includes, but is not restricted to, Representative Fincher. This is what they had to say in an article from April of last year:
Tea Party favorites such as Stephen Fincher of Tennessee were swept into Congress on a wave of anger over government-funded bailouts of banks.
Now those incumbents are collecting thousands of dollars for re-election campaigns from the same Wall Street firms whose excesses they criticized. They have taken no significant steps to curb them or prevent future taxpayer-financed rescues.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-30/tea-party-congressmen-accept-cash-from-bailed-out-bankers.html
Nice, huh?
He sounds like he must have consistently, and rather conveniently, omitted much of the teachings of Jesus and the Beatitudes, and the Sermon on the Mount, during his Bible studies and readings of the Good Book. That is the danger of religion, is that it really depends on one's own interpretation, and whether the believer is actually reading everything that the religion is teaching, or merely picking and choosing those parts that suit his or her own prejudices and confirm his or her beliefs and values. I think there is a fair amount within the Bible, and perhaps especially among what Jesus actually said, that would refute Fincher's interpretation. But that would not stop a man like Fincher, who obviously wears his religion on his sleeve, so that all the good, Christian people in his district know how good of a Christian he is. What he says, and what he portrays himself as, is what counts. Not what he actually does, or how he acts.
If he truly believe in Christianity, he had better brush his teeth and say his prayers regularly, because I doubt that this level of hypocrisy would be easily forgotten or forgiven. I just hope that the public will not be so forgetful, or forgiving, come election day.
"GOP congressman claims Jesus would oppose food stamps" by Michael Stone of the Democrat Examiner
http://www.examiner.com/article/gop-congressman-claims-jesus-would-oppose-food-stamps
http://thatsmycongress.com/house/repFincherTN8112.html
No comments:
Post a Comment