Following The Book
Lynn Parramore at New Deal 2.0 has come to the conclusion that The God of Tea Party Freshmen Serves the Rich, Not the Poor. Her conclusion is based on the reporting of an incident among the TP Frosh that quotes Proverbs 22:07 “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.”
I would guess that the TP Frosh would emphasize the second part about the relation of borrowers and lenders, except for their stance on revenue increases. They must have missed Proverbs 22:16 “He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want.” It would appear that the knowledge that tax cuts for the wealthy is a bad idea, is very old.
The reality is that these are from the Old Testament, while the New Testament is clear, as expressed in Matthew 19:24 “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” Of course, that’s just the opinion of an unemployed wanderer.
5 comments
They are not Christians (I actually doubt they believe in anything other than fulfilling their own personal needs and wants which mostly fall under the category of the *7 deadly sins*). If anything, they are more akin to Jewish, though I doubt any follow The Tanakh any more than they follow the Christan Bible. They are all con artists, nothing more. Anyone who believes anything they say are complete fools and deserve what they will get, absolutely nothing.
They decide what they want to do, then they find something to support it. They aren’t looking for guidance, they are looking for excuses.
I’ve quoted the camel one to a batshit looney evangelical, and as their eyes roll in all directions, they claim with a straight face that all it means is that rich people can still get into heaven, as long as they bend their knee and accept Jeebus as their Lord and Savior. I say Jebus because clearly whoever they’re bending knee to isn’t Jesus, who they just called a liar.
Kryten, a large percentage of the evangelicals are the conned, not the con-artists. They get a really crazy glassy look in their eyes when you point this out to them and eventually are reduced to sputtering that you’re going to Hell for quoting things from their supposed holy book to them that contradict what their cult leaders told them to believe. As for evangelical leaders, you can filter out the conned from the con-artists by seeing how they live. If they work a real job Monday through Friday (not a wingnut welfare job), live modestly, and preach for free on Sundays, they’re likely the true believers. But they don’t tend to stay long as preachers at evangelical churches, because the church deacons don’t like hearing that they’re all going to hell if they don’t give everything they own not needed for their own sustenance to the poor.
– Badtux the Jesusland Penguin
I wasn’t talking about the great mass of sheeple badtux. 🙂 I was referring to the criminals who call themselves leaders of the sheeple. Sheeple will follow anyone who baa’s loud enough and has enough charisma to hypnotize their very simple minds. Sheeple don’t think, and don’t want to. Most of them have enough trouble deciding what to have for lunch. There may be a few evangelical’s who have good intentions, and even who try to follow the Bible as it is (even the NT, amazingly) but by and large would never go outside their own comfort zone and would never dare to rock the great ship to hell. *shrug* They mostly figure that so long as they do their little bit for their small flocks, they will guarantee their spot in the after-life gravy train. They need to do a bit more reading, and a lot more comprehending! 😉 🙂
No matter what group of people you name, the majority are almost always some type of sheeple followers (and more usually, simply “the conned”.) It’s far easier for most humans to follow than think.
I’ve never been a very good follower. I ask questions. It tends to annoy leaders who have reasons not to like questions, and even those who have nothing to hide, except in rare cases as I’ve discovered through decades of experience. If one is lucky enough to find a Church with a Pastor (or whatever the leader is called there) that encourages questions and discussion and even tries to help, they tend not to last long once their Church superiors discover they have a minister actually *doing something good and valuable* and making them look like the useless bunch they are, they move him to some place he can’t embarrass them much. There are some exceptions of course, there always are. That doesn’t invalidate my experiences, or that of many others. *shrug*
The resident advisors at my first university were all grad students in theology [the school was founded to provide Baptist ministers].
During a long session at a local bar [18 was the legal age at the time], the RA for the dorm I was in was bemoaning his lack of training to take over a congregation. He had spent a semester as an intern/assistant at a church and discovered a major gap in his education – business courses. He had the theology down pat, and was a true believer, but he didn’t know how to keep books or to figure out what was a good mortgage, and finances apparently consumed most of the pastor’s time when not actually writing sermons or conducting services.
The key is finding the balance, and too many ‘pastors’ today know more about money than salvation.
People are free to believe whatever they want, but I would be happier if they would keep it to themselves and not annoy me with it.