Dr. Forbush Thinks

First of all Saint Paul was way more conservative than Jesus. Paul had hang-ups and he didn’t believe that women and men should be equal. He felt that slaves had their place in society. He had some problems with homosexuals, and sex in general. In fact he had problems with people enjoying life just a bit too much. And, he told us that we should take care of the poor.

That’s right, Mr. Conservative Saint Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians Chapter 8: verses 13-15 that the Macedonians should give more of their goods to the poor.

“Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.’”

Of course, one may argue that Paul is asking for voluntary contributions and he is not stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. But we must also consider the distribution system needed to help the poor in the best ways possible. But, he uses the old trick of guilt to accomplish the same thing. He even uses the Old Testament book of Exodus to bolster his claim. It is funny how the televangelists never read this passage from the Bible when they were amassing their own personal wealth from the donations to their church from grandma’s social security check.

I guess that it is clear that the poor do deserve some relief from their plight, and the wealthy really shouldn’t have “too much” wealth. Even the conservative Paul agrees to this. But, I am guessing that the conservative argument is that Paul is suggesting that people freely give their wealth voluntarily. Of course, on the other hand if the majority votes to help the poor in a Democratic country it could be recognized that the majority believed that this was a good method to relieve the plight of the poor.

But, we all know that the “real” conservative argument is based on the conservative longing for helping their own groups to the exclusion of other groups. For example, if the government wants to collect money and help the poor, that money is spread among the citizens of the country who need the money. If a church or religion collects money from its congregation and the distribute it among the poor in there congregation, then they can leave out the people from the undesirable groups. This is the theme of conservative politics. So, the conservatives may actually use 2 Cor 8 to guilt people in the church to contribute to the church and still contend that the government should not help the poor. Keeping the right mix of rich and poor in a church could be as important as saving the poor sinners themselves, on a purely practical level. This allows some churches to build massive mega-churches ornately decorated in the finest wood and marble. The wealthy are attracted to these monstrosities and contribute even more money to these symbols of material wealth on Earth, while the poor just struggle to find a way to feed their families each day.

Well, I have to admit that I am not being completely fair, because each church has it’s own way to determine whom they help. Some groups go to foreign countries to help the poor without evangelizing, while others make evangelizing the main mission. Some groups reach out to the inner city poor without questioning their faith or belief while others believe that faith is more important that even the food that they seek. But, one still has to wonder if a uniform system would be more efficient and effective than the hit and miss strategy of using religious organizations to help the poor. The basic needs of food, clothing and health care should be maintained to grow a healthy Democracy and a healthy society.






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Don't forget what Stephen Colbert said, "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."





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Politics