+1, I love to hear people talk about their faith when they aren't conflating it with Faux "News" opinion show pundits.
Beck is all about the ratings and the cash, nothing more, and this new little dust up will only help him, of course.
Ok. I just listened to Beck explain how great American patriot Joseph McCarthy was unfairly framed and smeared by the international communist conspiracy. I don't have words to express my amazement and disgust.
Yeah, when he does incredibly harmful crap like this, I start to question my comments about him just being about the money. He could rake in lots of cash without trying to rewrite the career of a cancer like McCarthy.
I will only respond to this because the rest is absurd. I have stated several times in this thread that welfare should only be a safety net to help people get back on their feet. The "thiefs" I am referring to are the lazy people who could try to find meaningful work yet choose not to because they are comfortable living off others people hard work through welfare. You know darn good and well that their are a lot of those type of people out there.
Hey we are all Rockets fans hopefully mostly Christians. We all believe we should do what we can to help the less fortunate we just disagree on how to accomplish it. I have enjoyed this conversation. May God bless you all. PS- If anyone reading this is not a Christian I urge you to read the Bible, find a church, and to take Jesus as your Lord and savior. Good night brothers.
Why hopefully mostly Christians? Can't Musilms, Jews, atheists etc. be good people with valid opinions? Comments like that are why Christians get a bad rep. You don't get off that easy. You don't want to help the less fortunate, you just want to help the less fortunate who, in your obviously unfailing estimation, meet some nebulous criteria of being "genuinely" needy and not a "thief". Memo: "God helps those that help themselves" does NOT appear in the Bible. Neither does the old "give a man a fish/teach a man to fish" platitude. In fact, the Bible teaches quite the opposite: help those in need, whomever they might be. Isaiah 25:4 "You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall." Notice how it just says refuge for the poor, not "refuge for the poor, unless you think they can get a job at McDonalds, in which case, screw 'em!" You come in here and defend hate-speech that paints churches across the globe as communist and Nazis for wanting to help the needy, speech that clergy all over the nation and even the world are condemning, and then have unmitigated temerity to comport yourself like some bastion of Christian ideals? PS - If anybody needs to be reading the Bible, it's you. I think you might have missed the point of the book, because you've got it completely backwards.
Well if you read the bible you know that unless you have faith that Jesus is your Lord and savior you will not go to heaven. That is not even debatable. Hey, you believe government wealth redistribution is the best way to help the needy and I agree with you as far as it being a safety net. I do not agree with able body people living off welfare without even trying to find meaningful employment and don't even try to tell me that there aren't many people who fit that description. I have never once mentioned that people and churches should not help people. I have stated several times in this thread that it is our duty as Christians. I have also never seen a church telling me to pay higher taxes to help others. You have your beliefs, I have mine. I seriously doubt that you have done near as much as I have to help others in need and calling on the government to raise taxes does not count, it is a cop out. I guess I don't understand the Bible because I don't believe in wealth redistribution. Give me a break. THE BIBLE SAYS IT IS OUR DUTY AS INDIVIDUALS TO HELP THE NEEDY. Nowhere does it say that should be through wealth redistribution through taxation. Good night and may God bless you.
Taxation, at virtually any level, does this. That does not make it communism. Communism is where the government owns EVERYTHING. Every dry cleaners. Every grocery store. Every TV station. Every refinery. EVERYTHING. The government then, in theory, identifies where each person's talents lie, employ them in that talent and pay them according to their perceived need. This is NOT what you are talking about and calling it communism. You either badly needed the above lesson on comparative government or you knew this already and have been intentionally mislabeling it as communism because the word communism sounds really bad. Which is it?
Sorry, bro -- I gotta ask: is your stance against "wealth redistribution" a political stance or a spiritual one? If it is a political stance, then it should have nothing to do with your Christian beliefs. Iff the church you're attending openly advocates socialism as an economic policy and you don't like that, that's all good -- find another church. If on the other hand your stance is a spiritual one -- i.e. you think that as Christians we should be opposed to any policy that implements "wealth redistribution", a progressive tax or any particular tax system, or social programs such as government-sponsored universal healthcare and education, then I challenge you to prove your stance based upon scripture. I understand that too many of my Christian brothers and sisters these days can't tell the difference between the "founding fathers" and the twenty-four elders around God's throne, but I know surely you aren't one of them. Whatever you do, please try not to mix up the Republican party manifesto and the Word of God. They are two very different documents that are contradictory to each other in many, many ways.
Obviously, it is. Your statement that we are all "hopefully Christians" is condescending. The opinion of non-Christians is just as valid as those who believe in Jesus. So you disagree with the Bible, because you've yet to show me a scripture that supports this stance. But don't you see: that's what Beck is saying they are doing. He's saying that churches that preach social justice are communist Nazis who want to undermine Christian values, and it's simply not true. And what, pray tell, are you using to form this statement? You don't even know me. Is this based on your exalted status as a bastion of the Christian faith? How very judgmental of you. Your hypocrisy increases by the minute. Yup. "Render unto Caesar..." Matthew 22:20-22. Not hard to understand. If you choose not to follow this scripture, well that's up to you. You inserted the word "individuals". The Bible says no such thing, and you've yet to show me a scripture that does. Taxation is, by it's very definition, wealth redistribution, and the Bible supports it, so once again, you seem to be at odds with scripture.
Most people on the internet are atheists more than likely so I wouldn't urge people to go to church or read the bible because it's a waste of time for atheists.
If it is condescending to want everyone to go to heaven then I am condescending. John 3 16-18 16 " For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 17 "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." 18 "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." Are you even a Christian? Ephesians 4:28 "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need." This can be applied to able body people who chose not to work and would rather live off of government handouts. It does not apply to people who fall on hard times and need welfare to get back on their feet. Again any church I have ever been around does not preach "social justice" by paying taxes through class warfare wealth redistribution. They preach about eternal salvation and helping others as individuals. You must be one of the people who mooch of of the government. You sir are the hypocrite. I pay my taxes. Where does it say Caeser used the taxes to pay welfare to able body people. It doesn't, because there was no such thing as welfare. Back then you made your own way or were helped by a good Samaritan not the government. What was given to Caeser was kept by Caeser. You were on your own unless a individual chose to help you. I have not once abdicated not paying taxes. Taxes are not wealth redistribution by definition. Taxes-(a sum of money demanded by a government for its support or for specific facilities or services, levied upon incomes, property, sales, etc.) Taxes are paid to fund the government. It was not until the Great Depression that they were used to fund welfare. Again(since you are apparently slow to understand this), I am not against welfare. I believe it is a necessary safety net to help people when they fall on hard times. It should not be used to support able body people who DO NOT WANT TO WORK. I have asked you where in the Bible it says we should pay taxes so they can be redistributed to able body people who chose not to work.
Not to nitpick, but I think the Bible is a valuable read for anybody (given its impact on the globe and the centrality of some of its stories).
BetterThanI here are a few more for you. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "If a man will not work, he shall not eat." Proverbs 14:23 All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 12:14 From the fruit of his lips a man is filled with good things as surely as the work of his hands rewards him. Proverbs 12:11 He who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment. Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Here is the quote about Caeser. Mark 12:14-17 They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn't we?" But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. "Why are you trying to trap me?" he asked. "Bring me a denarius and let me look at it." They brought the coin, and he asked them, "Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?" "Caesar's," they replied. Then Jesus said to them, "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." And they were amazed at him.
