I thought Jesus was against free handouts to the poor, thought people should always pay to get healing and no one should heal the poor for free. That would be a horrible thing to do. I also hear that he was against embryonic/stem cell research, thought gay marriage should be illegal and they should not be allowed to openly serve in the military, and felt that leaders should not make speeches to children. Oh wait, he also said that Obama would go to hell.
Other TJ quotes... "I approved from the first moment of... the power of taxation [in the new Constitution]. I thought at first that [it] might have been limited. A little reflection soon convinced me it ought not to be." --Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789. ME 7:300 "Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise." --Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, 1785. ME 19:18, Papers 8:682 "The collection of taxes... has been as yet only by duties on consumption. As these fall principally on the rich, it is a general desire to make them contribute the whole money we want, if possible. And we have a hope that they will furnish enough for the expenses of government and the interest of our whole public debt, foreign and domestic." --Thomas Jefferson to Comte de Moustier, 1790. ME 8:110 "The rich alone use imported articles, and on these alone the whole taxes of the General Government are levied. ... Our revenues liberated by the discharge of the public debt, and its surplus applied to canals, roads, schools, etc., the farmer will see his government supported, his children educated, and the face of his country made a paradise by the contributions of the rich alone, without his being called on to spend a cent from his earnings." --Thomas Jefferson to Thaddeus Kosciusko, 1811. ME 13:41 "The great mass of the articles on which impost is paid is foreign luxuries, purchased by those only who are rich enough to afford themselves the use of them. Their patriotism would certainly prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of the public education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of public improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers." --Thomas Jefferson: 6th Annual Message, 1806. ME 3:423 "There is a debt of service due from every man to his country, proportioned to the bounties which nature and fortune have measured to him." --Thomas Jefferson to Edward Rutledge, 1796. ME 9:354
Rhester can you point out the parts of the Bible used to support the supposition that Jesus was an Ayn Rand or present day conservative GOP capitalist?
Jesus loves the poor and so should you. Jesus has a government unlike any on earth it is ruled by His love. Jesus would have nothing to say on any current legislation, the only question he would ask in Congress is for each member to sell what they have and give to the poor. Jesus knows love and compassion cannot be legislated. You are responsible to pay for the healing of others that is the Jesus way. Only the indifferent pass by the poor without doing anything. there is no law for Jesus to support, His heart is filled with 2- love God and love man, that is enough. mixing Jesus with politics demonstrates a lack of understanding and knowledge.
Let me explain the Jesus way- love All people of the world have equal value to Jesus. The majority of the world's people are very poor. Those here in America who have the least are rich in comparison. The Jesus way is for each of us to value others in the world with the same value and love we give ourselves. Jesus knows if you love those who lack you will give to them. It requires no law to love your neighbor. As long as you hoard what you have and store up for yourself you cannot follow Jesus. Jesus kingdom is not in an earthly government, it is in the heart. We Americans mostly are the rich that Jesus talked about. If we love our neighbors we will not let them go without anything they need while we hold on to as much as we can get. I pray Christians will wake up. I know nothing of GOP capitalists or this person you mention. I know Jesus. If anyone does not forsake all they have they cannot be Jesus disciple. If anyone does not love his neighbor they cannot be Jesus disciple. My advice to American Christians is to sell what you have and give to the poor. There, that is my reply you can find the bible verses to support it or oppose it as easily as I can. I don't think mixing Jesus with politics gets anywhere. If someone gets help from the government fine, that people are helped is good, it doesn't change your responsibility to love your neighbor and the poor, we are our brother's keeper and what each of us do is what Jesus is concerned with not any law.
what I know of the conservative base is what I read, they seem selfish and materialistic. if I described that I apologize
Interesting, Rhester, that is very close to the type of religion I was brought up in. I work for the poor every day, but I admit I don't give all my money away. Ayn Rand is sort of the patron saint of Libertarians and was a leader of a small study group that Alan Greenspan was in as a young man. Her novels like Atlas Shrugs or Shrugged and the Fountainhead are very popular especially with the rich and particularly the young and healthy and those who feel they are smarter than most. I still have to wonder how so many who claim to be so Christian begrudge health care, food stamps and aid to dependent children. or foreign aid to the desperately poor in the Third World. Why they begrudge paying taxes when they can clearly afford to do so by any reasonable material standard.
God bless you glynch. I like some Libertarian ideas- at least how I understand liberty, love is a free choice, it must be or it isn't love I am not against the rich either, I just understand that we live as we love others, that is the Jesus way, love is practical the early Jesus followers as I read the bible shared so that all benefited, it wasn't legislated it was love. Each person should be free to make that choice - that is what makes love a joy
you don't have to give all your money away, the point is love your neighbor, love the poor... the rest works itself out if you gave all your money to the poor and you didn't have love it would be useless
I begrudge sending any aid abroad when: 1. A lot of it never gets to the people that need it due to their governments, and 2. We have not taken care of business at home. I would much, MUCH rather take care of the poor here. At least then I can rationalize having 25% of my salary going to the government. It is much more difficult to stomach when that money is going abroad. This is especially true when if I had a little of that money back, it would go a long way to assisting me in paying down the failed business debts and student loans that hang over my head like an anvil.
