While reading the New Living Translation of Acts 2: 43-47, I had to stop and wonder how conservative “Born-again” Christians, especially those who strongly advocate slashing the social safety net to make up for cutting taxes for wealthy billionaires would respond to this text?
I look forward to reading their comments as they try to justify their ideology.
The following text draws on the experiences of Christ’s apostles immediately following Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit and spoke in the native tongues of those in attendance, and several thousand immediately became followers of Jesus Christ.
“A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders. And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had. They sold their possessions and shared the money with those in need. They worshiped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.”
It is worth noting this marvelous description of community spirit and sharing that characterized the early church and comparing it to the individualistic, ‘pull yourself up by your own bootstraps like I did’ attitudes we see and hear from Christian conservatives who believe small budget churches and cash-strapped families should be able to care for the poor and millions of unemployed Americans.
Really?
Rod Livdahl
Mesa
truth posted at 2:52 pm on Fri, Mar 2, 2012.
First of all churches and religion should not be tax deductable, Churches and religion have become a lobbyist organization.
Dale Whiting posted at 3:53 pm on Fri, Mar 2, 2012.
Rod,
You fail to give these first Christains full credit for what they did. Allow me to quote King James' version of Acts 2.
"42 And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.
"43 And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
"44 And all that believed were together, and had all things common;
"45 And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
"46 And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
"47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."
These first Saints lived a communical life. They sold their earthly, non-essential possessions, sharing them with those in their group with greater need. Yes, folks. Long before Karl Marx, there was Christian communial living! And in response to this life style, we read that "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."
The difference between the early apostles and Karl Marx was that Karl saw over time and understood how currupt Christianity had become and knew that it had to be rejected. Karl characterized that hyjacked religion as the opiat of the people.
Opium! That's modern main stream Christianity! Bush 41's concept of 1,000 points of light was an idea headed in the correct direction. But he only went part way. One can take government out of the charitable living category, but then the churches must take up the slack. My church does take up that slack. How about yours?
Leon Ceniceros posted at 4:33 pm on Fri, Mar 2, 2012.
The Good Book also chastizes us to ......WORK.
You will eat the fruits of your labor; blessing and prosperity wil be yours. Psalms 128:2
Those who work their land will have abundant food, but those that chase fantasies have no sense. Proverbs 12:4
All hard work brings profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23
One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys. Proverbs 18:9
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat". 2 Thessalonians 3:10
"I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion by means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not by making them easy in poverty, but by leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them , the more they did for themselves, and became richer". 1779
BEN FRANKLIN, SIGNER OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ONE OF OUR "FOUNDING FATHERS" OF THIS GREAT NATION.
chatmandu002 posted at 4:42 pm on Fri, Mar 2, 2012.
Rod,
So you are saying that to be a true Christian, we must accept that the government is responsible to provide for the poor and absolve us of our Christian responsibility. And as Christians we must accept that the government should tax the upper 50% of our citizens while spending even more on entitlement and welfare programs. Did I get that right? Funny, I didn't see anything in the passages that calls for a big government to control everything.
vrsicks posted at 5:35 pm on Fri, Mar 2, 2012.
The difference between the poor then and the poor now is attitude. Back "in the day," there was no welfare, unemployment, healthcare, or other government programs. People who struggled really struggled. Now, people who "struggle" today are often coasting, taking advantage of the system, and exploiting the rest of us. That's not to say that some people truly need help, and that we shouldn't help them if we can. I'm just saying that circumstances have changed drastically, and the Bible is not a step-by-step guide to our era.
Masterrogue666 posted at 7:35 pm on Fri, Mar 2, 2012.
Fine Rod, YOU LEAD OFF. Sell everything you have, and give it away. Then go to the local library (because you should have sold your computer, et al), and tell us how it's going. THEN CAST YOUR STONE.....
Arizona Willie posted at 7:42 am on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
truth --- you are correct! :)
The Catholic Church has been telling parishioners it would be a mortal sin to vote Democratic because of the abortion issue.
Other ministers have done essentially the same thing.
They have all practiced politics from the pulpit and should have forfeited their tax exempt status as soon as they started that some years back.
Churches are blatently engaging in politics and should suffer the consequences.
Rodini posted at 12:58 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
The Bible has over 300 references to the poor, can any of you find three hundred references to working hard? Probably not!
And this actually highlights the biggest fallacy conservatives believe...that all poor folks don't want to work, when the facts are that the majority are "WORKING POOR", slaving away at minimum wage jobs that keep them in poverty for years!
Being poor is NOT a sin, ignoring their needs probably is, according to Jesus Christ!
Want to argue against this gem? "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven"
Surely even you pro-rich conservatives should find pause to consider this quote from Jesus Christ. Apparently He is telling us that the "Love of Money" is going to condemn them in the end, since we all know a camel can not pass through a needle's eye!
And my church does much for the poor, making sack lunches for the mens homeless shelter in Mesa, building classrooms and churches in Mexico every year and we just funded a well being dug in Africa and are working toward a second well project too!
But wake up neo-cons...there is no way they could accomplish those things on top of providing shelter and food for thousands of working poor folks or pay medical expenses for an equal number of Americans with NO health insurance.
You are barking up a dead tree conservatives!
Masterrogue666 posted at 5:14 pm on Sat, Mar 3, 2012.
Rodini: I was so poor once that all I had to eat for lunch and dinner was ramen noodles, day after day after day.
sockratties posted at 9:33 am on Sun, Mar 4, 2012.
Rod: You could almost imagine they were talking about Jim Jones' Peoples Temple, until the wheels came off the wagon in Jones-town, Guyana, back in '78. One should not confuse compassion or morality with religion. There was a lot of “hype” in biblical days, too, and a lot of gullible people.
VofReason posted at 1:36 pm on Mon, Mar 5, 2012.
Yes, I do believe I read right in the Bible that we should give lots and lots of money to the Government so they can pocket some, fritter away some and then give some out to the poor in the least efficient manner. That is exactly what it says. Please tell me how if you go to free school and actually try how you land yourself in a minimum wage job for the rest of your life. If that really happens on a grand scale, I would love to see the evidence. I think as others have stated, there are a number of people who don't take their free education seriously and then make one bad decision after the next to put themselves into the welfare trap.
VofReason posted at 1:38 pm on Mon, Mar 5, 2012.
Maybe the nut (er ah liberals) are right. Maybe they should require that insurances provide contraception. Maybe they should enforce it in cases.