Damn the Poor!?!

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Trumpcare and the administration’s budget submission propose slashing the social safety net by about $1.7 trillion over the next ten years.

Most of the savings would be stuffed into already bulging pockets of the well-to-do, the top 1% or 2% of income earners.

Meanwhile, the cuts would not only target the poor, but more particularly those who are children, disabled, sick or hungry.

These proposals show the lie that were Trump’s campaign contentions not to cut Medicaid.

You can find articles on the impact of these cuts here, here and here. Here is a rather sad article on the rationale behind the cuts and how a Russian news reporter schooled Trump’s budget director on some aspects of it.

Christians who support this war on the poor don’t even have a fig leaf to wear in justifying these actions.

If you believe scripture, while we may not like it or understand it, God wants fairness and justice for the poor.

Bible verses attesting to God’s concern for the poor:

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 23:22

“Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land . . . buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat. The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.” Amos 8:4; 6-7

“Jesus answered, If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'” Matthew 19:21

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.” Matthew 25:35

“They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” Mark 12:40

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.” Luke 4:18

“So he replied to the messengers, “‘Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.'” Luke 7:22

“Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.” Luke 12:33

If Trump’s budget and healthcare proposals are enacted, tens of millions of Americans will be worse off than they are today.

According to the latest Census figures, about 45 million Americans live in poverty and over 16 million of those are children.

According to the same figures, about 30 million Americans live just above the poverty line and, again, about one-third of these are children.

Some, such as Franklin Graham say in earnestness, and with faith and hope, that Trump is sent by God.

If that is true, my thought is that if these proposals are to be believed, God sent him not as a blessing but as a curse.

 

4 thoughts on “Damn the Poor!?!”

  1. One, there’s the question of whether these programs have really helped enough people to be worth keeping. After all, there’s little point in saving the flesh if doing do further impoverishes the soul.

    Two, charity through fiat isn’t charity. No man need give of his own to his own relative detriment when all are forced to give. Hence, it’s neither sacrifice nor charity.

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    • Thank you for commenting. I’m just quoting the Bible, which also commands sharing what you have to help others. It seems to me that you give a rational instead for not sharing as well as ignoring the repeated command to help the poor.

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      • Then, in that vein I reply with John 12: 1-8

        Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead.

        There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him.

        Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

        Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him,

        Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?

        This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

        Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this.

        For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always.

        But, I make no case at all for not giving to the poor. I make a rational case for not pretending to do so and blindly enacting programs that may or may not do so at a reasonable cost, including the cost to the poor. I make a case also that no man is following the tenets of Yeshua bin Yahweh when he does so without choice or volition.

  2. I am not quite sure of your point with the scripture you cite. There is no question that the heavy weight of scripture supports giving to the poor.

    Your better argument would be in saying that scripture calls for individual and not governmental support. Even here, though, I think that is the wrong interpretation, and certainly of the Hebrew Bible verses which emphasize cultural culpability in failing to give and in injustice toward the poor.

    As far as the “blind” enactment of programs, I am not sure what you claim to have been blindly enacted. I’ve been involved with Meals on Wheels, SNAP, Medicaid, Ocare and other support programs in my ministry and have seen that they help people.

    It seems to me that the bottom line is that you and I disagree on this and that neither will persuade the other.

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