Hi Buddy aka Beverly

Thank you for your comment at Provoketive Magazine (http://provoketive.com). We’re creating a space of rich conversation about life, faith, justice and culture without judgment. Our desire is to provoke the reader’s imagination through conversation and open up spaces of dialogue, learning, and hope.  We want to invite you to come back soon and continue to participate in the conversation. 

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Jonathan Brink
Provoketive Magazine

You posted the following comment:
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I'm so glad for your article.  I've had this discussion with so-called Christian conservatives many a time.  Usually it starts with them complaining about tax money going to social programs and how it's killing our economy and how we need to make cuts.  So I remind them that Jesus said to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's; in other words, that we are to pay our taxes.  They say yes, but they don't think the taxes should have to go to social programs.  So I remind them that Jesus was all about helping the poor, "the least of them."  They say they are fine with helping the poor but that the government should just stay out of it.  So I tell them that I agree with them, that Jesus didn't get to tell Caesar what to do with the tax money he collected, but I can't help but think he would approve of it.  I tell them to imagine what if Caesar did seek Jesus's advice on what to do with the tax money.  I could just imagine Caesar showing Jesus around his opulent castle and saying I have gold and silver everywhere, my gold crown has jewels inlaid, my wives all dress in the finest silk and are laden with jewels, as are my concubines.  Even my servants wear the finest polished cotton.  What should I do with my latest windfall?  Then I imagine Jesus taking Caesar for a little walk around his kindom, starting with the market place, past the blind and the beggars, into a few of the poorer homes to visit the sick and dying, and past the leper camps and turning to Caesar and saying do you see anywhere your money could be put to good use?  Of course, the choice is now Caesars, just as it is ours.  But I think as much as Jesus cared for the poor and the sick, he would certainly approve of a portion of what we pay in to the govrnment go there, and I even think it would be a priority.

I put something in my Facebook status a while ago about the poor, and the comments I got were that we didn't need social programs for this, that the churches and charities would take care of this.  So I reminded my commentors that in the 1930s, during the times of tent cities and tar shacks, these programs were implimented because the churches and charities couldn't do enough.  Neither can they today for all the families without means due to outsourcing and downsizing of jobs.  A bundle of gently used clothing, a blanket or two, a couple loaves of bread, a bag of beans or potatoes and a couple of packages of macaroni and cheese isn't going to feed a family for long, nor will it pay their rent, utilities and put gass in their car to look for work or get to job interviews.  And passing around that "special offering plate" will not take just one family far for long either.  We need those insititutions.  The very next day I again put something about the poor and how we should help in my status, and this time my first comment was from a self-described Christian conservative that said, "I'm not about to give to any charities.  They can just work like I have to."  So much for that Christian's loving heart toward those with less than himself, and I see this same attitude often among Christians, but most are less blunt about it.

So I am wondering what has happened to the Christian attitude I grew up with?  The Christ I learned about back in the day, before the "Prosperity Doctrine" began to invade our mainstream Christian churches 30 years ago, and before Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" made a resurgeance in the 1980s, that Christ was about turning the other cheek and told us that if someone asks for your cloak, give them your coat as well.  Christ stressed the importance of healing the sick and helping the poor.  Never, never did I ever hear it taught that they were a bunch of lazy bums that could just go and work themselves.  I wonder where our Christian ethic has gone.  Nowdays, I see so many Christians that carry an attitude of selfishness, an "I got mine, so the heck with you" attitude so prevasive that it's almost become their mantra.  Not only is it okay to be selfish and to want to hang on to what's yours, but it is now seen as a godly attitude.  Talk about having your ears tickled!

If is for this reason and a few others as well that I no longer consider myself a conservative and will not vote that way.  At this time, I even struggle with the word "Christian" because of what it has come to represent, and which is the very opposite of what I think Christ was all about.  Thank you again for your timely article.