Thursday, June 16, 2011

The United States: A Christian Nation?

"If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are or we've got to acknowledge he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it."
~Stephen Colbert


"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness"
~John Kenneth Galbraith




Though it may not be obvious, these two quotes work hand in hand.  With the most recent talk of cutting billions of dollars in benefits to those in need- you have to question the supposedly Godliness of the GOP aka republicans aka conservatives aka heartless, hateful human beings (at least those who are currently in office making the calls). WIC for example, in the year 2010 serviced 7,037,176 children and infants (that does not include the number of pregnant and breast feeding woman receiving WIC- which I will touch on later).  That is over 7 FREAKING MILLION children ages 0-5 they want to take food away from that ultimately helps keep them healthy?!?  And for what, so you can afford more bombs to murder HUMAN BEINGS all around the world?!?  How dare they claim to be Christian!  Jesus' teachings tell us to (just as Stephen Colbert points out) love the poor and serve the needy without condition.  Somehow, we have managed to turn that into let's murder millions, make them seem like the bad guys so that we may ultimately have control of their natural resources- which will make them ( as in, big firms, contractors; etc) richer.  And when we can no longer afford to do that, let's take food and all other benefits from those in need to support this war. Regardless if you receive some sort of benefit from our government, if you consider yourself a Christian- you should be terrified right now!!!  And if you aren't a Christian, you should still be absolutely terrified because ultimately unless you make billions of dollars of which you want to throw at those in office, they could give a crap less about you. 


So in case you are not familiar with what is currently going on, let me try to make things a tad bit more clear.
  • 2,174,232 infants received WIC in 2010
  • 4,862,944 children (no older than the age of 5) received WIC in 2010
  • 2,138,302 women (pregnant or breast feeding) received WIC in 2010
  • 1 in 6 of those in the United States received some sort of government aid in 2010- that is roughly a little more than 50 million people
Now, many of those receiving WIC benefits, may also be receiving other government assistance- HOWEVER, taking a penny away from these less fortunate people to make up for the ill spending of our government officials, especially while we dump billions into this disgusting greedy war-IS WRONG AND AGAINST EVERYTHING JESUS TEACHES US! 


What kills me is that raising the taxes on the rich is completely out of the question, but ultimately starving God's people is acceptable.


But I feel that if we truly want to lower the cost of welfare (and even crime for that matter)- if we really want to spend less on feeding, housing; etc, those who are in need- just maybe (and feel free to tell me if I am wrong) - WE SHOULD CREATE FREAKING JOBS!  And not those bs jobs that pay a whopping $7.25 an hour, which only offer part-time work (you know, to avoid having to offer you health benefits).  Trust me, NOBODY CAN SURVIVE ON THOSE JOBS!  Who in their right mind thought that was a reasonable amount of pay for one to live off of?  I couldn't imagine trying to pay my rent, car payment, electricity, water and sewer, telephone, insurance, food, gas, childcare; etc, on $7.25 an hour- even if it was full time.  Let me break this down for you...


My Bills..
  • Rent: $700/mo (for a 3 bedroom house, which is amazingly cheap)
  • Electricity: $300/mo (during winter months which includes heat)
  • Water and Sewer:  $300/quarter ($100 a month and we are very conservative water users)
  • Telephone: $60/mo
  • Car insurance: $120/mo
  • Food:  $400/mo (for my two children and I)
  • Childcare:  $920/mo ($140/wk for my daughter's full-time childcare and $90/wk for my son's after school childcare)
  • Gas:  $250/mo (not including pleasure traveling)
  • TOTAL= $2,850
That means I would have to make at the very least $18/hr (before taxes) just to pay my bills.  (Please note that I did not include my car payment, $433/mo, as many see that as a luxury)  Well what if my children or I need to go to the doctors, what if my oil needs changed, or my registration is due...  what if I need new tires on my car... what if my children need new sneakers or clothing- as they are constantly growing.  I believe it would be safe to assume that to be sure you could comfortably live and be able to take care of all those mentioned above you would need to make between $500-$1000 more than what you pay out in bills a month.  That in turn means, that a single mother of two would need to make roughly $21/hr-$24/hr.  (or a salary of $44k-$50k per year).  And that is just the cost of living in my area- which is considered cheap to most places. 


So, now, let me ask you this-- how many places are offering to pay that without some type of degree or extensive experience?  Yet we are shocked about the number of people receiving these benefits? 


Is it that they (company owners, CEO's, presidents; etc) cannot afford to pay more?  Well, let's take a look at a common place of employment that we have all heard of- McDonalds.


"There are many directors on the board and different divisions for different areas around the world, but the chairman of the board and chief executive officer, Miles D. White had a total compensation of $28,335,494.00 in 2008. This was from a salary of $1,795,471.00, $7,582,032.00 in stock awards, $10,757,796.00 from option awards, $4,200,000.00 for non-equity incentive plan, $3,149,302.00 for Change in pension value and nonqualified deferred compensation earnings, and $850,893.00 for "all other compensation". Other Executives of McDonalds earned from $175,000 to $17,000,000 in 2008."

And that was in 2008!

So, ultimately, it's not that we cannot afford to pay workers' better, but that greed has completely consumed our nation.  The nation that claims to be a such a Christian Nation.  The same nation who instead of offering better paying wages or even more work force development- complain about welfare rates and costs, yet continue to spend billions to trillions on murdering human beings aka war (all while claiming it's for our freedom, of course).

In conclusion, I have a few quotes for all the so-called Christian Conservatives...

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever." 1 John 2:15-17


"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive."  Acts 20:35


“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets"  Matthew 7:12


"If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother." Deuteronomy 15:7
"There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land." Deuteronomy 15:11


"Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns." Deuteronomy 24:14




Okay, I could pretty much copy and paste the whole bible in here- as it all pertains to what I have been speaking of.  But please, (fake) Christian conservatives, quit acting as though you are following God's Will!  Though you often claim to be "Pro-life", I see you murdering thousands everyday- letting your own starve!  And fellow children of God or anyone with half a heart, let's stand up to these people!  Let's do something about this!  Pay attention to all that is happening right now, vote, tell others and if you are a praying person, PRAY!




"As long as you don't abort it, we don't care if you can afford it" ~ Justin Rosario


"GOP: pro-birth, not pro-life"~ Jon Stewart


"A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death." - MLK

 

I also suggest reading:
"According to USAID, 70,000 children around the world will die if Republicans make the cuts it wants to make. Approximately 30,000 kids would die from cuts in malaria control programs, 24,000 from lack of immunizations, and 16,000 due to unsafe birthing practices. Because of these draconian budget cuts, Republicans are essentially sentencing tens of thousands of children, both born and unborn, to certain death."http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/06/12/the-children-republicans-leave-behind/

An inspiring and thoughtful blog to follow for Christian Liberals:
http://www.thegodarticle.com/
















Sources:
the BIBLE
http://politic365.com/2010/08/31/1-in-6-americans-receiving-government-assistance/
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