Opinion

Christian Leaders want Trump to Steal More Money

Liberals love the Bible when they think they have found something in it that supports their concocted moral, social, and political theories. Even some conservatives fail to recognize that the Bible does not support an expansive tax-and-spend centralized government no matter how beneficent the cause is said to be.

Hillary Clinton said in an interview with Diane Sawyer, “the Bible was and remains the biggest influence on my thinking,” except when it condemns abortion (Ex. 21:22-25) and same-sex relationships (Gen. 1:27; 2:24; Matt. 19:4-6; Lev. 18:22; 20:13; Rom. 1:18-27; 1 Cor. 6:9-11; 1 Tim. 1:8-11) relationships and forbids stealing (1 Sam. 8; Eph. 4:28), even if the majority of people vote to empower politicians to steal for them and/or other people (Ex. 20:15).

Obama loved to quote Cain, who murdered his brother Abel, about being his brother’s keeper. Being someone’s “keeper” is a derogatory term. Slaves were “kept” by their masters. Animals are “kept” by their “keepers.”

Liberals love to quote a truncated Jesus, “You shall not judge” (Matt. 7:1)1 while they constantly judge their religious and political opponents:

“More than 100 Christian leaders are voicing their opposition to President Donald Trump’s proposed ‘deep cuts’ to foreign aid.

“Following the release of the president’s budget blueprint on Thursday, dozens of faith leaders sent a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), urging them to reject the Trump administration’s unspecified cuts to foreign aid programs.

“‘Today, there are 65 million displaced people, the most since World War II, and 795 million people still go to bed hungry every night,’ the letter said. ‘Matthew 25 tells us when we serve the least of these, we are serving the Lord. As people of faith, we cannot turn our back on those in desperate need.’”

There is nothing in the Bible or the Constitution that supports governments taking money from the citizens of the home nation and giving it to other nations. If churches and voluntary agencies want to help other people, they are free to do so.

Former Arkansas governor, pastor, presidential candidate, and Trump supporter Mike Huckabee is urging Trump NOT to cut funding for the National Endowment for the Arts because it helps poor children learn to play musical instruments. That’s a good thing. Are we to believe that there aren’t people with gads of money in the music industry that couldn’t raise money for the same effort?

Every program in the budget has supporters. That’s why it’s nearly impossible to cut anything. The way to solve this problem is to cut everything that it not supported by the Constitution.

I’ve noticed that many Christians quote Matthew 25 to support their argument for wealth distribution. First, consider verse 40: “The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.”

Second, there is no mention of the State doing the giving. There is no call for the State to tax people so it can be given to “these brothers of Mine” or other nations.

In the Foreword to Tony Campolo’s book Red Letter Christians, Jim Wallis tells a story about a secular Jewish country-music songwriter and disk jockey who told him that a new social movement was being birthed as a result of Wallis’ God’s Politics and other “social-conscience” books. Here’s how Wallis tells it:

“I love your stuff and have been following your book tour.” Then he told me he believed we were starting a new movement, but he noticed we hadn’t come up with a name for it yet. “I’ve got an idea for you,” he said. “I think you should call yourselves ‘The Red Letter Christians.’ You know those Bibles that highlight the words of Jesus in red letters? I love the red-letter stuff. The rest I could do without.”2

Just like a liberal; the rest he could do without. I suspect that there’s a lot of the red letters of Jesus that this guy would not like (e.g., Mark 7:10; Matt. 19:4-6). Wallis continues by telling how he shared this story with Campolo, who he calls “the ‘godfather’ of Red Letter Christians” and how excited Tony got when he heard it.

Campolo declares “that there are more than 2,000 verses of Scripture that call us to express love and justice for those who are poor and oppressed.”3 What Campolo needs to find in these 2,000 verses is one verse that gives authority to civil government to redistribute wealth. Campolo takes verses that are directed at individuals and turns them on their head by giving them a political twist. Here’s a representative example:

“Most important, when we reflect on all Jesus had to say about caring for the poor and oppressed, committing ourselves to His red-letter message just might drive us to see what we can do politically to help those he called, “the least of these” (see Matt. 25:31–46).4

Campolo sees a political solution in these verses when Jesus is addressing what individuals have or have not done. By politically, Campolo means government intervention and wealth redistribution.

  1. There’s more to what Jesus said. Jesus was not condemning judging; He was condemning inconsistent and selective judging (7:2). We’re are to judge with “righteous judgment” (John 7:24). []
  2. Jim Wallis, in the Foreword to Tony Campolo, Red Letter Christians: A Citizen’s Guide to Faith and Politics (Ventura, CA: Regal Books, 2008), 9. []
  3. Campolo, Red Letter Christians, 24. []
  4. Campolo, Red Letter Christians, 22. []
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