A message for Christian voters. (edited to add intro)

[Deep13]

I realize I'm preaching to the choir here since just about every DU Christian already believes in charity and social justice. This is for my Facebook page.

...It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

Matt. 19:24

This is my final election-related post for 2010, I promise. I'm as sick of writing them as you are of seeing them. It's important, so I do it.

Anyway, for the Christian values people here who will insist on voting their religion despite U.S. Const. art.6, here are some Biblical references you might want to consider.




Deut. 15:7. If there is a poor man among you, one of your brothers, in any of the towns of the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand to your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.
Deut. 26:12. When you have finished paying the complete tithe of your increase in the third year, the year of tithing, then you shall give it to the Levite, to the stranger, to the orphan and the widow, that they may eat in your towns, and be satisfied.

Lev. 19:19ff. Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.

Prov. 31:8ff. Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.

Is. 58:66ff. Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?




Prov. 22:9 He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor.
Jer. 22:16 "Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy; then it was well. Is that not what it means to know Me?" declares the LORD.

Deut. 15:10. You shall give generously to , and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.

Prov. 19:17. He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the LORD, and He will repay him for his good deed.

Jer. 7:5-7. "For, if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever."

Is. 58:10. "And if you give yourself to the hungry, and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness, and your gloom will become like midday. And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."

Luke 14:12-14. "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

Luke 12:44. "Sell your possessions and give alms; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Mt. 19:20ff. The young man said to Him, "All these commands I have kept; what am I still lacking?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."




Prov. 29:7. The righteous is concerned for the rights of the poor; the wicked does not understand such concern.
1 John 3:17. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?

Luke 6:33ff. "And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, in order to receive back the same."

2 Cor 9:7. Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.

Mt. 6:2-4. "When therefore you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your alms may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you."

Mt. 6:24. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money."

1 Tim. 6:10. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many a pang.

Gal. 2:9ff. Recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John... gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor-- the very thing I also was eager to do.

Lev. 19:15. "You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly."

Acts 2:44. All those who had believed were together, and had all things in common; and they began to sell their property and possessions, and share them with all, as anyone might have need.

Acts 4:32-35. And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles' feet; and they would be distributed to each, as any had need.

Eph. 4:28. Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good, in order that he may have something to share with him who has need.



Jer. 22:3. Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

Luke 12:33. "Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys."

Luke 3:11. And would answer and say to them, "Let the man with two tunics share with him who has none, and let him who has food do likewise."

Mt. 5:42. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

1. Nice summation of Scripture there.

I like the last three especially. :)

[JuniperLea]

5. How is it you always show up on scripture threads?

Oh... never mind... I guess...


:rofl:

[JoePhilly]

2. Blasphemer!!!!!

:evilgrin:

[Deep13]

13. I know.

:-(

BTW, the smiles are from things written in bracketts that the DU website read as smiles.

[Fumesucker]

17. Check the little box that says you want to use plain text and it will get rid of that problem..

Then it will put up your post exactly as written..

[JoePhilly]

22. I noticed that ...

At first I thought you put them in on purpose ... but not everywhere ... and then it struck me that the site was doing it automatically ... which I thought was great.

A DU interpretation of scripture is just too funny.

[icnorth]

3. Not a republican family value among them. n/t

[JuniperLea]

4. My personal fav... and I think it fitting here...

'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Matthew 25:40


I have a few other favorites about false prophets that would work well too... but I like the positive light here:)

[w8liftinglady]

12. that is my favorite as well...I quote it frequently.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

6. "Well hellfire, I doesn't mind t'all givin to those po' white folks"

So I be a fine Christian!

[asdjrocky]

7. Can we add this one for the California voters regarding Prop 19?

Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food." - Genesis 1:29

[Ruby the Liberal]

8. K&R!!

[Xicano]

9. None of that is in the Bible

Proof is right here >>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-8_qqBePKI


;-)

[elocs]

10. Too many here forget that there are DU Christians in their haste to tar all Christians

with the broad brush and to lump them all together.

[Deep13]

14. Well, I have no intention of tarring all or even most Christians themselves...

...but I still take issue with the veracity of their beliefs. That's a different issue.

[JuniperLea]

16. I was raised Assembly of God...

The hypocrisy I saw turned me agnostic. Most of the so-called Christians who are loud and boastful (and put those horrid NoTW stickers on their SUV's) do not behave in a Christ-like manner, and unfortunately, I think they are the majority. The true Christian is neither boastful or prideful, and they are but a precious few from what I can gather.

I can still feel good about attempts to be Christ-like... even if I'm not so sure he's, you know... :) I don't feel hypocritical about that at all. I like the teachings of Gandhi, Rumi, I Ching, and Mother Theresa too. I find no conflicts.

[w8liftinglady]

18. I agree...I was raised Catholic.I am spiritual,now.

the gentle loving of all religions...

[JuniperLea]

19. I knew you were special the first time I saw you here...

:hug:

I feel the same way.

I have a dear friend... he's gay, and he's a minister in a metaphysical church. He said, "I just love spiritual people, but religious people scare the hell out of me!"

I need to remember "spiritual" and use it.

[w8liftinglady]

20. awwww-Back at Ya!

:pals:

[Bluenorthwest]

21. What you see as tarring is often a prodding

This post, this is what the people of faith should be doing. Chiding hypocrisy is not the same as 'tarring all Christians'. Many Christians use their faith as a weapon, and claim it can not be discussed. They claim that is it fine to declare in the political arena that their faith is reason for my lack of rights, but also that it is somehow unfair to then point out to them the rules in the same books, on the same page as their wee anti-equality verses which they themselves clearly and openly reject.
"Mommy, I took my holiest thing into the public square, into political places, and it got treated as a political object! How can that be!"

[w8liftinglady]

11. I love to quote the Bible-the real,gentle,caring,all-loving one.

Thanks for quoting these...it's beautiful.

[Deep13]

15. Well, to be fair there's a lot I didn't quote.

I hope I get as warm a welcome from some of my RW Facebook friends.

[Deep13]

23. my concluding paragraphs from FB.

http://www.zompist.com/meetthepoor.html



Actually this website has more than what I just quoted. Compare all that to maybe three references to male homosexuality and none to abortion. There doesn't seem to be anything in the Bible about reducing government spending. So, if the big-business, Republican Tea Party sounds pretty good to you, you might want to ask yourself just what kind of Christianity you have been following. And let's not get into any distinctions between governmental aid and what you contribute yourself. If that were a good argument, then not recognizing gay marriage yourself while allowing the state to do it would be acceptable to you. Frankly, it sounds an awful lot like the liberal welfare state is in compliance with Biblical directives while failing to help the poor, the sick, the hungry and the disturbed is the very definition of sin.



In the interests of full disclosure, I'm not a believer and have not been one for a long time. I did backslide somewhat when my Dad died in 1999. I don't think he would have been too disappointed by that side he had some backsliding of his own after his mother died six months earlier. It's funny how we fall back on old habits when calamity strikes. Anyway, in 2000 when I was still in my backsliding period, I felt that God was punishing this country by making Bush our president because we had ignored the poor and the sick and the path of peace. I thought he might even be the beast of Revelation and I knew that no good would come of it. Sadly, I was right. Now apparently the country is mad at the people who are trying to undo the damage and who are a lot closer to the above quoted passages than the Rs and especially the tea party ever was.