Tuesday, December 28, 2004

 
Leftists Use the Occasion of a Tsunami to Bash America
After deriding Western philanthropy (an odd way to solicit donations), Egeland urged the West to exacerbate worldwide income redistribution. Western governments, he vouchsafed, mistakenly “believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more.” He added, “Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become.” His words echoed comments Jesse Jackson made to MSNBC’s Campbell Brown on domestic welfare spending last Thursday:

In the last [Bush] budget, we cut housing again, and that was Jesus’ dilemma. In Bethlehem, his family ended up homeless…We're the richest nation on earth. Our percentage of income to the poor is rock bottom…The great fault of Rome was a wealthy country left Jesus and Mary Joseph, in a sense, homeless, and He was born an at-risk baby. You measure character by how you invest in the poor and today we are celebrating the wealthy and the war, not the poor and peace.

Jesse’s Christmas message: Republicans – and the nation they govern – hate baby Jesus. Leave it to Jesse to turn the nativity of the Son of God into a crass political weapon.

For the record, Jesus’ family became homeless when the Roman government herded together every soul ever born in the “little town of Bethlehem” in order to extract maximum taxation from its populace: precisely Jackson's and Egeland's prescription.

I would also add that private donations probably aren't counted. Explaining to a leftist that solutions do not have to be via a government reminds me when you first explain to a person that Jews can and do believe in Jesus and remain Jewish. It so goes against how they've been trained to think that it just doesn't get through. Believe me, America has severe spiritual problems. Materialism is a big part of that. And I include myself under that condemnation, but Americans also tend to be generous.

Comments:
Once again, you and I are thinking similarly. I posted some like thoughts today before I read your post.

One could also wish that that part of the world suffered MORE from "materialism." The number one defense against natural disasters is economic development. It's not a coincidence that death tolls like this occur only in the Third World, and it's NOT because there are no natural disasters elsewhere. An earthquake of the same magnitude that kills tens of thousands in the Third World kills dozens in California.
 
go figure bush feels it more important to spend more money on his celebration than on the folks suffering from the events of last week. with over 100,000 people dead and more probably this next week, yeah lets celebrate bush with his inaguration. i certainly feel like celebrating. boo
religion is what has caused most of our problems of today. you don't need to be affiliated with any religion to be a good person and treat others with respect. folks need to look at themselves, it's not just the "crazy islam" types, it's the radical right wing religious guys as well believing that their way is right and every other religion is wrong. i especially like how bush folks want to have religion in school. well if you want religion in school, you need to represent all religions, not just yours. gee will there be any time for math class now? open your eyes smell the coffee man what does it take for folks like you????
 
Anonymous,

You can walk and chew gum at the same time. You are committing the falacy of the false dilemma. I can give money to charity and spend money on myself at the same time. What percentage of the federal budget is to either prevent or to help poor people? It's considerable, even if sometimes it causes other ill-effects or doesn't work.

But over and top of that it is not our responsibility to give them any money, and we are anyway because its a good thing to do. So your first comment simply isn't true. We are giving money. And I fully support spending money to celebrate the peaceful transition of power. As my post said, not everything has to be done by governments. So given that and your attitude, place your money where your mouth is and donate.

Then you go on to bash religion and religious people. The cause of most of the problems today. Like hospitals? Science? Rights for women? There is a reason for the good things in our Western tradition. It's called Christianity. Are people still sinners and sin by using religion wrongly? Of course. I would say most of the bad things today are coming from a) Islam b) secularists. Those atheists did a bang up job in Cuba, the Soviet Union, and China, etc. 100 million dead in about 70 years. And those secularists in Europe? I absolutely adore them killing babies without notifying the parents.

Can you be a moral atheist? Somewhat. I fall short of God's standard, and I'm religious. An atheist will too. The only problem is that you will have to face the wrath of God without an atonement for your sins.

Your post then became a little rambling. Which is fine. That happens on the Internet. Let me simply say that Islam does indeed pose a unique threat. I've read most of the Koran. I'm familiar with Islamic history. Secondly, a lot of people who believe that if you don't believe in Jesus you will go to hell are today helping in the tsunami relief efforts. Why? They love God and they love their fellow man. Just because you believe someone is going to hell, doesn't mean you hate that person. At least not in Christian circles. We evangelize, etc. because we love people. If we hated people, we'd keep the message to ourselves.

And for the record. If you don't believe in Jesus, you will go to hell.
 
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