If you’re poor in America, or if you care about the poor in America, you’ve had a rough couple of months. With the house passage of an even worse version of Trumpcare, defunding public education and the NEA, Trump’s new “screw-the-poor” budget, and Paul Ryan’s determination to make sure that it all happens ASAP, has cast a dark pall over the hearts of those who still have hope that America can be more than an oligarchy. And the irony of all this isn’t that we’re fighting some godless autocracy, or an atheistic dictatorship that wants to persecute the people Jesus called most valuable. We’re fighting the party of Jesus himself.
In every conversation about economics, poverty, and immigration, Republicans ask the same question Cain asked God after he had killed his brother Abel: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The answer is simple: “Yes.” That’s why we evolved in groups, packs, herds, and tribes… We survived because of our willingness to cooperate, which is true even now. The “Free Market” works because of all the moving parts—the people who share in the work.
The overarching meme of Conservatism is that the poor are lazy, yet if they would spend even a few minutes looking at the problem they would realize that the poor aren’t lazy—they’re poor.
The rich have “people” to take care of their stuff: everything from picking up the dry cleaning to taking care of the kids. They have aides who stand at their beckoned call to make sure that nothing is missed. Take Donald Trump for example: until he ran for office, we had no idea how profoundly stupid he was. Those around him knew this, but they managed to keep it from the public.
The poor, on the other hand, must find a way to do everything themselves which is both time-consuming and exhausting, making it highly likely that most of what they need to get done won’t because they don’t have the time or the money to take care of it.
The best insight into the Republican anti-Jesus mindset comes from a conversation between Bill Maher and Evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress many years ago in which Dr. Jeffress opened a huge window into the immense chasm between what Jesus taught, and what Evangelicals champion.
Here’s how their conversation went:
Bill Maher: A couple of things we talked about on this show this year—killing Bin Laden: I always said I’m okay with it because I’m not a Christian, so I’m okay with shooting my enemies in the face. But Jesus said: “turn the other cheek,”“love enemies,”“don’t repay evil with evil,”“Do good to those that hate you,”“Whatever bad you do to others you do to me,”“do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you…” were you for killing Bin Laden?
Robert Jeffress: Absolutely.
Bill Maher: And yet I just read these quotes from your boy Jesus. How do you square that?
Robert Jeffress: Jesus was talking about personal offences, I’m not to return evil for evil to you, but in Romans chapter 13, the New Testament, Romans 13, gives government the power of the sword, Paul said, to render evil…
Bill Maher: Paul?
Robert Jeffress: Yes…
Bill Maher: Paul’s not Jesus though, is he?
Robert Jeffress: His words are just as authoritative as the lord Jesus Christ.
Bill Maher: What?
Robert Jeffress: It’s all the New Testament, it’s all god’s word.
Bill Maher: But honestly, why does Paul—why is his word equal to the man himself?
Robert Jeffress: Because it’s in the same book.
This brief exchange tells us how they deny Jesus and justify it. According to Jeffress, Evangelicals are not obligated to adhere to the words of Jesus thanks to “the rest of the book.”Thus, the difference between Jesus—and Christ.
Jesus taught that salvation was through doing good to others, and obedience to the law.
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
Matthew 19:16-17
Christ disagrees:
We who are Jews by birth and not ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:15-16
Jesus talked about selflessness and forgiveness:
If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
Luke 6:32-36
Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Matthew 5:42
Christ courted money; argued that slaves should be subservient to their masters; and had no problem letting people suffer if they couldn’t find work—and would not give unconditionally to anyone.
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.
II Thessalonians 3:10
Christ was okay seeking revenge:
… hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
I Corinthians 5:5
So Paul Ryan can, with a clear conscience, call himself a “Christian” while at the same time doing everything in his power to destroy the very people Jesus called his brothers and sisters. So the assault on the poor is bound to continue, and we’ll never be able to convince them that it’s in their best interest as Christians to help the poor. They don’t need Jesus, they’ve got Christ.
You might say that Christ is their “Get out of Jesus free” card. And to be clear… nowhere in the bible does Jesus call the poor lazy… he calls them blessed.