Daily Archives: February 3, 2012
Greed and Jesus: Republicans Just Don’t Get It
Cognitive dissonance is a person’s brain trying to decipher two contradicting realities. An example of this is often seen an abusive relationship. Where the man/woman obviously understands there’s abuse from their significant other, yet they love them anyway.
Often their brain will then develop excuses for such action. It’s their fault or the other person has just been under a lot of stress. The reality is their brain simply cannot accept two different realities that contradict, so it creates another.
This is never more prevalent than when it comes to Republicans and Christianity. The benchmark for which their entire political party is based yet they push policies that contradicts much of what Jesus taught.
Their entire economic policy states we need to give more to those that have in order for the rest of us to enjoy the windfall of their generosity through increases in revenue.
Let that sink in for a second.
An economic policy based upon this notion: “If we feed greed more it will then benefit the rest of society.” When has greed ever benefited a society?
So what does the Bible say about greed:
“He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.” (Ecclesiastes 5:10) It becomes a driving obsession to acquire still more. Once the acquiring has happened, then comes the need to protect what has been acquired. This is selfishness and it is sin. (Ecclesiastes 4:8)
Once the greed-driven have acquired and protected, they begin to covet. They are not satisfied with all they have; their eye is on all that they don’t have. (Luke 12:15) This coveting begets more greed, the greed begets more selfishness, and the selfishness begets more coveting and so on to madness. “The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.” (Ecclesiastes 5:12) By this point, there is no room left in for God. Money is now the master of the house. (Matthew 6:24)”
Seems pretty straight forward. Greed is perpetual. The more one has often the more they want. Isn’t that what we’ve seen in the last 30 years? Isn’t this what Trickle Down Economics has given us?
In the last 30 years the Top 1-5% has grown exponentially, never more so than in the last decade. Yet what has it brought us? Economic failure.
A group of millionaires crying out they need even more. Many of the same businesses that proved in the 90′s, with higher taxes, they could yield historic growth are now fighting a return to those very same tax levels. They now claim economic prosperity isn’t obtainable at those “job destroying” levels of taxation.
The fact is, they’re right. Their economic prosperity cannot be sustained at a higher level of taxation. The more we fed into this myth of Trickle Down Economics, the more lower taxes benefited them, the more they expect to expand their greedy nature. To raise their taxes would mean their giant profits would probably be taken down to just, well big profits.
This isn’t about these businesses making profits, they can easily do that, but they want larger profits. What they had in the 90′s is no longer good enough, they want more.
Of course it’s impossible to return to the very same tax rates that brought us the best economic growth in our history, because then their greed would have to return to a lower level, and as the Bible says, greed is perpetual and never ends. We gave them more and now their solution to fix our problems? You guessed it, they want even more!
Isn’t that exactly what the Bible warns will happen? Did we not have wealthy Americans in the 50′s, 60′s and 70′s?
The answer is yes, they just weren’t as wealthy. Trickle Down Economics was the catalyst for the acceptance of greed. It gave those with the most more and any mention of taking it back is met with a horrific depictions of economic Armageddon.
Does it make any sense? Why would we face economic disaster by returning to tax rates that had no problem making millions of Americans a lot of money?
The answer is simple, greed.
We’ve gave them access to reach levels of unheard wealth. We’ve allowed them to see year to year profit as insufficient; they want larger profits. Success for next year is based on beating the success of last. As the Bible says, it is perpetual…it’s never ending.
How does this make any sense? Jesus warned that money is the root of all evil. The Bible stats that greed leads to madness. Yet here we sit with one of the two most powerful political parties, in the strongest nation on earth, supporting an idea that we need to support greed or else face economic destruction.
And there you have it, cognitive dissonance. The reality is exactly what the Bible said would happen did happen. Yet their political ideology completely contradicts the realities we’ve seen and the Bible supports. They preach Christian values at the same time they advocate a policy that says giving into greed will benefit our society. The human brain simply can’t handle two conflicting realities, so it creates one of its own.
The more we allowed the wealthy to have, the more they asked us to give. We did this at the detriment of our economy. If Trickle Down Economics works, shouldn’t their success and our success mirror one another? As they gain, we gain. However, that isn’t what happened. The more they’ve gained, the more they wanted, and the more they took it from everyone else.
Think of a small 12 foot fishing boat. If weight is equally dispersed it’ll stay buoyant and afloat. But what if the weight shifts more forward or backwards, what happens? The boat becomes unstable. Now imagine if suddenly all the weight is shifted forward, what would happen? Simple…the boat will suffer suddenly instability, capsize then sink. As our nations’ wealth rushed to the Top 5% in the last decade, that’s exactly what happened, our boat capsized then sank.
Does this contradiction between faith and politically ideology suggest they believe Jesus supported greed? Seems like it. So far they believe him to have been a man who would have judged homosexuals, condemned women, and considered the poor as lazy people seeking a handout. So why not perpetuate the belief that he would have supported greed? Don’t let scripture in the Bible sway your views, it’s much easier to simply allow yourself to give into and concoct a delusional reality.
What Republicans have done is a complete distortion of the Christian faith. Their version if Jesus doesn’t even fit into the very nature of what he lived and died for.
Every economic stance they support benefits the wealthy. How does it make any sense to have a party that pushes themselves as the Christian majority, the party of values and decency, yet their entire economic stance contradicts what the Bible and Jesus says about the greed of man.
What Republicans claim to follow isn’t Christianity, and it sure isn’t Jesus. Christianity is a faith that states:
“For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required”
Meaning those who have the means to make a difference, should, and should do so unselfishly.
Yet, to a Republican this is essentially socialism. It’s unfair.
But isn’t Christianity about giving, loving, and helping those who cannot help themselves?
These are the principles I live by as a Christian.
But I’m a Democrat. You know the party that lacks faith. Lacks morals. Envies the rich. You know all of that rhetoric the “good” Christian Republicans tell people we are, yet none of it is true.
Yet there they sit, a walking contradiction. A party who supports faith in God above anything and policies that favor greed over everything.
The Jesus I worship is a man who we should all strive to become. A man who didn’t judge. Who stood for those who couldn’t stand for themselves. Who never felt slighted or that life was unfair. Who was wary of people who spoke of God on their lips but lacked true faith in their hearts. A man who embraced everyone, even those who disagreed with him. A man who personified everything mankind should be.
Republicans well, who knows what man they worship. If the policies they support are reflective of the faith they follow it sure isn’t Christianity and that man sure wasn’t Jesus.
