Does the Bible teach us to demonize the poor and make sure taxes are lower for the rich? Some Christians seem to believe so...

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Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world -- James 1: 27 (ESV)

We have chronicled for some time now the deepening of the apostasy from Charisma News. Once highly regarded in the Charismatic world, today it is reduced to a puppet for politics, worshipping America, and unbiblical NAR teachings. One of their editors is the exceptionally silly false prophetess Jennifer Leclaire, creator of the "sneaky squid spirit." One of their regular bloggers is NAR gatekeeper, Dr. Michael Brown. Sprinkled throughout their opinion pages are political operatives thinly disguised as Christians. They promote the seven mountains mandate of the NAR, which believes the church must conquer the seven cultural mountains in order to facilitate the second coming of Jesus Christ. One of these mountains is government, which leads to the dominionist teachings of people like Larry Tomczak and Michael Snyder. Mr. Snyder ran an article recently that may as well have been written by the White House, completely devoid of facts and vacuous to the heart of true Christian beliefs.

http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/65118-handout-nation-combined-enrollment-in-america-s-top-4-safety-net-programs-hits-record-high

Yes, can't you just see Jesus writing an article entitled, "Handout Nation: Combined Enrollment in America's Top 4 Safety-Net Programs Hits Record High?" Me neither. Let us reason together beloved and keep in mind that this is supposed to be a Christian website. Snyder is supposed to be a Christian writer. As we will see, this is just a political advertisement from the heart of Satan, not Christ.

"As you will see below, the combined enrollment in America's four largest safety-net programs has reached a staggering 236 million. Of course, that doesn't mean that 236 million people are getting benefits from the government each month because there is overlap between the various programs. For example, many Americans who are on Medicaid are also on food stamps, and many Americans who are on Medicare are also on Social Security." -- Michael Snyder

Let's start with the fact that Social Security is not an entitlement program. It is an agreement kept by the recipients while they worked, so that they would have money when they were older. The people who are collecting money through social security paid into that system while they were of working age. To pretend that somehow these are just parasites living off the country now is factually wrong and intellectually bankrupt. What however is the point Snyder is trying to lay as his foundation? That there are needy people in America? As we will soon see, no.

"But even accounting for that, most experts estimate that the number of Americans who are dependent on the federal government month after month is well over 100 million. And now that so many people are addicted to government handouts, can we ever return to a culture of independence and self-sufficiency"? -- Michael Snyder

Notice the heartless language employed. People too poor to afford healthcare or food are "addicted to handouts." Yes Michael, you nailed it. Unlike Mr. Snyder I have worked with the poor for 35 years and I can say that his perspective is not based upon reality but upon political talking points. Do you know the maximum cash assistance award in NYC? It cannot exceed $68.50 every two weeks. Yes, that is quite the amount to become "addicted" to.

"On Wednesday, CNN ran an editorial by Bernie Sanders in which he called President Trump's proposed budget "immoral" because it would cut funding for government aid programs. But is it moral to steal more than $100 million from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day to pay for these programs? Of course, the answer to that question is quite obvious." -- Michael Snyder

You are right. It is quite obvious. The answer is stop make asinine comparisons. Here is how the NAR Republican mind thinks. People who need help are addicted and the money it costs to feed their addiction and balloons the deficit so therefore, it is stealing from the next generation. Except entry level economics will teach you that while there is an expense side to consider there is also a revenue side. For the government, that revenue comes in the form of taxes. We accept as a civilized society that the needy should not be dying on the street, so the government needs to make sure they are taken care of. That costs money and the government primarily gets money from taxes. But to Republicans, any form of tax increase is anathema so the only solution is to not take care of the neediest in society. Do you know what the top personal income tax rate was in 1960? The richest kabillionaires paid a 91% tax rate in 1960. Do you know that currently, that rate is less than 40%? Do you know that President Trump has proposed lowering it to 15%? Now I am no mathematician, but that's a heck of a lot of revenue missing from the government that could easily pay to take care of people. So those are the choices. Tax the rich more or cut services to the poor. Now I wonder what would Jesus do?

For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. -- Romans 13: 6-7 (ESV)

There is zero biblical instruction to insist on lower taxes. These are the instructions -- pay your taxes. Why? Because the governing authorities are the ministers of God. Snyder would continue:

"There will always be some Americans who are unable to take care of themselves, and we should want to help them. But as millions upon millions of Americans continue to jump onto the safety net, eventually we are going to get to the point where it will break." -- Michael Snyder

We should want to help them? No Michael. Jesus did not teach us in the key verses today that we should want to help people in need. He said if we want to consider our religion pure and undefiled we must help them. The callous nature of Snyder becomes more and more evident as the article goes on. To his thinking these people are just jumping into the safety net. As if it is fun for them. As if people do not actually collapse onto the safety net, often times for reasons beyond their control. As for the relative strength of the net there remain two choices. Pay to strengthen it or burn it to the ground. This alleged Christian already has the torch lit and we wonder why the world thinks Christians are hypocrites.

"Approximately 44 million Americans are on food stamps. And even though we are supposedly in an "economic recovery," this number is still dramatically higher than the 26 million Americans that were on food stamps prior to the last financial crisis." -- Michael Snyder

Well, first of all there are 30 million more people now but why let pesky facts get in the way of political demagoguery? The larger point is so what? Exactly what Christian point is Michael Snyder trying to make? There are too many people to help? I do not recall Jesus putting limits on how many people He was willing to help. Maybe Michael has not considered that giving back 320 billion dollars over ten years to the top one percent of one percent through the Estate Tax repeal should not be part of any budget, let alone this one, during these difficult times. That is 32 billion a year alone! This is the reality that Michael Snyder keeps hidden. He trots out numbers that sound astronomical like 236 million dollars per year but doesn't reveal that out of the other side of his mouth he is advocating to hand back 32 billion to the most obscenely rich in this country.

"How far down this road do we have to go before people start calling it "socialism"? In our country today, many politicians have discovered that one of the best ways to win elections is to promise the voters as much free stuff as possible. This is one of the primary reasons Bernie Sanders did so well. Young people loved his socialist policies, and he received more votes from Millennials in the primaries and caucuses than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton combined." -- Michael Snyder

Who cares what they call it? Even if the avowed socialist was elected he would still have to work with a congress that is not socialist. That is the beauty of the system the founders created. The way we are now, with every branch being controlled by one party is NOT the desired way this country was supposed to work. The other arrogant and ignorant part of this snippet however is the hubris to state that only one party promises free stuff. Both parties promise free stuff it's just that one promises to poor people so they can survive and the other to rich people so they can be richer. The real arrogant hubris is while the one party may promise 234 million dollars per year the other is promising 32 billion -- and that is just one of their promises! So it is not that young people like socialism and free stuff Michael. It is that you have so rigged the system against them that they are fighting back. Millennials today realize that college is merely a way to financially enslave them to the banking industry for decades after they graduate. They see this while with the other hand tax havens, loopholes, and absurd cuts are given to people who quite frankly do not need it as bad as they do. These are secular points of course but Snyder's article is not really a Christian article now is it?

"And millennials made all that clear during the Democratic presidential primary, when many of them cast their vote for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-avowed socialist. In fact, the report credits the New England lawmaker with a "bounce" that led to less than half of Millennials--42 percent--having a favorable view of capitalism." -- Michael Snyder

Can you honestly blame them Michael? When you game the system to protect the super wealthy at their cost, this is the end result. The trickle down promise of the 1980's never trickled down. It went right into the pockets of the rich. The promises of prosperity from the 2002 tax cuts for the rich have only led to recession and austerity. This is the Internet generation and that means kids are growing up with far more access to information than we had. You talk a good game about stealing from their generation but you are the thief Michael. To make matters worse you then hold up the poor, marginalized, addicted, disabled, and elderly and say it is all their fault. Then you post this garbage on a Christian website and pretend that you represent the cause of Christ. The key verses also demand that pure and undefiled religion keeps itself unstained from the world but you are neck deep filthy in it. You are not merely robbing from Peter to pay Paul. You are saying Peter is a lazy no good parasite who deserves to die, while you pay Paul. Then you slap a Jesus fish on the back of your Mercedes and think that you have attained some level of righteousness. Thankfully anyone with an open Bible and an ounce of discernment can see right through your political buffoonery.

"At this point, the Republic that our founders established is barely recognizable, and if it is going to be saved, we need a conservative revolution as soon as possible. A good place to begin would be to dramatically reduce the size and scope of the federal government , and there are some promising signs in the budget that President Trump has proposed. He wants to completely eliminate 66 federal programs , and liberals are screaming bloody murder over this." -- Michael Snyder

You are right that our founders would not recognize the greed and blatant disregard many like you have for your fellow citizens. They did not create a conservative utopia, besides your delusional understanding of history. Notice what is missing here? Context. What are the 66 programs that are slated to be cut? Who do they serve? Are we cutting food for the elderly? Transportation for the disabled? I guarantee you this. Michael Snyder has no idea because he does not care. It does not matter to him what programs are cut as long as they are cut. Heartless Christianity.

"Of course, Trump's budget is "dead on arrival" in Congress because many among his own party do not support him. Most Republicans campaign as conservatives but govern like Democrats, and it is high time we held them accountable for that. In 2018, we are going to get Trump a whole bunch of friends in Congress , and a lot of those establishment Republicans who have been betraying conservatives for years will have to find a new line of work." -- Michael Snyder

No Michael you will not. Not unless you are able to keep gerrymandering districts to rig the House of Representatives. You see, Republicans have to answer to the people who elected them and it turns out when you threaten to take away their healthcare and give untold billions to the wealthiest on the backs of the poorest, there are consequences. Maybe his budget is DOA because he wants to give 320 Billion dollars to the absurdly rich while cutting Meals on Wheels for seniors. Yeah, that sounds very Christian.

"We simply cannot afford to keep sending the same cast of characters back to Washington time after time. Just look at the debacle that the effort to repeal Obamacare has become." -- Michael Snyder

Yes. Taking away people's healthcare is not an easy proposition. They end up fighting for it. More from the Christian perspective, how do you sleep at night? Knowing that we are the only industrialized nation on earth to not guarantee health insurance for its people? You know Jesus healed everyone even if they had a pre-existing condition! He also took no money or deductible for it! Guess He was just one of those commie socialists eh Michael? Mercifully, he concludes:

"We definitely need to "drain the swamp" in D.C., and we can start with Congress. But the alliance between big money and big government is going to be hard to defeat, and so if we want our country back, we are going to have to fight harder than we have ever fought before." -- Michael Snyder

If "we" want "our" country back? Just who the heck do you think you are representing Michael? Your biblically illiterate false Christian piety may fool some NAR adherents but most of us see right through you. The saddest thing is cannot tell if you are deceiving yourself or just willfully deceiving others. The alternative is you actually believe that your heartless position is somehow righteous. That God is going to care about your arguments favoring supply side economics to visiting widows and orphans in their affliction. Oh that's right, you want to help them but you are worried that the safety net is going to break from all the folks jumping in like it's a pool on a hot summer day. I can deal with such thinking from the world because I understand that Satan has so darkened their sight that they can view someone with congenital blindness as someone who must have made "poor lifestyle choices." But you claim to be a Christian Michael. You write for a website that claims to be Christian. The Bible says that we are either gathering people for Christ or scattering them away from Him. Which do you honestly think your article does? You will stand before Christ and explain every careless word. Do you really think the Lord and Savior of the world is going to want to hear your opinions about how people should be able to keep more of their money, that the scope and size of government was meant to be small or that people living in abject poverty are just addicted to that $68.50 every two weeks? If you want to say you just represent conservative values in this country then go for it. If you want to say that you just represent the Republican Party then go for it. Just stop pretending that you represent Jesus Christ.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- May 29, 2017

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.