I am not a socialist. Nor am I a Christian… and I’m not here to convert anybody. But, for god’s sake, LEO Weekly preaches the Gospel better than does Gov. Matt Bevin and the rest of the capitalist-crusading Christian conservatives!
For instance, we don’t need the Bible in our governments — we need our governments acting the way the Bible says they should act… more socialist.
This point was recently made clear by Ivonne Rovira, a public school teacher, mom and research director for Save Our Schools Kentucky who wrote the article “Jesus Christ, Super Socialist,” published by Forward Kentucky. “Next time someone calls you a socialist for being a progressive,” she wrote, “here’s what to do: make your face light up and say, ‘Thank you! I try to be a good Christian!’”
Rovira pointed out that a hallmark of Jesus’ Christianity is that he and followers should work to help others: immigrants, the sick and, especially, the poor.
This does not sound like Bevin and Kentucky Republicans.
Instead, they are the embodiment of evangelical derangement in government. In their version of a Christian nation, prayer rocks are used to fight the opioid epidemic. Who needs gun reform legislation when we have prayer patrols to end gun violence? And, instead of learning the good deeds and lessons of the Bible, ones that would lead to greater tolerance, understanding, empathy and helping others, we get “In God we Trust” displayed in all public schools.
Bevin and his evangelical followers are more concerned about the Christian aesthetic than the Christian good.
Maybe Bevin should read Rovira’s article, but here are a few points.
On immigrants: She lists nearly 30 biblical citations that exhort a Christian nation to welcome immigrants, not shut them out. “Instead of building a wall, we should be building welcoming stations!” she wrote.
On healthcare: Bevin and the GOP want people to work for basic healthcare — Medicaid. But, wrote Rovira, never did Jesus ask the poor to earn their healthcare, much less their food.
“I have yet to find an instance where Jesus asked poor beggars — or anyone, for that matter — how much they worked per week before healing them,” she wrote.
So, it would seem, the Democrats’ goal that everyone have healthcare regardless of their wealth is more Christian than is the free market approach of the GOP.
On abortion: The Bible does not mention abortion — fair, considering there were no Planned Parenthoods for Jesus to protest. But, Rovira wrote, “In fact, the one time the Bible does speak of two brawling men causing a fetal death (which today’s evangelicals would call a manslaughter), the Bible actually differentiates.” The woman received more protection than did a fetus and the men who could cause a miscarriage. “In other words, the woman is regarded as a person, but the fetus as property, like an ox or an ass.”
Her article so upset Jim Waters, president and CEO of the Bluegrass Institute, a free-market think tank, that he responded with this op-ed in the Courier Journal: “Was Jesus a ‘Super Socialist’? Would he favor a destructive ideology?”
“Leftists who claim the mantle of socialism desperately want to weaponize the fact that we’re all at different income levels with the goal of creating class warfare,” he wrote.
Waters worships at the altar of the free market, where meritocracy capitalism, with a dash of corporate and religious socialism is king… just as Jesus would have wanted?
We can agree that pure socialism is not the solution to society’s problems, but certain services and accommodations — such as highways, public safety, education… healthcare — must be borne by the collective state.
Us.
That is what Jesus would do.
Maybe Bevin should read the feature story in this issue of LEO about St. William Catholic Church, a socially-progressive congregation that has declared itself a sanctuary for immigrants and refugees — even as the city has failed to find the political courage to do so.
At the very least, maybe Bevin and our elected officials nationally who say they are Christians should reread the Bible.
If they followed some of those lessons, fewer Kentuckians would live in poverty, hungry, sick and homeless; we would have a cleaner environment and be on our way to solving the global climate crisis; there would be less conflict around the globe, and America wouldn’t hesitate to help our neighboring countries… or the immigrants fleeing from them.
There also would be fewer evangelical hypocrites in elected offices, such as Bevin, whose Golden Rule is to humiliate and bully people so they don’t do it him.
Amen. •