Voting for Democrats and the welfare state does not satisfy your Christian obligations

[Moonglow]

This, and all Christian obligations, come from the heart, mind and soul....not some list that you check off when you are done.

Christ never, ever taught that it was wrong for government to aid the poor and the sick, or anyone in need...He taught the opposite....'Do good, in ALL that you do', don't just shut off the spigot once this thing called an obligation is checked off that list of yours... just because you helped a little through donating some dough at your church...i

IF you were feeling the need to help at your church, enough to give from your heart mind and soul some money to a collection or your time to help them....then when you see a half dead man on the side of the road like the Samaritan man did, you are going to help them....

even though you had already donated to a collection or paid your tithe...would you not help this man in need? Or would you walk past him or anyone in need and just say may God be with you while passing them by? ALL because you met your so called 'obligation, written on some checklist?

YES, YES I AM turning the table on your op, in case you didn't notice.


BTW
The Jewish government WAS a Theocracy, tithing rules were like our IRS code and paying your tithes for the most part, was taxes paid to the ruling government....to their Theocratic leaders....to take care of the poor and needy, and to take care of them....like we pay our politicians with taxes, the Jews paid the ruling religious men....from my understanding. The poor did not pay tithing.

AND there are passages in the Bible that teach the Religious Leaders SHOULD NOT be tied up helping the needy all the time, the religious leaders should be teaching scripture, the parishioners should take care of the poor on their own...starting with their own family members in need, and the church/synagogue should only be tied up with helping the poor that has no family at all or no family with the means to take care of them.... brothers should take care of their brother's widow and children....things like that as well, in the old testament....

But to your point, I think it is simply greed....a me me me attitude that has reduced the amount of giving at churches to take care of the needy, it's NOT because they gave to the gvt already, if they were giving from their heart mind and soul in the first place...giving in both places would not bother them...

ALSO, as just 1 example, nearly 50% of the money Catholic Charities spends each year on the needy, COMES FROM government tax funds.... so even though you imply their charity work comes from the parishioners giving, half comes from govt taxes/

The government should not be giving money to private charities. I strongly disagree with this policy, I think it corrupts charities to take money from the government, and it corrupts everyone involved.

Well, that's not how the rightwingers felt when they pushed and passed and signed Bush's FAITH BASED INITIATIVE...

I was against it because I felt it would give gvt too much control over the religious charities and could lead to the corruption of the religious charities.

Many churches would only give to church members and not outsiders...