Cary, where is your generosity of spirit? Isn't love for your neighbor
as yourself the second most important commandment, according to Jesus?
Cary, the tens of thousands of scientific reports-- from researchers all over the world-- concluding that climate change is real-- do not come from a bunch of YouTube videos and your say-so. It comes from a huge number of double-blind peer-reviewed scientific articles and grant reports. These are often picked up by science journalists or are expressed to the public in layperson's terms.
During my academic working life I rubbed shoulders with climatologists. I was married to one for 20 years. I have some sense as to how the research works.
One thing to think about, Cary, is how expensive it is to conduct climate change field research. Putting a team of researchers on polar ice caps and analyzing their data with expensive equipment requires major research grants. If Exxon
et al. found science teams concluding that increased climate variability wasn't happening, the fossil fuel industry would would happily flood those researchers with major contracts. It's not happening.
Meanwhile, PLEASE STAY ON-TROPIC.
You may have noticed that I am not posting to impress you.
If I found one example of a former Trumper who became a progressive liberal, you would dismiss it, as well.
When I listed massive scientific evidence about climate, you complained it was too much. When I list one excellent example of progressives bailing from the Left, you suggest it is too little. I've seen years of this slippery sliding, so you've lost your leverage to impress me.
You continue to dodge the issue. You are dodging much of the NT evidence that you claim you are mining.
If you can't get it right with living pundits; you're not going to second-guess Jesus without your own bias. PragerU looks "hard right" to you because you are extreme Left. PragerU is mild and palatable. Liberals contribute all the time.
PragerU is "mild and palatable" to the hard right. It is not a degree-granting institution. It does not hold classes. I looked up PragerU before responding to you: it seems to specialize in climate change misinformation, according to Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PragerU
So where would you put Bill Gates in the political spectrum, Cary? George Soros? Oprah Winfrey? Michael Bloomberg? Bill and Hillary Clinton?
These people are the major philanthropists.
Charity and kindness are not traits of the Left. I remind you what you ignore.
Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus advocate for the government to punish the rich or to allocate tax money to the poor. Jesus does not advocate for state ownership of businesses or central planning of the economy. Most of us are more than a little familiar with the lies that come from the Left.
Since when is a fair share of taxes "punishing the rich"? It was Warren Buffet who noted that because he could avail himself of tax loopholes that he actually paid a smaller percentage of his income in taxes than did his secretary.
The NT is full of admonishments for people to look after the poor, the sick, the incarcerated, and so on. It doesn't say that this cannot be done through a centralized government.
I think you missed my previous post where I indicated that the political structure of ancient Israel, as a colony of the Roman empire, cannot be compared with American political parties today.
In Luke 12 Jesus is confronted by a man who wants Jesus to redistribute wealth.
"Master", says the man, "tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."
Jesus replies, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?"
Then Jesus rebukes the man for being envious of his sibling.
Cary, if you read further, you would see a very different message in Luke 12:16-21, about the rich man who died suddenly, unable to take his wealth with him. In Luke 12:33, Jesus tells his followers to sell what they have and give the proceeds to the poor.
Parables in the Bible were metaphorical. The parable of the talents wasn't literally a financial lesson about investment strategies. It is rather a lesson about multiplying your God-given gifts (what today we call "talents") to do good for other people. The servants' master symbolizes Jesus who, after departing for a while, hopes to return to find that the faithful, his "servants" have make good use of his teachings.
How about the parable of the talents? [Matthew 25:14] Jesus frequently used parables to attack complicated topics. Talents were a form of money in his day.
As the parable goes, a wealthy man entrusted three of his workers each with a share of his wealth. The two workers who invested the money were praised by the wealthy man, but the third worker, who buried his share so he wouldn't lose any of it, was reprimanded.
Jesus talked about the difficulty for a rich man to enter heaven, but not because money is evil. It was the love of money that leads to evil. Jesus warned about greed or acquisitiveness, but not wealth. He was no leftie. He was opposed to putting materialism above our spiritual lives.
When he kicked the money changers out of the temple, he was condemning the lack of reverence and lack of purpose. He did not attack money changers in the markets.
Jesus advised to be of generous spirit; to show kindness; to assist a widow and an orphan. He clearly means this to be our responsibility, not the government's.
Cary, Jesus did not deny a role for government in doing his work. Rather, he spoke to ordinary people living in the Iron Age Roman empire.
What you haven't addressed is the problem of charity being total unequal to the task of alleviating poverty in the United States.
As I've mentioned before, the Roman empire did, at this time, give a bread or grain ration to Roman citizens as a way for the central government to keep the masses fed and (hopefully) politically stable.
Consider Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan. [Luke 10:25] A traveler comes upon a man on the side of the road who has been robbed and injured by vicious highwaymen. The Samaritan helps the unfortunate victim on the spot with his own resources. Ask yourself. Would Jesus prefer that you help the poor by giving freely of yourself, or to Salvation Army, for instance, or be taxed by politicians in order to fund a welfare state? Leftists often believe they are more "Christian" than believers who claim to be, but leftists are deranged in that way, and they lie as a matter of policy.
This is called a loaded question, Cary, and it is a logical fallacy. The choice isn't some kind of terrible deranged leftist welfare state, vs. being a "good Samaritan." We can support legislation that encourages personal autonomy while feeding vulnerable kids who are too young to work or should stay in school to get their high school diploma.
Leftists often quote Jesus when he says, "Render unto Caesar things that are Caesar's and to God things that are God's." That has nothing to do with high taxes or wealth redistribution. It was the seed for the idea of separating church and state. It is certainly not saying that whatever Caesar claims must be his or whatever he demands must be his.
Umm, you're a rightwinger, and you just quoted it.
Basically the "render unto Caesar" quote is encouragement for people to pay their taxes.
There is no evidence that Jesus was a socialist, or anything approaching a socialist. That claim is based on the claim of Leftists that they are kind people and that capitalists are cruel. We know what a lie that is, and we know the many lies of the Left. There is lots of evidence that he supported free markets.
Who said Jesus was a socialist???? You do know the definition of "liberal," Cary?
Cary, again, a parable is metaphorical. It isn't literally about it being OK to discriminate against agricultural workers. The metaphor here is that the vineyard is like the Kingdom of Heaven. People who adopt the teachings of Jesus late in life will be rewarded in Heaven as much as the lifelong Christians.
Consider Jesus's parable of the workers in the vineyard. [Matthew 20] A wealthy man hires some workers to pick grapes. After hiring several, he realizes he will need more workers. In order to recruit them, he offers the same full day's wages to the newcomers who were hired later who would work only a single hour. But one of the other workers complains that the practice is unfair. Why should those who work only one hour receive the same wage as the workers who worked a full day?
The wealthy landowner says, "I'm not being unfair to you; didn't you agree to work for the wage offered? Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money?"
That's a testament to the principles of supply and demand; of private property; and of voluntary contracts (capitalism), NOT SOCIALISM or anything approaching socialism.
