To be changed
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Buy your own car if you can
Yesterday I posted about a poll that said a majority of Americans believe that the rich should pay for their health care. I called it immoral. A commenter asked for more. So here is more.
First of all it is immoral because it is stealing. If as a Christian I rightly give of my own decision to help a family in need, that is charity in Jesus' name. If however, a politician is "hired" to take from me and then give my money to someone else... that's called stealing. If they did that with my other possessions it would be stealing. I'm not rich and I don't want the rich to take care of me. I work for what I have. I give to the church and other charitable organizations. I also pay my taxes. For someone else to demand that I give them something is not charity or loving. People seem to have a sense of entitlement to my "stuff." I'm happy to give but stealing is not giving.
Second, everything we have is a gift from God. In many ways, everything belongs to God and I have "trust" over it on God's behalf. Therefore, God has given me authority over it in this time and place. My "stuff" is really God's "stuff." Yet my "stuff" is not the government's "stuff." The government is not called by God to take the possessions God has given me in order to give it to someone else. Should I decide to give then I have that authority. The government does not have that authority. And again it is not honorable or noble to take from one person to support someone else, not even if that person is rich. As the church we can "conflict the comfortable" and "comfort the conflicted." But we can't "hire" the government to legislate that morality. We have to work to change hearts so that they want to help other and to help other in the powerful name of Jesus Christ. We have to give not under compulsion but cheerfully. This means the church has lots of work to do to care for the poor and needy. We can't expect the government to do it for us.
Finally, the government may "guarantee rights" but they do not "give rights." The government is provided a sphere of sovereignty under God's divine sovereignty and the government should work to ensure civil obedience and structure and social mores. Yet Christians don't have "rights." In other words, the laws of the land are not our final authority. We are called to be submissive to the land in which we live that offers to protect and serve. Yet our final authority is God and God's Word. You've heard it said, "Just because we have the right, doesn't make it right." The government may declare something is a right but that does not make it so for the baptized. We do have responsibility and our responsibility is to be good stewards of what God has given us and we hold in trust for God. I would declare that making a lifetime commitment for someone else to be completely dependant on me is irresponsible, even if that person is my own child. At some point, even my own child has to become independent (unless there is a case of some kind of special need, like a handicap). Jesus could have turned the stones to bread... he would have become famous indeed. Everyone would have loved him. But He didn't. People have to make choices and the Christian is called to help people make life-saving choices.
I don’t expect the rich to buy me a new car. If you are in need, I hope the church will be able to help you. If the church fails to do her job and you are in need, I hope a "good" government would help give a "hand up" to those who need it. But in the end it would be my hope that if you want a new car, an iphone, or health insurance and you are an able-bodied person, that you will get a job, save up, buy what you need and give the rest to help someone else who is in need.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The rich should buy me a new car
A majority of Americans believe that someone else should buy them something. They feel entitled to health care and want someone else to pay for it. Americans pay for lots of things. Taxes we pay support things we all appreciate and use, like roads, libraries, schools, etc. These things improve our communities and society as a whole. Sometimes our tax dollars go to things we do not support, such as wasteful programs or war (not that I oppose paying soldiers and their families well). And sometimes the money we give to the government goes to help others who are in need, such as welfare programs, unemployment pay, or Medicaid. Now most of what we give comes back to help me and my community in some way. Some of what we give goes to help a family in need for the short-term. Little of what we give goes to support long-term or lifetime need. For example, welfare benefits have limitations. The government helps a family in need until they are back on their feet.
This health care reform does not fall into any of these categories (except maybe the second). Universal health care should not go to support able-bodied people who are capable of getting a job and paying for their own insurance. Since I have been independent of my parents, I have paid part of my health insurance (except the last fews months and that changes January 1). I have never expected that someone else is going to give me something. There were times when my family has been in need, we qualified for governmental assistance, and I took advantage of the programs that I was supporting with my tax dollars. But why should someone else pay for my health insurance? Why should I expect you to give me something I can work for and get myself?
Am I entitled to health insurance?
Am I entitled to a new cell phone?
Why not? Isn’t the right to communicate a basic right for all people? Shouldn’t the rich be taxed by the government to help pay for cell phones for everyone?
I would like a new car. Maybe the government should help me get a better car. A major problem in most cities is transportation. People need ways to get to a job or to get to the grocery stores that are often on the outskirts of town. Of course, perhaps this is the next expectation that a majority of Americans will have upon the rich.
I am not opposed to health care reform. The system as we currently know it is cumbersome and needs restructured. However, having a universal health care system is not a moral system. It is a system that takes from those who work and earn enough to pay for insurance themselves and gives it to those who choose not to work or do work and can already pay for it themselves, like myself. It would be something else if the reform offered care to those who could not afford it during times of need. But this is a lifetime benefit for anyone and everyone. Who is going to pay for this? I guess most Americans want the government to take from the rich to “spread the wealth.” If I came into your home and took your food out of your refrigerator, wouldn’t that be called stealing?
When does it stop? When do we stop fooling ourselves and admit that stealing is actually immoral. This isn't Robin Hood. It isn't noble. It is wrong.
Jesus calls on all of us who have crossed the line of faith in Him to help those in need. I do NOT see anything in Scripture that says “health care” is a basic right or that the government has the responsibility to care for the poor. We in the church may need to do more but we don’t need someone else taking from me (and I’m not rich) to support… well… me and others like me or even those who are less fortunate and need the help for the rest of our lives.
Is there no one, even a majority of Americans polled, who caan see the problem here?
Monday, November 2, 2009
Ohio Friends, Casinos are a tragic hope
Perhaps voters in Ohio’s voting tomorrow (Tuesday, November 3) have been quick to dismiss value statements made about Issue 3, the effort to change the Ohio Constitution to allow four casinos to be built in the borders of the great state of Ohio. Perhaps voters have dismissed the talk about the dangers of gambling. Perhaps they have dismissed the statistics that show an increase in crime, depression, divorce and suicide in communities in which casinos have been built in neighboring states, like Indiana. Perhaps they find church leaders hypocritical to speak against Issue 3 while themselves benefiting from (Catholic) festivals that using gaming as a way to raise funds. Perhaps they have just dismissed the value statements made against the issue because they don’t want some pious religious fundamentalists telling them what to do.
Or maybe it isn’t what they are dismissing, but what they are accepting. Perhaps they have accepted the promise to bring in 34,000 new jobs into Ohio. Perhaps they have bought into the promise of taxes collected to benefit both state and local budgets. Perhaps they think those funds are needed in communities, like Cincinnati, to improve the schools or start or maintain government programs. Perhaps they just want a casino because they have bought into the talk about how “If Ohioans are going to gamble anyway in Kentucky or Indiana or Michigan, then why shouldn’t that money stay in Ohio.” Perhaps voters just want a casino nearby so they don’t have to drive as far to gamble responsibly.
You may think that it is no big deal. You may think that it would be good for local communities, like Cincinnati’s Broadway Commons. You may think it is alright to spend a night out at the casinos, gamble responsibly with a pre-determined amount and have a few drinks. You may find it silly that Ohio allows the lottery and horse racing but not casinos. You may even think that during times of financial difficulty when the state and local communities are struggling that they could use the additional jobs and tax revenue. Maybe you feel this is hopeful for these four communities in Ohio.
But friends of Ohio, this is a tragic hope. Regardless if you dismiss the value statements or statistics, casinos have systemic problems. Sure there may be some benefit to government programs but they do not out-weigh the problems caused by casino gambling. In fact the lottery is a regressive institution that hurts the poor with the hope to “strike it rich.” And do you think that the Ohio educational systems have really seen much benefit from the lottery? If so, how? And since when did Ohio voters start caring so much about raising tax revenue to support governmental programs and local community budgets?
Casinos are not the answer. Casinos are not the best way to improve local communities. Casinos are a slippery slope. The logic follows that legalized and taxes prostitution could benefit state and local budgets. But we know that prostitution has systemic problems. We have to care for others and consider how our “freedom” is harmful to others who will be greatly harmed. And in the end, it is only some millionaire who owns the casinos who stands to benefit the most.
So Ohioans if you plan to vote, I hope decide to vote NO on Issue 3. It is a tragic hope.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
A New Kind of Church re-loaded, part 2
"I was seeking something that wasn't traditional when I started."
Later another young lady said, "It's more contemporary?"
What did she mean by traditional? Is traditional the new contemporary? After all they were using a tire for an Advent Wreath which is an object of Christian "tradition." And communion using liturgical language like "The Lord be with you."
(And I love the dog in line for communion)
How are we at Meridian Street UMC and in our United Methodist Church rethininkg church?
Thursday, October 15, 2009
A New Kind of Church re-loaded, part 1
A couple years ago, I posted a series of videos from youtube and called my blogpost series: "A New Kind of Church." I love this video from Religion and Ethics Newsweekly. Watch this video and I look forward to your response.
How can we at Meridian Street create The Round? I'm ready!
Monday, October 12, 2009
What happened to Methodist Preaching?
"It is evident that we must have more arousing preaching, to meet the character and wants of the age. Ministers are generally beginning to find this out. And some of them complain of it . . . The character of the age is changed, but these men retain the same stiff, dry, prosing style of preaching, that answered half a century ago.
Look at the Methodists. Many of their ministers are unlearned, in the common sense of the term - many of them taken right from the shop or farm, and yet they have gathered congregations, and pushed their way, and won souls everywhere. Wherever the Methodists have gone, their plain, pointed and simple, but warm and animated, mode of preaching has always gathered congregations. Few Presbyterian ministers have gathered such large assemblies, or won so many souls. Now, are we to be told that we must pursue the same old, formal mode of doing things, amidst all these changes? As well might the North River be rolled back, as the world converted under such preaching. Those who adopt a different style of preaching, as the Methodists have done, will run away from us. We must have powerful preaching, or the devil will have the people, except what the Methodists can save! Many ministers are finding out already, that a Methodist preacher, without the advantages of a liberal education, will draw a congregation around him which a Presbyterian minister, with perhaps ten times as much learning, cannot equal, because he has not the earnest manner of the other, and does not pour out fire upon his hearers when he preaches."
I guess we United Methodists learned a thing or two from those Presbyterians.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
What are your 10 favorite Bible Verses?
d these to be 10 very important Bible verses. Now, what are your ten favorite Bible verses? when you have listed yours ask someone else to list theirs. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
Ephesians 4:1-6
1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
John 3:16-17
16"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Romans 10:10-13
10For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
2 Peter 3:8-9
8But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
Mark 8:34-35
34(Jesus) called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it."
Luke 12:27-31
27"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. 30For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. 31But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 28:18-20
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
