Republican Debate?

[AquaEyes]

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Others apparently disagree with you, and the linked sites provide biblical references.

http://www.lcurve.org/writings/BiblicalLiberal.htm

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/is-jesus-christ-a-socialist/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_socialism


It just goes along with what I say -- if you look hard enough for something in that book, you can find it.

Epic context fail.

The example in Acts particularly is abused - notice that NO OTHER TIME do the disciples ever behave in such a way. Why did they do this? They knew that Jerusalem was in trouble, so they had no reason to hold property. (The Roman invasion in 70 AD). In addition, it was voluntary, unlike socialism, which relies on government power. Plus, they were "filled with the Holy Spirit," according to the Bible, and socialism doesn't rely on the influence of God, which is what it would take for socialism to work. Something tells me that they were a rather unique case among human beings.

Like I said, you can find ANYTHING in the Bible, but only if you're willing to ditch the context.

As for the "rich man" example, it's pretty clear that he's not warning about wealth per se, but against wealth becoming your god. Money is not the root of all evil, according to the Bible, but the LOVE of money. Totally different.

Context, context, context. Never, EVER read a Bible verse - always read at least a chapter, but preferably the whole book.

PM sent....not going into it here.

 

[Mahonri]

Can't wait until the next debate...
I loved Chris Christie tonight. I also doubt Sarah Palin will enter the race.

Polls are showing Cain moving up and Perry moving down....

 

[ChikeeMomma]

I saw Chris Christie mentioned a couple of times on here -- something exciting happen? I hadn't watched TV at all today.

 

[AquaEyes]

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Now that's a nightmare waiting to happen. When I read websites of "Tea Party" members, or hear them on television, this is the underlying theme of what I get:

"We're angry and frustrated, and not doing as well financially as we think we should be."

"We don't want to be paying taxes, but take your hands off our Medicare."

"We don't like supporting people not like us, but we think we should be getting support because we're the 'real Americans.'"


There is a man who works in my lab at school. He is an employee of the university, not a student. He belongs to the Tea Party. He tells me about what "the problem" is with our country, about how all these people get hand-outs and don't want to work, and he's tired of his tax dollars going to them. In the next sentence, he'll say that his union ensures him a small raise every year (currently making about $50k a year to be a lab animal caretaker), that he's retiring in five years (at age 50) with a pension, etc. He also told me about how excited he was that he recently got a government check because of some kind of construction which was done near (but not on) his property..

Keep in mind as well that I'm in Buffalo, located in the heart of the Rust Belt. This area has a lot of members of that party. There seems to be a lot of people here who forget that the "Boom Time" for Buffalo passed decades ago, and they still want the infrastructure of the city maintained, despite the loss of millions of people from its population peak days. There seems to be a general consensus that the "real" reason the economy is bad here is because all the tax money collected goes to support all the welfare recipients living in NYC. They say that if it wasn't for money from the rest of the state, NYC would go bankrupt.

This never made sense to me, so I did some research, and came up with documentation (here and here ) from the Center for Governmental Research on the tax money collected from regions of New York State compared to the dispersal of state funds. Not only is the "general consensus" up here wrong, it's reversed -- this whole region is subsidized by taxes collected from NYC and surrounding counties. So here in Buffalo we have members of the Tea Party who say they are "tired of supporting hand-outs with their tax money" while living in an area that every year receives more money from the state than it generates in tax revenue.

I've shown this documentation, as well as news reports about the various "NYC Secession" movements and bills that have occurred over the years (in January 2008, NYC Mayor Bloomberg testified to New York state legislators that New York City gives the state $11 billion more each year than it gets back), to several of these Tea Party members, and they stare blankly and say "Why should I believe that? How do you know these people aren't making this up?" Then I say "OK, 2/3 of the state's population lives in NYC and the surrounding counties. Per capita income is higher than the rest of the state, which means you have more people making more money, and because state taxes vary by income and not region, you are thus getting a lot more revenue from these areas than here. How in the world could you believe that 1/3 of the state's population, with dramatically lower mean incomes, could even generate enough to 'support' NYC?" Still blank stares, followed by "I don't care. That's what I believe." Or something to that effect.

Yep, that's exactly what we need -- that mentality in public office.

 

[ChicksterJo]

Same thing in Chicago....And on another note, I used to live in Hyde Park and I saw Obama's house a few times. Very nice neighborhood with tourist trolleys going up and down the street sometimes. Interesting to also note that just a few blocks away from his house, were apartments full of bullet holes and boarded-up windows. Chicago politics at work?

 

[ChikeeMomma]

AquaEyes - it would be hard to change someone's ideals. I wouldn't expect you to change your political ideals just because I show you this or that report. It just doesn't happen. Different ideals are what makes this world go round. I have heard Democrats, Republicans, etc say the same thing as you are stating in your post -- "I don't care. It's what I believe."

 

[Matthew3590]

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To a degree, I agree. But there is one thing that the President has the Constitutional authority to do that can have a major impact.

Veto.

I swear, Dr. Paul would probably set a record for number of vetoes in a single term.

But his vetoes would just be over rid.

 

[chickened]

Belief seems to be where the real power is in this world. You can force someone to do alot of things but you cannot force them to believe something. Some try with new found ways of what they "believe" to be a new way of reasoning others affirm their doubts to themselves by challenging others to "prove" that what they believe is right. Ask 10 different people what they think about a candidate and you will get 10 different views based on what they believe to be true about that candidate. Now if a candidate can get you to believe in him then they have your vote. So don't dismiss the power of belief it is as real as the wind and has a very powerful effect on the human mind and heart. The current war we are fighting is against just that a belief, they have no grand army. Chris Christie said in his speech tonite that we need to be more selective in the battles we choose to fight abroad... I tend to agree.

 

[AquaEyes]

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You are confusing ideals with a perception of reality. He said "all our tax money goes to support NYC." I said "Actually, NYC pays the state $11 billion more each year than it takes in, and the difference goes to support upstate and western NY. Oh, and here's the evidence to prove that." He replies "I don't care what the evidence says, I believe NYC gets all our money."

That is not AT ALL the same as changing ideals. It's denying it's raining while standing out in the rain.

 

[Duramaxgirl]

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