Loving Your Idle Neighbor | Values & Capitalism

RJ Moeller

R.J. Moeller graduated from Taylor University in 2005 with a degree in business and is currently a...Read more about RJ Moeller

It’s been a few weeks since I last posted something in my “Bible & Economics” series, but I think a return to the topic is well served by the verses from II Thessalonians I’ve selected to delve in to today. This passage, more than perhaps any other in all of the New Testament, is responsible for directing a younger version of the R.J. Moeller that blogs before you today on a path leading sharply away from conventional modern thinking on the topics of welfare, wealth redistribution and the seemingly inescapable “social justice.” (By the way, is there “social truth” or “social patience”?)

From II Thessalonians 3:6-12:

Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living.

A simple, straight-forward reading of this text is a clear and present danger to advocates of a welfare state, but especially to those who also claim allegiance to the body of Christ and his word. However, in a sinful, fallen world—one wrought with hypocrisies, guilt, past societal sins, etc.—“simple” and “straight-forward” are luxuries the thoughtful believer can rarely enjoy, at least not when entering the contentious fray of the public square with their theological convictions in tow (as they most definitely should).

So let me quickly give my brief exegetical overview of the passage above, and then connect a few dots between what Paul wrote and some of the appropriate conclusions one ought to be able to draw in terms of public policy debates.

Now there are some who try to deflect the very real importance of these verses to a Christian’s attitude about how best to help the poor by saying that the “idlers” Paul is calling out are simply misguided believers who are under the impression Christ’s return was imminent. This is a distinction without a difference. Being lazy on a nuclear submarine with the key that launches Armageddon might be different in form, but is no different in substance than an idle Dairy Queen worker who procrastinates sweeping up the sprinkles his portly manager asked him to take care of the previous day.

Habitual idleness is a matter of the heart. (Believe me, I know first-hand.)

Refusing to work or provide for your family because you’re convinced Jesus is returning over the upcoming three-day weekend is, according to scripture, just as much of a sin as an able-bodied human being refusing to work or provide for their family because some well-intentioned bureaucrat is intent on giving them money they didn’t earn.

Right off the bat in verse 6, Paul exhorts the church body to “keep away from” anyone who is living an idle, lazy life and remains needlessly dependent on others. Pretty harsh, no? Not very “social” of him, right? I’ll even admit that nearly every time I read these words, I wince a little. All of the “But what about…” exceptions and exemptions start piling up on my conscience.

But if we’re serious about scripture, we know that scripture is serious about sin. Idleness and making yourself a prolonged and unnecessary burden on someone else, is a sin. There’s no way around that. The Greek translation for the phrase “in idleness” translates to “in an undisciplined, irresponsible or disorderly manner.” Keep that definition in mind for later.

Verses 7-9 are Paul’s reminder that he hasn’t simply preached against things like idleness and being a burden on others, but has modeled for the good people of Thessalonica the appropriate way to live. Paul was a minister of the gospel, and therefore was entitled to living off of the charity that came from other believers. But he feared that a lifetime of such dependency would weaken his witness, and, I don’t think it is unfair to infer, his character.

Verse 10 is the big one: “For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” Paul did not teach this difficult practice of the Christian life from afar, but said it face-to-face. Christian friends don’t enjoy confronting friends. Christian parents don’t delight in having to withhold certain things from their beloved children. Confronting people with difficult subject matter is made no less daunting by how true the subject matter is. It stinks. No way around it.

via Loving Your Idle Neighbor | Values & Capitalism.

Hate Speech - Pamela Geller & Robert Spencer- Speaking at a Jewish Defense League Event

Pamela Geller spoke in Toronto along with Robert Spencer on September 18 2013 at an event sponsored by the Jewish Defense League.

Ben Carson at CPAC | Power Line

POSTED ON MARCH 17, 2013 BY SCOTT JOHNSON IN CONSERVATISM

BEN CARSON AT CPAC

I first wrote about Dr. Ben Carson here after his outstanding speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last month. Dr. Carson is a pediatric neurosurgeon who has lived a life of incredible accomplishment defying seemingly impossible odds.

Watching the video, of his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, I couldn’t help but wonder if Dr. Carson might not have a greater contribution to make outside the field of medicine. The Wall Street Journal, for one, declared rather forcefully that he does. I also couldn’t help but wonder what Obama was thinking. My guess was he was thinking: this is a dangerous guy.

Dr. Carson appeared at CPAC yesterday. “In 106 days I will be retiring,” Dr. Carson announced. “I’d much rather quit when I’m at the top of my game. And there’s so many more things that can be done.” We will stay tuned.

Although the video has a slight glitch or two, it is limited to Dr. Carson’s remarks without the introductions that preceded them. (The whole program including Eric Metaxas’s remarks is posted here. Hot Air has posted it here.) I believe that somewhere along the line Dr. Carson picked up the principles of ethos, logos and pathos that define compelling public speaking.

UPDATE: At NRO, Patrick Brennan reports on Dr. Carson’s appearance on CNN this morning. I am not sure what to make of it.

via Ben Carson at CPAC | Power Line.

Jessica Mokdad Human Rights Conference (full video)

Begin by Change–Defend Life–Truly we have an obligation to try” (Obama)

The classic case of do as I say, not as I do?

How It Feels to Withdraw Feeding from Newborn Babies

Why should we care about euthanasia as present in Britain?  I care because we are following in their footsteps.  How soon before Obama-care mandates cost cutting methods effecting care of the elderly and the weakest among us. Abortion is only the beginning!

How opposed to First, do no harm, or, in Latin, primum non nocere, a medical injunction (the "Hippocratic oath" is this:

 

Sue Reid and Simon Caldwell report"

"THEY WISH FOR THEIR BABY TO GO QUICKLY. BUT I KNOW, AS THEY CAN'T, THE UNIQUE HORROR OF WATCHING A CHILD SHRINK AND DIE

Here is an abridged version of one doctor's anonymous testimony, published in the BMJ under the heading: 'How it feels to withdraw feeding from newborn babies'."

The voice on the other end of the phone describes a newborn baby and a lengthy list of unexpected congenital anomalies. I have a growing sense of dread as I listen.

The parents want ‘nothing done’ because they feel that these anomalies are not consistent with a basic human experience. I know that once decisions are made, life support will be withdrawn.

Assuming this baby survives, we will be unable to give feed, and the parents will not want us to use artificial means to do so.

Regrettably, my predictions are correct. I realise as I go to meet the parents that this will be the tenth child for whom I have cared after a decision has been made to forgo medically provided feeding.

A doctor has written a testimony published under the heading: 'How it feels to withdraw feeding from newborn babies'

The mother fidgets in her chair, unable to make eye contact. She dabs at angry tears, stricken. In a soft voice the father begins to tell me about their life, their other children, and their dashed hopes for this child.

He speculates that the list of proposed surgeries and treatments are unfair and will leave his baby facing a future too full of uncertainty.

Like other parents in this predicament, they are now plagued with a terrible type of wishful thinking that they could never have imagined. They wish for their child to die quickly once the feeding and fluids are stopped.

They wish for pneumonia. They wish for no suffering. They wish for no visible changes to their precious baby.

Their wishes, however, are not consistent with my experience. Survival is often much longer than most physicians think; reflecting on my previous patients, the median time from withdrawal of hydration to death was ten days.

Parents and care teams are unprepared for the sometimes severe changes that they will witness in the child’s physical appearance as severe dehydration ensues.

I try to make these matters clear from the outset so that these parents do not make a decision that they will come to regret. I try to prepare them for the coming collective agony that we will undoubtedly share, regardless of their certainty about their decision.

I know, as they cannot, the unique horror of witnessing a child become smaller and shrunken, as the only route out of a life that has become excruciating to the patient or to the parents who love their baby.

I reflect on how sanitised this experience seems within the literature about making this decision.

As a doctor, I struggle with the emotional burden of accompanying the patient and his or her family through this experience, as much as with the philosophical details of it.

'Survival is often much longer than most physicians think; reflecting on my previous patients, the median time from withdrawal of hydration to death was ten days'

Debate at the front lines of healthcare about the morality of taking this decision has remained heated, regardless of what ethical and legal guidelines have to offer.

The parents come to feel that the disaster of their situation is intolerable; they can no longer bear witness to the slow demise of their child.

This increases the burden on the care-givers, without parents at the bedside to direct their child’s care.

Despite involvement from the clinical ethics and spiritual care services, the vacuum of direction leads to divisions within the care team.

It is draining to be the most responsible physician. Everyone is looking to me to preside over and support this process.

I am honest with the nurse when I say it is getting more and more difficult to make my legs walk me on to this unit as the days elapse, that examining the baby is an indescribable mixture of compassion, revulsion, and pain.

Some say withdrawing medically provided hydration and nutrition is akin to withdrawing any other form of life support. Maybe, but that is not how it feels. The one thing that helps me a little is the realisation that this process is necessarily difficult. It needs to be.

To acknowledge that a child’s prospects are so dire, so limited, that we will not or cannot provide artificial nutrition is self selecting for the rarity of the situations in which parents and care teams would ever consider it.

Religious Liberty–Archbishop Aquila

Support the archbishop in his efforts to uphold religious liberty.

“I think there are a lot of people who don’t appreciate the significance of the election for the Church’s activity in this country, and also the significance of this election for Catholics in this country,”  said J.D. Flynn, chancellor of the Denver archdiocese.

In his letter, Archbishop Aquila emphasized religious freedom as a foundational American value.

“Our founding fathers understood that without these freedoms, especially religious liberty, our democratic experiment would fail,” he wrote.

However, religious liberty faces “an unprecedented threat” from the Health and Human Services mandate, which “undermines the promise of the First Amendment,” Archbishop Aquila said.

The Obama administration’s contraception mandate requires employers to provide health insurance plans that cover contraception, sterilization and abortion-inducing drugs, even if doing so violates their beliefs.

It has drawn nearly 40 lawsuits by more than 110 plaintiffs since its announcement earlier this year.

“No one should ever be forced to choose between integrity and charity, or to violate their conscience in business,” the archbishop said.

“No one should ever be forced to choose between integrity and charity, or to violate their conscience in business,” the archbishop said.
Tags: Contraception mandate, Religious freedom, 2012 election

Reasons Why Obama Must Be Defeated

Reasons Why Obama Must Be Defeated

John D. Keisling, Ph.D.

1. He has vastly expanded Federal government power:

• Significantly increased dependency on government:
  • Doubled food stamp spending: 47 million now on food stamps.
  • Government takeover of healthcare: see below.
  • Government takeover of General Motors.
• Unconstitutional attempt to remove welfare work requirement passed in 1996.
• Unconstitutional recess appointments with Senate still in session.
• Unconstitutional ignoring of laws: Defense of Marriage Act.
• Unconstitutional executive orders: Amnesty for younger illegal immigrants (DREAM Act—could not pass Congress).
• War in Libya without Congressional authorization.
• National debt up from $10 trillion to $16 trillion in 4 years. Increasing debt twice as fast as Bush. Now $50,000 for every American man, woman, and child.
• Supports “spreading wealth around.”
• Insulted small-business owners: “You didn’t build that!”

2. He wants to radically redefine marriage and family:

• Supports defining homosexual relationships as “marriage.” See Romans 1:18-32.
• By extension, supports homosexual indoctrination in public schools (Massachussetts, second grade—court ruled parents have no right to opt out or be notified)
• By extension, supports forcing Christian businesses to promote homosexuality:
  • New Mexico, Elaine Photography—fined $6,500 for refusing to photograph lesbian “wedding.”
  • Vermont innkeepers who refused a lesbian “wedding” forced to pay $10,000 fine and $20,000 to the lesbians’ favorite charity.
  • Churches will not remain exempt for long.

3. He fully supports abortion:

• Supports Roe v. Wade: unlimited abortion, all 9 months.
• As an Illinois state senator, voted 4 times to deny basic Constitutional protection to babies who survive abortions.
• Co-sponsored the federal Freedom of Choice Act, which would overturn all state restrictions on abortion and therefore allow it in all cases.
• Appointed pro-abortion radical Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
• HHS now forcing religious organizations to pay for birth control and abortion.

4. He has made unprecedented attacks on religious freedom:

• Supports HHS mandate forcing religious organizations to pay for birth control and abortion. Never before in our history—government now says it can define what religion is.
• His Sec. of State says “freedom of worship” instead of “freedom of religion.” “Worship” is what you do in church Sunday morning; “religion” encompasses your entire life. Major difference.
• Refuses to allow conscience protection—pro-life doctors and nurses forced to perform abortions.
• Redefining marriage: see above.

5. He supports Obamacare:

• Massive expansion of government power. 2700 pages—no one knew what was in it.
• Barney Frank called it the best path to single-payer healthcare—illegal for anyone but government to pay for health care.
• Forces Americans to buy a product. Never before in our history.
• Sets up unelected board (IPAB) with authority to ration health care.
• Rammed through Congress against people’s opposition, without a single Republican vote.
• Recess appointment of Donald Berwick as Medicare administrator, who said, “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care. The decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.”
• Many doctors say they will not accept Medicare patients anymore.
• Takes $719 billion from Medicare to pay for Obamacare

6. He has broken major promises:

• Promised to cut deficit in half in 4 years. Deficit was $1.2 trillion in 2008; now $1.17 trillion. Democrats controlled House and Senate for two years.
• Promised not to raise taxes on middle class: Bush tax cuts about to expire—largest tax hike in American history. The Supreme Court ruled that Obamacare’s individual mandate is a tax.
• Promised unemployment would stay below 8%. Still around 10%.
• “If you like your current health plan, you can keep it:” 5-20 million Americans likely to lose employer plans under Obamacare.
• No budget passed in 3 years: Obama’s budget failed in Senate 97-0!
• Was against homosexual “marriage”; now for it.
• In 2006, stated on Senate floor, “The fact that we are here today to debate raising America ’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills... Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.” In 2011, he strongly advocated raising the debt ceiling again.

7. He has weakened America in the world:

• Disrespectful to America : worldwide apology tour for America , bowing to the Saudi king and Japanese emperor.
• Michelle Obama: “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country.”
• Has done nothing to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to destroy Israel .
• Recently refused to meet with Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel.
• Supported “Arab Spring.” Now embassies are attacked in North Africa and Middle East . 4 Americans murdered in attack on Libyan Embassy.
• Attacks free speech of Americans: blamed above attacks on an obscure film criticizing Islam.
• Told an envoy to Vladimir Putin, “After my election, I’ll have more flexibility.”

Call Planned Parenthood and Get a FREE Imaginary Mammogram!

If you were watching the 2nd presidential debate last night, you probably remember President Obama’s claim that Planned Parenthood does mammograms. (Aww, bless his heart. Obama actually thinks that his buddies at the abortion-giant Planned Parenthood do mammograms.) Mr. President, I’d like to welcome you to the real world – where Planned Parenthood does not do mammograms. Just over a year ago, Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards was caught in the middle of a massive lie, when she said on national television that Planned Parenthood does mammograms. Well – Live Action was watching (or as Planned Parenthood says, Live Action “women were watching”) and decided to investigate her claims. Read More

USCCB Responds To Inaccurate Statement Of Fact On HHS Mandate Made During Vice Presidential Debate

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued the following statement, October 12. Full text follows:

Last night, the following statement was made during the Vice Presidential debate regarding the decision of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to force virtually all employers to include sterilization and contraception, including drugs that may cause abortion, in the health insurance coverage they provide their employees:

"With regard to the assault on the Catholic Church, let me make it absolutely clear. No religious institution—Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital—none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide. That is a fact. That is a fact."

This is not a fact. The HHS mandate contains a narrow, four-part exemption for certain "religious employers." That exemption was made final in February and does not extend to "Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital," or any other religious charity that offers its services to all, regardless of the faith of those served. Read More

Where is Jewish Lay Leadership? “If you don’t stand up now, it’s over”

Prayer for the Protection of Religious Liberty

O’ God our Creator,
Through the power and working of your Holy Spirit, you call us to live our faith in the midst of the world, bringing the Light and the saving Truth of the Gospel to every corner of society.
We ask you to bless us in our vigilance for the gift of religious liberty, Give us the strength of mind and heart to readily defend our freedoms when they are threatened; give us courage in making our voices heard on behalf of the rights of your Church and the freedom of conscience of all people of faith.
Grant, we pray, O heavenly Father, a clear and united voice to all your sons and daughters gathered in your Church in this decisive hour in the history of our nation, so that, with every trial withstood and every danger overcome—for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all who come after us—this great land will always be “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Freedom’s Holy Light by John Keisling

Freedom’s Holy Light by John Keisling, sung by Anna Keisling Robillard: