I am so exhausted. I am exhausted from the frustration. This frustration comes from the constant, flagrant, blatant hypocrisy that exists under the name of the Conservative Christian right. Less government, less public services, less taxes, less deficit….less life. I want to scream, it is so frustrating.
I have to ask: If you are “Christian,” does that not mean that you model your life, your behavior, your actions, your goals to that of Jesus? Jesus’ teachings, it is my understanding, centered on love, on compassion, on peace and spent his time on Earth helping his fellow man.
Jesus was not a greedy, rich bastard hell bent on having it all! He chose to shun worldly niceties to live free of the mundane traps of possession. So I ask, isn’t it an oxymoron to be a Conservative Christian?
You can’t be both conservative and Christian. Capitalism thrives because of a ready and able workforce. It requires a few that own and many that work to produce. It requires that a certain percentage of the population be unemployed and waiting to step in should the capitalists need labor, and the more unemployed there are, the lower the wages and the lesser the working conditions. Since the cost of production is mostly fixed by the price of machinery and crude materials, the profit margin depends on volume produced and sold and how low payroll can be kept and still maintain production. Product quality suffers the more the profit margin takes priority. Workers are chewed up, spit out and replaced by lesser qualified, lower paid employees who can only be thankful that they finally have a paycheck coming in.
So, I ask, where is Jesus in all of this? Would Jesus exploit so many of his fellow men? Would Jesus be the one who has, knowing that for one to have, many go without? Would Jesus throw out the 10 Commandments and replace them with the mantra, “Gimme, gimme, gimme?”
The Conservative Christians, the extreme rightists, the Tea Baggers, the Republicans say that the budget must be cut and cut severely. The government already exists solely to protect their interests, which is why you never see headlines squawking about how much it cost to send military might to Libya. No, it wasn’t to protect the people from slaughter, though that ideal is flaunted over and over; it was to protect our oil interests in the region. The same motive was behind the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Our oil interests are protected – as long as you are Exxon and BP. It’s called “corporate personhood” and those corporations enjoy far more rights and protections than you or I. You and I require medical care and an income once we have worked our entire lives, paid taxes and invested in our meager income we will enjoy at retirement. The only ones exempt from the nightmare of poverty in old age are politicians and capitalists. We become a liability once past our useful age.
So now the government is about to shut down because the politicians can’t come up with a budget. The government will shut down parks and recreation, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Food Stamps, and keep on as “essential” all the politicians in Congress and the Defense Department. Yep, capitalism will continue to enjoy its protection, its rights while the Conservative Christians find more and more ways to provide those protections and rights for free.
Oh, the Conservative Christians will shake their fists, turn red in the face and prosecute everyone in the near vicinity if an abused child dies. Oh, it is horrible. This can’t happen again. The caseworker must’ve been goofing off. Sorry, you greedy bastard; the caseworker was overworked, underpaid and over stressed with five times the number of active cases considered manageable. Why? No money.
And, here’s where the story hits home, and hits hard. April is Child Abuse Awareness month. You’ll see a lot about it for the next few weeks and learn that child sexual abuse, abuse and neglect happen across income levels. Yes, the Conservative Christians make up a healthy slice of the statistics. You will learn about the Cycle of Abuse and how abused children grow up to be abusive parents. What you won’t learn about is how much we fail our children as those abused kids suffer in silence, in plain view of teachers, medical personnel and fellow church-goers. Sorry kid, you are on your own because, once again, we have to funnel all the money to capitalists and away from the services that just might have half a chance to step in and save your life. The Conservative Christians will never own up to the fact that it’s more important to protect “our” capitalist interests than it is to save a child’s life.
Greed wins. Quality is gone. More and more of the population are living in poverty. Workers are exploited, abused and thrown out with the trash, and children die. Ninety percent of the wealth in this country is held by ten percent of the population.
Is this Democracy? No, it is feudalism. The American people live the same nightmare as any other third world country on Earth.
Yeah. Go to church, you hypocrites. Pretend you are walking the path of Jesus. He must be rolling in his grave.
