Matthew 25 Pledge

[Tanuki]

http://www.matthew25pledge.com/

"In America right now, too many people are feeling very afraid because of the new political realities in Washington, D.C., both because of the political rhetoric of this election campaign and how they were targeted as groups of people. In response, the message of Matthew 25 is rising up at the grassroots level and among faith leaders — within faith communities, congregations, denominations, seminaries, and faith-based organizations. It's the Gospel text where Jesus says: How you treat the most vulnerable is how you treat me.

People are feeling a need to act. Matthew 25 can lead us in what to do. And so we've created the Matthew 25 Pledge — just one sentence which simply says: I pledge to protect and defend vulnerable people in the name of Jesus. Clearly, many people in America are feeling quite vulnerable right now, but the Matthew 25 Movement — a broad collection of national faith-based groups, grassroots activists, heads of denominations and more — is focusing on three groups of people who are especially at risk under a Trump administration. So here we offer our starting point, pledging to:

Support undocumented immigrants threatened with mass deportation; and advocate on behalf of refugees who are being banned from coming to America.
Stand with African Americans and other people of color threatened by racial policing.
In line with our commitment to religious liberty we will defend the lives and religious liberty of Muslims, threatened with “banning,” monitoring, and even registration.

This is the beginning. This is where to start now. But if and when other groups of people are targeted by government decisions or by hateful cultural responses, we who sign the Matthew 25 Pledge will also seek to surround and protect them. Rather than just watching, grieving, and feeling sorry for what is happening to the most marginalized, who are named in the 25th chapter of Matthew, we can pledge to join together in circles of support in the name of Jesus.
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Download the Toolkits
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We encourage you to take these toolkits as a starting point and implement them in your churches and communities, but also to stay connected with an organization that is in this for the long haul — for whatever a Trump administration brings. These are the groups behind this Matthew 25 effort. Find out more about them and join in the movement through any or all of these groups.".....

[goldstardad]

1. Matt 25 take

What is the acceptable number of deaths due to lack of health care insurance or insufficient heath care can we stomach?
Where should we draw the line, are we ok with 30,000 adults and 17,000 children dying every year that could be attributed to lack/insufficient health care? Is the number higher for some of you? Is it lower?

So when Congress talks about decreasing health care, understand we are talking about how many people are they/we are willing to sacrifice to keep our/richest 1% tax bill down?

The current suggestion from the Republican Congress is nothing more than actuarial proposal of the deaths they can live with. One can rant and scream about any objection to my premise but the fact of the matter is when you come up with a health care plan that does not increase participation and better services you have issued a death sentence to x amount of people.
In the Bible the only man who asked God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Killed his brother.
In the Bible it says “If you have two coats, give one away,” he said. “Do the same with your food.”
In the bible the difference between the sheep and the goat is what they did and did not do to for the hungry, thirsty, sick, or in prison.

I have for most of my life heard, been taught, preached to, and read about how America is a Christian Nation founded on Christian Principals yet when it comes to our government whose bedrock is supposedly built upon Christianity.

But when it comes to doing the work of the Lord, they tend to hold their noses, as if taking care of the least of us is beneath many of our political members. And in the sheep and the goats whatever you have done to the least of us you have done unto him.

So please deny food for a hungry family or the health care for a dying dad/mom/brother/sister all you want. Justify it all you want but make no mistake we will have to answer to Him someday, why we allowed hunger to exist not just in our Country but the world in general. We will have to answer to HIM why we decided we wanted way more than 2 cloaks when so many of our brothers and sister have none.

Be not deceived, what you sew you will reap, it is what he promised, I hate to see what we will reap when we strip away, healthcare, foodstamps, and the other “entitlements” that helped the least of us.

[Tanuki]

2. Thank you for this powerful message, and welcome to DU.

Your point about the cynical, actuarial willingness to see "x" number of fellow humans suffer and die needlessly is excellent. I hadn't thought about it quite like that. It reminds me of many years ago, after several accidents in which rear-ended Ford Pintos burst into flames, it came to light that Ford executives knew all along that there was a design flaw and that this was a risk, but made a conscienceless calculation based on costs of recall/redesign vs. potential lawsuit costs. Loss of life and living with horrific injury did not enter their decision process. There was widespread condemnation of Ford at the time. I will be using your argument in upcoming conversations and letter-writing.

[goldstardad]

3. Thank you

When you take the humanity out of the heal care equation and make no mistake this is what the GOP does. You are stuck with risk/reward, cost analysis, and a matrix to determine how many you want to survive.

We all know that preemptive health care is the most cost effective health care in the long run and catastrophic heath care is the most expensive. But the GOP wants to move as many as possible into the catastrophic column.

My overall biggest gripe in regards to faith, the GOP, and government is this. They continually bang the drum of our Government being built on "Christian Principals" but as they walk through the doors to the Chambers to do the peoples work, they constantly put on and take off their "Christian Capes." When it comes to health care and other entitlements they conveniently take their cloaks off and grab their abacus to calculate the minimum they are willing to spend to keep x amount of people alive.

Being a member of Congress gives a Christian the greatest ability to feed the poor, heal the sick, and take care of the least and this is what the GOP despise doing.

There is a passage in Paul where it discusses Paul's meeting with the other Apostles and the part that has always amazed me was what the other Apostles wanted to talk to Paul about. Was it his conversion? Was it what he was preaching? Was it about a doctrine or a theology? NO and again I say NO. All they wanted to know from him and how they judged him and his ministry was "Did he take care of the poor."

So the GOP can tell me how religious they are and how they are doing the Lord's work. But I will evaluate them by the same criteria that the Apostles measured Paul...Do you take care of the poor...and sadly if I was grading them a F would not be a low enough grade.