Qualifying Mercy

WHEN JOSHUA BEN JOSEPH, who was later misnamed "Jesus" by the Latin speaking world, manufactured and handed out fish and bread to hungry people, he did so not because of any special, omniscient powers, but because he was reqonably observant, knew hungry people when he saw them, and had a heart. According to the Bible, he did this with no strings attached, as we like to say. According to the modern evangelical conservative Christian Republican version, he first required that recipients of free food submit to drug tests. Anyone found to have drugs in his or her body was immediately disqualifed from assistance obviously being unworthy of help of any kind. He carefully made note of who had recieved food, in oder to ensure that there were no "double dippers". Upon distributing the food, he reminded the hungry that they must learn how to support themselves, and must not continue to rely on handouts. Reliance on government assistance, he said, was the worst possible circumstance, for doing so raised the terrible specter of "socialism", which destroys individual initiative - government must be involved as little as possible. Jesus, above all, was a free market capitalisit, determined to maintain a society in which everyone worked first and foremost on behalf of their own personal interests, and accepted the outcome, whatever it might be. He made clear that taxing the wealthy to support subsistance living for the poor amounted to unfair confiscation of wealth, a great sin, since wealthy people ought to be allowed to keep the rewards for their own hard work, and should be required to "render unto Caesar" hardly at all, because allowing the wealthy to retain their hard earned riches will result in wealth being "trickled down" to the poor, much preferrable to government involvement and control. "Go thy way, and sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor", basically meant that when one gives unto the poor, one does so once and once only, to guarantee that the poor overcome their laziness and lack of skills, and get to work. Welcome to twenty first century evangelical Christian conservative American theology, according to which Jesus is a free market capitalist, and the gospel of wealth dictates that the wealthy have earned their rewards here on Earth by their devotion to the render unto Caesar give unto the poor message of Christ, and Donald Trump is elevated to the position of "defender of the faith".