Because our local kook at large has taken it upon himself to become the world's foremost authority on scripture as well as economics, I thought I would take him to task. What follows is the result:

There are those in our community who demand that it is the moral responsibility of our society to redistribute the wealth of this nation among the poor. They use the words of Jesus to compare our poor to beggars outside the gates of the wealthy, suffering despite the wealthy's callous disregard, when nothing could be further from the truth. For not only do we clothe, feed and house our OWN poor, but we have a strong track record of clothing, feeding and housing the poor of other nations around the globe. So much so that our country suffers a mountain of debt that may not ever be repaid.

The truth is that much is sinful about the modern liberal mindset, and it goes beyond aborting babies and endorsing immoral behaviour. In fact, the very idea of wealth redistribution is in itself sinful.

In Exodus 20:17, we are told: "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's."

Now I'm no Biblical scholar here, but it does seem that the God that these individuals invoke when wrongly applying Scripture to the responsibilities of the nation doesn't take too kindly to eminent domain, whether it be property or money that is seized by the government.

The truth is, individuals do have a moral responsibility to the poor. I believe that heartily. But it is not the nation's role to act as arbitrators of whether or not individuals have done their job, it is God's. It is not the nation's job to give, it is the individual. And it is the individual who will ultimately be rewarded or penalized for their actions.

Armchair Christians that quote scripture selectively and only when it suits their needs cannot escape the fact that their actions are not in any way condoned by God. God looks at the heart, and the heart of someone who wants to penalize the wealthy for prosperity is not in any way concerned about the plight of the poor, only about their own personal agenda.

TRUE liberalism is, of course, not a sin. But the pseudo-liberalism these liars espouse is as far from spirituality as one can get. And somehow I believe in their heart of hearts they know it.