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A Christian Nation - or Why Glenn Beck is Wrong

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The key word here are ". . . provide for the . . . general Welfare of the United States . . ." This may not mean welfare as we all sit around collecting money for doing nothing, but rather the common good of the public. There are many common goods to a public health care system, the first being the ease of stopping diseases from overwhelming the general population if we can all get treatment. The next is the workforce. A healthy workforce is a strong workforce. If we are getting regular checkups diseases and ailments will be found faster, and recovery would then be shorter. Currently the poor are forced to go to the emergency room for every little thing as they are guaranteed treatment. However, this slows down the system, forcing those with serious emergencies to wait for more trivial matters that could have been handled with ease if the person had coverage. This list could go on and has been argued to nauseam of late.

There are those that claim that Section 9 of the same article, which lists the limitations of Congress, prevents the government from offering health care. However, after a careful read there is no mention of health care to be found.

So to the first argument, Christians are good citizens and follow the laws of the land. The Constitution is the law of the land and allow for the Christian idea of caring for the poor, provided it does not respecting or prohibit any establishment of religion (Amendment One: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .")

Another argument against health care claims that taxing to help others is theft, or covertness. The idea is that the government is stealing from those who have to give to those who have not because the poor look on at what those with have and lust after it. Only God can argue the nature of the human soul. However, Christ did speak about taxes.

"Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk. And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's. When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way." (Matthew 22: 15-22)

True Christians understand that we came into the world with nothing and leave it with only what we have learned in this life. It is not Caesar's face on our money, but nether is it our own. It is clear by reading the Bible that we are to be good citizens, pay our taxes and help the poor. The Bible is very clear that a true Christian will think more to giving of themselves than to keeping for themselves.

"Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22: 26-40)

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John 13: 34-35)

Those fighting this bill claim that we are a Christian nation. What then, we should ask, would Christ do if this were his nation?We would love one another. This is clear based on the nation Christians tried to build in the book of Acts.

"And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need." (Acts 4: 33-35)

A truly Christian nation would disperse their wealth for the common good, as the former saints tried to do.

In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin both a prophet of the Lord and the leader of the people - addressed his subjects before he died (a few hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ). He told them how to be a Christian nation.

"And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

"And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true. And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably, and to render to every man according to that which is his due. And ye will not suffer your children that they go hungry, or naked; neither will ye suffer that they transgress the laws of God, and fight and quarrel one with another, and serve the devil, who is the master of sin, or who is the evil spirit which hath been spoken of by our fathers, he being an enemy to all righteousness. But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

"And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish. Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may not suffer, for his punishments are just-- But I say unto you, O man, whosoever doeth this the same hath great cause to repent; and except he repenteth of that which he hath done he perisheth forever, and hath no interest in the kingdom of God. For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind? And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

"And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another. And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done. I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are rich as pertaining to the things of this world.

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A graduate of Franklin University with a degree in Digital Communications, David is the co-president of the Church of Jesus Christ in Christian Fellowship, a nondenominational Latter Day Saint/Mormon movement. In the past, he was a full time (more...)
 

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