A Bible study sanctioned by Senate Majority Leader John Thune and set for Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill included biblical arguments against government helping the poor, according to a study guide posted online. Via Jonathan Larsen’s Substack:
The same lesson will be (was) taught at the White House on Wednesday for cabinet secretaries and for House members on Thursday in the Longworth Building, just as Pres. Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders try to persuade their party to vote for a bill that will devastate millions of needy people, causing death and suffering by depriving millions of health care and food.
[…] The lessons are led by Ralph Drollinger, the right-wing preacher whose June Bible classes — coming right after Israel began attacking Iran — included teaching that the Jews killed Jesus, a longtime antisemitic trope disavowed by major Christian denominations. Drollinger runs Capitol Ministries, which teaches his biblical views to political Bible studies in state capitols around the country and national capitols around the world.
This week’s is entitled, “God’s Design for a Societal1 Safety Net.” It makes the case that the New Testament never talks about governments helping people. Helping the truly needy, Drollinger will teach to his Senate students Tuesday morning, is for individuals. And then families. And then the church.
But not government.
He’s not teaching. He’s indoctrinating them in a religious cult.
We talk about military officers who sponsor Bible studies and what a dangerous infringement of rights that is. But maybe we need to think about the Senate majority leader sponsoring a right-wing preacher who molds the minds of members of Congress before an important vote. On the grounds of the Capitol, no less.
Oddly enough, these “Christians” are very fond of the same Old Testament that Jesus rebuked. Because with all those punitive laws, it’s relatively easy to find an infraction to rail against.
I had twelve years of Catholic school, but I’m no longer a Catholic. I don’t even call myself a Christian. But I know that Jesus told us to forget about the Old Testament. And he told us the only law we needed to worry about was to love God, and love our neighbors as ourselves. That’s it. The sum total of the law.
If you love your neighbor as yourself, wouldn’t you take care of them?
And it just disgusts me that some fundamentalist power junkie is molding the minds of our nation’s legislators with the typical fundie perversion of Christ’s words. Even if you’re not a Christian, or even if you find the very idea repellent, doesn’t it worry you that there’s a Christianist cult on Capitol Hill reassuring members, “Don’t worry, God doesn’t want government to help people”?
God just wants government to help giant corporations.