One subject that the Christian Left frequently uses to attack the Christian Right is the Christian duty to care for the poor and helpless. The Christian Left will frequently say, "You guys are being unchristian, because Christians are supposed to care for the poor, and you guys want to dismantle government programs that help the poor."
In response to this, the Christian Right will say, "Exactly. It is not the duty of Christians to care for the poor, not the government. We as individual Christians, or as Christian charities should care for the poor, but not the government." Some of them even go further, and argue that when the government provides for the poor, the government is in effect depriving Christians of their opportunity to care for the poor, and since the Christian duty to care for the poor is a sacred thing, the government is actually depriving them of their religious practice.
If you grew up in the church, you've probably heard this all before yourself. If not, take my word for it, it's an argument frequently used by conservative Christians to justify why they want to end government assistance to the poor. If someone were to do the work, and go through conservative Christian publications from the last 40 years, I'm pretty you'd be able to find this argument articulated in print numerous times.
Anyway, you can probably tell where I'm going with all this. With the shutdown of USAID, it's been widely predicted that this will result in a lot of deaths. From the Guardian:
Analysis confirms that several thousand women and girls are likely to die from complications during pregnancy and childbirth as a direct result of Trump’s order to freeze aid to the agency for 90 days....The initial repercussions include the abandonment in warehouses of supplies of crucial drugs in Sudan, the site of what is currently the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where recent fighting in the east has further destabilised the fragile region.Across Africa, hundreds of thousands of children who rely on school meals have been left without sustenance after food was left to rot in the wake of Musk’s declaration that he wanted the US aid agency to “die”....In Bangladesh, the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, which coordinates pioneering research into one of the most prolific killers of children, has laid off some of the world’s most respected scientists working on malaria programmes....Elsewhere, the director of a major international aid organisation in Colombia – who also requested anonymity – feared the impact on those who most needed help. “The people who this is going to affect the most are those already without a safety net. Precisely those who are least able to find another source of food, shelter or income,” they said.
...etc. Go read the whole article for all the impending humanitarian disasters.
Okay, Christians, now is your chance! Time to put your money where your mouth is. This is your opportunity to step in and fill the gap that is left by the withdraw of Government aid to the poor. This is what you've been waiting for. Now dig into your pocketbooks, and do your Christian duty.
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For more on this, see my former swim team teammate Jeremy Konyndyk talk here:
The world’s richest man has decided that the world’s richest country shouldn't help some of the world’s poorest people.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 6, 2025
This is blatantly illegal. An unelected billionaire cannot simply shut down federal agencies authorized by Congress at will. pic.twitter.com/uzExo2xc1z
and follow him on Twitter here.
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Update update: Just now saw Jeremy Konyndyk quoted on the Philip Defranco show. Watch from 7:38 to see him quoted:
1 comment:
Lee Kuan Yew once said [maybe foreign] observers of U.S politics will eventually be able to detach political claims from reality.
Not nice to say this. Nor is it my business to stick my foreign nose in. But if I may just say one prompt thing, being my contentment with the 2nd term of the guy. Maybe according to the official narrative, children are bleeding themselves to death since workers aren't there to tend for them 24/24. I for one see tranquility on my own country's internetsphere. Maybe the altruistic workers next time shouldn't do something underhandedly, no? No, because your way of doing is right and you are the force for good? Well, see you in maybe the next 4 years I guess. By then I hopefully have better hobbies to care for other than half-baked progressivism.
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