Republicans Twist Religion

Believe it or not, that was the accusation made recently by Senator John Kerry. In a stump speech last weekend in New Hampshire, Kerry lashed out at "Republican 'fakery' and religious hypocrisy."

"It really comes down to the kind of values you have, and how you take those values into public office and live them out. Not talk about them, folks -live them out," said Kerry, who lost last year's election, in part, because of President Bush's sway with evangelical Christian voters.

"As a Christian, as a Catholic, I think hard about those responsibilities that are moral and how you translate them into public life. And I'm tired of watching a whole bunch of people who talk about that faith not go out and live it."

Citing the New Testament, Kerry said, "There is not anywhere in the three-year ministry of Jesus Christ, any, that remotely suggests - not one miracle, not one parable, not one utterance - that says you ought to cut children's health care or take money from the poorest people in our nation and give it to the wealthiest. Nowhere."

Of course, there is also nothing in the Bible about taking someone else's money and giving it to the poor. We are told to give of ourselves to help those in need (as was so recently practiced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina by the churches and people of Houston). But as Marc Vander Maas of PowerBlog states:

What comments such as these reveal is a philosophy that, as Rev. Gerald Zandstra has noted, lacks "any real discernment about the proper role of government with respect to the issues of poverty and charity." When the government assumes the primary responsibility for the care of the poor, it does not enhance a society's morality (as Kerry and others like him would argue); rather, it erodes the moral foundations of the society... (Read the entire post and discussion...)

If I recall, Mr. Kerry, the Bible also has a little something to say on the topic of hypocrisy...