Why don't conservatives follow the teachings of Jesus and the Bible concerning poverty?

Question

Matthew 19:21
Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Exodus 23:6
Do not deny justice to your poor people in their lawsuits.

Deuteronomy 15

1 At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
2 This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed.
3 You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.
4 However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you,
5 if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
6 For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised.

Mrs. Smith claimed that Arthur C. Brooks' book says that conservatives give more than liberals.

Here are two statistics from his website:

The working poor in America give more to charity than the middle class

The American working poor are, relative to their income, some of the most generous people in America today. The nonworking poor, however—those on public assistance instead of earning low wages—give at lower levels than any other group. In other words, poverty does not discourage charity in America, but welfare does.


Upper level income people often give less than the working poor

Among Americans with above-average incomes who do not give charitably, a majority say that they ‘don’t have enough money.’ Meanwhile, the working poor in America give a larger percentage of their incomes to charity than any other income group, including the middle class and rich.

Answer 1

as far as the politicians go it is because they are Christian in name only not deed.As far as the gop electorate goes I would give at least 75 percent of them the benifit of the doubt.They are prob charatable people who are mis lead by these snakes like Bush who parade around with a Christian label but are wolfs in sheeps clothing. The last true Christian President was Jimmy Carter, stillout building homes for the homeless. One day maybe these people will see the light and stop being mislead by these fake demons appearing as angels of light.

Answer 2

Personally, I think this is a good question, and deserves a thoughtful answer, so I will give it a try.

It all depends how you define conservative and which conservative you ask. Certainly not all conservatives are Christians, but it seemed clear to me that you were asking about those who are, such as Bush.

I would guess that Bush would say that 1) the best way to address poverty in the long term is with tax cuts on dividends, capital gains, inheritances, and people with incomes over $200,000 (I have not seen evidence that this works, but people like Bush still promote it) and 2) the best way to address poverty in the short term is through private charity.

There is a bit of a disconnect (or hypocracy if you like) here in that, Bush is trying to address some Conservative Christian objectives (opposition to gay marriage, abstinence only sex education, opposition to abortion) through direct policy (passing law, giving funding), but others such as poverty he says should be done indirectly or though charity.

In my opinion, even though he can justify it as I mentioned above, Bush's approach to poverty is extremely ineffective. If you want to do tax cuts, then directly them at the poor and/or middle class, treats poverty in the short term in a more comprehensive way than charities can, and in the long term is a much better way to stimulate the economy (I say this as someone who has had a fair amount of economics). Why are tax cuts for the poor and middle class a better economic stimulus? Because the money is typcially spend on immedate needs (and thus goes into the local economy) or is spent on things like education, which in term contributes to the tax base in the long term.

Finally, although Bush's view seems to be the prevailing one among conservative Christians, there are exceptions, such as Huckabee. From what I have heard, Huckabee does believe in using government to treat poverty directly.

Answer 3

Not everything in the Bible should be taken literally. Also, not all conservatives have the same exact beliefs. So to ask why all conservatives don't follow the teachings of Jesus is a little ignorant...because not all conservatives do. Was that a shot at Christianity itself?

Answer 4

Because I'm an atheist.

But for the record, the vast majority of charitable donations come from conservatives.

Answer 5

Why don’t you get the facts on this topic versus the erroneous spam that you are distributing on this site?

The indisputable truth is documented over and over….one simply has to look.

http://www.philanthropy.com/free/articles/v19/i04/04001101.htm

http://oproject.wordpress.com/2006/11/25/religious-conservatives-give-more-than-secular-liberals-to-charity-is-that-a-good-thing/

Answer 6

1. Liberals don't give all their money away either...dumb argument.

2. There has been only one PERFECT man and that man was Jesus.

3. Only liberals are subject to large scale negative blanket statements. Everyone knows you stand for nothing...your arguments are weak and offensive.

Isn't that what liberals are scared of: offending somebody???

Answer 7

Jesus didn't advocate reallocation of wealth via government programs. He advocated personal responsibility and action. In fact he abhorred bureaucracies and organized religion because of the corruption it created (remember the temple story?). Don't try to mix politics and religion, they are mutually exclusive.

Answer 8

I think the catholic church should set a good example after all they are the richest corporation in the world.

Answer 9

Because they believe the Bible is expedient to follow only at election time.

Answer 10

Gee, I didn't know that all conservatives were religious or even that all were even christian.

But heres another bible verse for you anyway.
"The poor you will always have with you" Matthew 26:11

You see for everything you find in the bible you can probably find something to say something else.

But nice try anyway.