Conservatives’ Contradictory Take on Christianity

Meanwhile, the Obama Administration and House Democrats continue to disappoint. Succumbing to the Republican majority once again, both Obama and his supporters have shied away from their millionaire surtax that, despite its modest 1.9% tax increase on millionaires and overwhelming support of the majority of Americans, would have raised over $140 billion in tax revenue. The proceeds of that plan would have helped pay for the extension of tax cuts for over 160 million workers. Dropping their feeble tour de force by hobnobbing with a resolute Warren Buffett, Democrats now present themselves as nothing more than an “open book” with a broken spine.

In other words, it is not the Right who will save the country and it’s beginning to seem like it’s not the Left, either. Who is it going to be, then?

Catholics and Christian Conservatives: Same Book, Different “Solutions”

Realizing the dire circumstances in which many Americans live, it was not the Democratic Party that most recently demanded solutions from the Republican-led Congress—it was not anyone on Capitol Hill. Rather, it was the behemoth Catholic Church. In a letter to the GOP-led House, a conference of non-partisan Catholic Bishops recently stated, “When the economy fails to generate sufficient jobs, there is a moral obligation to protect the life and dignity of unemployed workers and their families.”

Citing aspects of Pope John Paul II’s seminal 1981 Laborem Exercens, the bishops proclaimed, “[providing] unemployment benefits…is a duty springing from the fundamental principle of. . .the right to life and subsistence.”

Here is where the hypocrisy begins. Drawing from the same Bible as many self-proclaimed Christian conservatives, these bishops’ conclusions are manifestly different than the alleged solutions of their Republican counterparts, especially those seeking the GOP Presidential nomination.

Take a look at some of them: with nearly 7 million views on YouTube, Rick Perry has let the world know that he is not afraid to be a Christian. As such, he believes that America’s values are Judeo-Christian, yet the charitable dogma comes to a screeching halt when it comes to those who are unemployed or low-income. Flatly rejecting extending a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, Perry supported measures that would effectively raise taxes on only the middle class as he callously claimed that they are “incentives to be unemployed.”