Excerpts from Katherine Yurica's "Bloodguilty Churches":
http://www.yuricareport.com/Religion/TheBloodGuiltyChurches.htmlWhat Does the Bible Say About How a Nation Must Treat the Poor and the Sick? "...the Bible requires a portion of the wealth of all the people of a nation to be set aside and transferred to the poor and needy! Clearly Mr. Bush and the Republicans in Congress are trying to destroy what God has established.
Deuteronomy 26:12-13 establishes a holy tax (called a tithe) for the nation of ancient Israel, which transfers wealth to a group of people who did not earn it. In this scripture the payments were made every third year to the Levites, who were our equivalent of civil servants and to “the stranger and the sojourner, the fatherless, and to the widow, that they may eat within your towns and be filled.” (Amplified.)
Similarly
Deuteronomy 24: 19-22 (Amplified) creates both a form of taxation as well as a transfer of the wealth on an annual basis to the poor: the stranger and sojourner, the fatherless and the widow. The scripture requires that a portion of three different crops be left for the poor and needy: the harvest from the fields, oil from the olive trees, and the grapes from the vineyard.
Moreover, in the Bible, refusal to defend the rights of the needy and the widows and orphans (and here I’m thinking of the widows and orphans of the September 11, 2001 tragedy) is a very big deal.<103> For it was sufficient cause for God to allow that nation to be destroyed and its people carried away into slavery. The book of Jeremiah speaks to the issue and God begins to sound more and more like a good liberal Democrat:
“For among my people are found wicked men; they watch as fowlers do who lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
“As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit and treachery; therefore they have become great and grown rich,
“They have grown fat and sleek. Yes, they surpass in deeds of wickedness. They do not judge and plead with justice the cause of the fatherless that it may prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy. (Emphasis mine.)
“Shall I not punish them for these things? Says the Lord. Shall not I avenge myself on such a nation as this?”
(Jeremiah 5: 26-29 Amplified Version.)
Jeremiah goes on in the 2nd Chapter:
“Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the persons of the innocent poor. You did not find them house-breaking, nor have I found it out by secret search, but it is because of
all these things…Behold, I will bring you to judgment and will plead against you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’” (Jeremiah. 2: 34-35. Amplified Version.)
Jeremiah tells the nation what God’s terms are if they are to be spared from destruction and from being carried away as captives:
“If you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly and truly execute justice between every man and his neighbor,
“If you do not oppress the transient and the alien, the fatherless and the widow, or shed innocent blood …
“Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers…” (Jeremiah 7:5-7. Amplified Version.)
Amos the prophet addresses a nation who continues to mistreat the poor:
“Hear this, O you who would swallow up and trample down the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail and come to an end, Saying,
‘When will the new moon festival be past, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, making the ephah measure small, and the shekel measure great, and falsifying the scales by deceit, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals; yes, and sell the refuse of the wheat ?’
“The Lord has sworn by the glory and pride of Jacob, ‘Surely I will never forget any of their …deeds.’” (Amos 8:4-7. Amplified.)
Amos makes it clear that if a nation places burdens upon the poor, allows the powerful to take advantage of them and denies the poor not only their day in court but true justice and equity, that nation will not partake of its own bounty. Amos 5:11-12. Other verses in Proverbs extend God’s blessings to those who help the poor:
“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and that which he has given He will repay to him.” (Proverbs 19:17. Amplified.)
“He who gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will have many a curse.” (Proverbs 28:27. Amplified.)
Here is what God says about medical assistance through the prophet Ezekiel as God addressed the spiritual “shepherds”:
“The diseased and weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the hurt and crippled you have not bandaged, those gone astray you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought to find; but with force and hardhearted harshness you have ruled them.” (Ezekiel 34:4 Amplified)
And because the churches and the false spiritual leaders failed in their responsibility to the sick and infirm of the nation, Ezekiel quotes God:
“I am against the shepherds; and I will require My sheep at their hand, and cause them to cease feeding the sheep…I will rescue My sheep from their mouths, that they may not be food for them.” (Ezekiel 34:9-10 Amplified)
Another poignant scripture that reveals Jesus’ own attitude toward the nations and people who have ignored the plight of the poor, sick and needy is from the book of Matthew. Notice that the separation of the people is done on a national basis. This must be read as an indictment of national political actions as well as personal actions. The individuals who supported false leaders and their agenda toward the poor and needy are clearly going to be held responsible for their votes:
“All nations shall be gathered before him, and he will separate the people…And he will cause the sheep to stand at his right hand, but the goats at his left….Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Be gone from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels!’
‘For I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome me…I was naked and you did not clothe me; I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me with help and ministering care.’
“Then they also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’
“And he will reply to them, ‘Solemnly I declare to you, in so far as you failed to do it for the least of these you failed to do it for me.” (Matthew 25:31-45. Amplified Version.)
Though evil men may try to obliterate the words and impact of the Scriptures, they will never succeed. Their immorality and sins must be overwhelmingly rejected by all Americans, lest this nation fall under the condemnation of God—if it is not under condemnation already for the deeds of Mr. Bush.
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