Jesus was a Liberal Hippie

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Faith in the unseeable is rare in liberal thinking.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. was a liberal, and I'm pretty sure he was a man of faith, being a Reverend and all.Much of the civil rights movement was driven by those of deep Christian faith, as was the Abolitionist movement before the Civil War, namely the Quakers.Both the Abolition and Civil Rights movements were decidedly liberal movements.Some other liberal stances that had/have a strong support from people of faith:opposition to the death penaltyuniversal health carepacifism/rejection of war and violence as a way to solve conflicts with other countriesSo, I think you are totally wrong.

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This is why most proclaimed Christians, are also considered conservative.

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...except that that's not true.At least, I have very strong doubts that it is true. Perhaps you can do some research to show that a majority of Christians are conservative?This message has been edited by schrafinator, 02-03-2006 06:49 AM

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If a society is Christian it will take care of those who need the care. Government should not be in this business.

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Actually, in the decidedly secular Scandinavian countries they have the best standards of living for their citizens, including I believe cradle-to-grave, state-provided healthcare.If what you say is correct, then the US, being the most Christian nation on the planet, should therefore have the best healthcare.Since we have the most Christians, AND we are the richest nation on Earth, shouldn't it then be true that we should have a plethora of Christian hospitals and other Christian charitable healthcare services? And shouldn't they have been able to provide healthcare for everyone in the US who can't afford to pay?At any rate, shouldn't we see a lower or higher level of coverage for citizens of nations depending upon how Christian they are?We do not see that, as my Scandinavia example shows, so how do you explain this?This message has been edited by schrafinator, 02-03-2006 07:01 AM

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The state has taken over what Christians once did, so Christians no longer have the role they once did and haven't figured out how to respond to the situation yet. I think Christians need to get reoriented and remotivated in some as-yet unknown direction. But the habit of letting government and big corporations do the work is a hard habit to break.

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Christians find it hard to be charitable and to serve those in need? Isn't that a basic tenet?So, what you are saying is that it doesn't really matter, WRT how well they take care of the health of their citizens, if nations are largely Christian or not.

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When you say "state-provided healthcare" keep in mind you are talking about a HUGE tax on the income of citizens. The state has no money of its own. It has to take from its citizens.

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It's not huge compared to the money that is taken from us to fund our bloated military.Do you suggest that we drop all taxes and make funding our military voluntary?In addition, many tens of millions of dollars are taken from citizens to pay corporations like Halliburton, who will then profit.Is this OK to you as well?This message has been edited by schrafinator, 02-03-2006 12:28 PM

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I believe workers should be well paid and well taken care of by employers,

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Yes, you are right, they should.But if we look at the history of Capitalism, we see that the overriding tendency of business is to NOT pay their workers well and NOT take care of them unless there are laws in place that force them to do so.I should say that this amoral attitude about employees was born with the rise of the corporation and was somewhat less prevalent when business owners actually knew all of the people they employed and had a sort of paternal attitude towards them.

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and this would be a lot easier if the government weren't taxing the stuffing out of businesses.

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Businesses get tax breaks out the wazoo, especially large/ multinational businesses.Oil companies made obscene profits this year, even though gasoline prices have gone up quite a lot. This in turn makes commercial freight costs go up, which in turn raises the costs of retail business, which in turn makes the prices of consumer products go up.At my place of work, we've seen freight costs go up almost 20% in the last 3 years. We had to raise our prices because of these cost increases.So, while oil company CEO's and shareholders make tons of cash, the rest of the nation gets hit twice with higher prices: at the pump and again when they pay higher prices for consumer goods.This seems to be a clearcut case of the rich getting richer by sticking it to the middle and lower classes.This message has been edited by schrafinator, 02-05-2006 07:40 AM

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Jesus was not a liberal hippie but a neo-con.

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Jesus was corrupt, power-hungry, warmongering, influence-peddling, authoritarian, constitution-ignoring, and individual rights-eroding? Edited by schrafinator, : added my sig!

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"Science is like a blabbermouth who ruins a movie by telling you how it ends! Well I say there are some things we don't want to know! Important things!"
- Ned Flanders"Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." - Thomas Jefferson