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When prophets warned the people of Israel of impending doom, it was primarily because they denied the poor justice. Isaiah (10:1-2) says, “Shame on you! You who make unjust laws/ and publish burdensome decrees,/ depriving the poor of justice,/ robbing the weakest of my people their rights, despoiling the widow and plundering the orphan.”
Amos says there would be no reprieve for the crimes of Israel because, “they sell the innocent for silver/ and the destitute for a pair of shoes.” These are not isolated quotes.
In the New Testament, the only person who Jesus explicitly consigned to Hell was the rich man who did not show charity to the poor man.
The Republican Party is an economic class based party that represents maybe one percent of the American people. Their top priority is to take wealth off the tax table and let people use their wealth in an unregulated manner. Republicans intend to make life much more difficult for the poorest and weakest Americans so billionaires won’t have to pay taxes. Legislative breakthroughs after the 2004 election made access to legal redress for the poor more difficult and make it harder to seek protection in the bankruptcy laws. Budget proposals will cut Medicaid funding, housing aid and student loans. Sound much like the behavior described in Isaiah?
Every time I hear pious Republicans, I get a whiff of burning sulfur.
