Jim Wallis of Sojourners said this in an email Thursday:
The real Christmas scandal is the budget proposed by the House of Representatives that
â¢Â cuts food stamps, health care, child support, and educational assistance to low-income families –
â¢Â while further lowering taxes for the wealthiest Americans and
â¢Â increasing the deficit for all of our grandchildren.
An hour or two earlier another email came with these remarks:
our leaders in Congress have made their top two priorities clear:
â¢Â huge new tax cuts targeted to the wealthy and
â¢Â devastating cuts to programs that help hard-working families get by.
That is not an exaggeration. This two-step has been in the works for a while now, and is very blatant.
Voting mostly along party lines, the U.S. House of Representatives passed $56 billion in tax breaks last week that would go overwhelmingly to the wealthiest sliver of Americans …
But that’s not all. The tax cuts come after the House passed $50 billion in cuts to services that struggling working families depend on, like Medicaid, student loans, child support enforcement and food stamps.
“Struggling working families.” The working poor – that is a profound embarrasment! Why in this exceedingly wealthy nation, with vast concentrations of wealth at the very top – why is it possible that there be families with two breadwinners who are still so poor they need government assistance just to get along?
Wallis, in the above-quoted article, quotes Mary the mother of Jesus – a “song” about her role in the coming of the Messiah. She speaks very directly of the rich / poor dynamics.
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior … He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.“
Why do they have to include class warfare remarks like that in the Christmas story? Can’t we just leave the Christ in Christmas without bothering about all this ideology and economics talk?
No. If we want to keep Christ, we have to also acknowledge what he cared about, talked about, and insisted on.
It was Christ, if I remember correctly, who said, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?”
See Sojourners website here for story and pictures about Jim Wallis and others being arrested for protesting this budget bill.
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