Why the Republicans Are Not Following Matthew Chapter 25

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By Frank J. Kuhel, JR.

The Republicans are so proud to claim that they are Christians and yet they denigrate all other religions as somehow not American. You see this every time they refer to Muslim members of the House of Representatives as wanting to bring Sharia Law to the United States even though US law is derived from the code of Hammurabi which is the predecessor of the laws laid down in the Old Testament that all three great Abrahamic Religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, follow. Their policies even ignore the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as he lays out in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25.

In Matthew 25:35 it says, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me.” The Republican Party has always been opposed to SNAP which is more commonly known as food stamps and has tried their hardest to make it nearly impossible for anyone to qualify for it. Demanding that people work at least 20 hours a week before they can receive any benefits regardless of what their situation is.

They also oppose governmental support of Food banks and do nothing to alleviate food deserts that lead to major health problems in underserved minority communities. When it comes to water the Republicans were the ones responsible for the Flint Michigan water lead poisoning because they effectively removed any real power from the locally elected officials in the city and placed an emergency financial manager in charge without any oversight except the Republican Governor who hid the crisis to avoid the political ramifications of their incompetence.
They switched from getting water from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money and there by poisoned hundreds if not thousands of children with lead. When it comes to welcoming strangers the Republican Party fully supports the Trump Administration’s policy of putting Immigrant children into cages like cattle and ripping babies out of their parent’s arms so they can deport the parents immediately. They never condemn Trump and his sycophants that call immigrants to the southern border drug mules and rapists but rather jump onto the Racist bandwagon with him and his rabid base. His wall is proof that he wishes to keep all Hispanics out of this country if he can.

In Mathew 25:36 it says, “Naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.” The Republicans when they get into power do everything that they can to harass the homeless living on the street and throw them into jail for vagrancy or panhandling rather than doing anything to get them off the street and into housing. There have been several Republican mayors that have had the policy to drive the homeless out of their cities so that they can claim that they have solved homelessness in their city. Many of the homeless are veterans that we owe a major debt to. On healthcare the Republicans oppose Universal healthcare as a right and not a privilege for the elite few that can personally afford to pay for it. There have been Democratic mayors that have attacked both of these problems by getting the homeless into housing because they can house a homeless person in an apartment for 6 months for what it costs them to have one homeless person stay in the hospital for a week for an untreated medical condition that could have been controlled easily once they’re in a permanent residence. Universal healthcare will reduce the cost of medicine and prescriptions by economy of scale. Hospitals are not and should not be a person’s primary healthcare provider because the cost is so high and hospitals lose millions to treating uninsured patients.

When it comes to prisoners the Republicans are all in favor of the death penalty and in states like Texas and Florida their death chambers are buzzing right along killing people even though there are estimates that 25% of people in prison are actually innocent of the crime that they were convicted of. If an innocent person has exhausted their statutory appeals and new evidence come out that they are innocent the only way to free them is to get the governor to pardon them or commute their sentence which is almost impossible with a Republican Governor in power. The Republicans also mistake a healthcare issue with a criminal prosecution issue when it comes to addiction. Until the opioid crisis that affected their conservative base their only response to drugs was to lock them up and throw away the key. Mandatory minimum sentence was their watchword when it was poor people of color addicted to crack cocaine and methamphetamine.

Then the Righteous will ask when did we do all of these things for you Lord, “And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers (and sisters) of mine, you did for me.’” If the Republicans wish to call themselves Christians then they should start acting like the sheep that Jesus refers to in this chapter of Matthew and not the goats condemned to the eternal fire reserved for the Devil and his fallen angels.

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