The meme that TRIGGERED me...

Saw this meme posted by an old friend who is now an Anglican priest and I will be the first to admit... I WAS TRIGGERED. This happens to me when I see multiple grievous lies packed into a statement that professes to be "gospel".

This meme was posted in reference to all of the "selfish" Christians resisting the vaccine mandates. 

the meme that triggered me.

Here the crafty leftist Christian tries to conflate obedience to God with obedience to the state by framing the power grab as for the "greater good". I compare this to the psychological manipulations of a "gaslighting" abuser who preys upon the good natured benevolence of their victims. "If you were a truly good Christian you would surrender your selfish ideals and morals and submit to my will. Why because you're supposed to put other people before you!".

Have you ever noticed that the people asking you to sacrifice for the "greater good" are usually beneficiaries of your sacrifice?

Religion is a tricky subject because there are too many historical cases of tyrants using religious dogma to abuse state power. Religion and authoritarian statism are a deadly combination, but don't take my word for it, look to Christ himself. The gospel chronicles Christ's epic intellectual battles with the Pharisees. The Pharisees reveled too greedily in their prestige and political power.  Using rigid enforcement of laws and traditions they exalted themselves to mini dictators. Christ unambiguously referred to them as a "den of vipers". You can't find a more clear warning of how state power and religious fervor combine make a dreadful foe. Of course it's worth noting that fierce criticism of the Pharisees (not the Romans) is what cost Jesus his life.

The best example of the evils of religion mingled with state power are the Pharisees; Christs mortal foes in the Gospel.

Christians are sinners who strive to follow Christ's example but leftist grifters cherry-pick from the New Testament to assail Christians to make them do what they want. The leftist Christian is a leftist first and a Christian second (if at all). At their core the leftist worships state power as their one true god.

They routinely use these phrases to claim Jesus was a socialist:

• Love our neighbor as ourselves.
• Love our enemy
• Care for the poor
• It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of  needle that for a rich man to enter the kingdom

and of course

• Turn the other cheek

SO DO WHAT I WANT OR ELSE YOU ARE A BAD CHRISTIAN!

Your shrieking leftist friend who pretends to understand the gospel

Jesus certainly said all of these things and he meant them, but there is a context to this that is recklessly ignored by the leftist. Each of these verses are twisted and state power is injected obliterating the relationship between man and God.

Jesus said  that WE should give to the poor. He didn't say set up massive government programs that centralize power. You know why he didn't ask this? Because there is no virtue in empowering the government to loot your neighbor so that some bureaucrats can strut around accepting praise. You can't outsource benevolence to the state; it robs us of the opportunity to do something for our fellow man. Additionally, the state does a lousy job of caring for the poor because they don't actually want to help them. 

It is the centralization of state power that creates economic disparity. When rich elites virtue signal they often use their wealth to support political candidates that push regulation favorable to them. Regulations cloaked in do-gooder messaging that crush competition, because bloated corporate empires lack the agility to innovate like a plucky startup. Instead they invest dollars into lobbying to hamper honest competition. All incentive is destroyed and the poor cannot better themselves. Instead they must resort to receiving crumbs from the state or face poverty.

This is but one example of how "worshipping" the state with your tithes empowers criminality and creates poverty. But that's the goal of the statist. The ideal situation for the state is to cause chaos and misery while maintaining the illusion of being the good guy. Because when crises occur the indoctrinated masses don't turn to God or even their family for help. They cry to their gods in elected office to make things better. Then we vote them special powers and abilities to tax and regulate and they in turn create more poverty and dependence.

The state is a lousy god, which is why Christ asks us to be benevolent on a personal level.

So what did Jesus mean? Is it bad to seek wealth?

Well here is the truth. It would be nice to believe that Jesus wants us to have nice things and chase money and wealth and private jets, but the gospel was pretty clear. Jesus did not want us to make money our God. Many prosperity preachers try to tell us we can have both, but if we are being honest with ourselves that message is not really what is revealed in the gospel. We can work and if our wealth is increased we are called to help others. There aren't any accounting guidelines laid out for us on how large of a home or swimming pool we can have but making money your God is not  in the Gospel.

popular "prosperity" preacher Joel Osteen

But this does not mean that the Gospel preaches socialism and centralized redistribution. Christ calls un as individuals to do better - and having a central authority manage our goodness defeats the whole purpose.

This is the sensitive area that leftist will use to attack. They try to inject state power wherever they can. To them THE STATE IS GOD and therefore the solution to all societal ills. To them disobeying the vaccine mandate is disobeying "god" and to the leftist Christian they combine the state with their "god" by saying that the state exists for the greater good of the people - which to them means following Christ's commandments.

Studying history will tell you that empowering the state and worshipping the state always has the same results: human enslavement and mountains of corpses. State worship is the oldest and deadliest religion of all and leftist Christians ignore history and ignoring Christ himself when they kneel before the altar of globalism.