The Religious Significance of Faith-based Politics

The middle class is caught in a faith- based tax conundrum.

The middle class hasn’t benefited from recent tax cuts. Their net disposable income has decreased about two percent over the last two years during a time of sustained economic growth. Are only the rich entitled to be the beneficiaries of faith-based economic policies?

The American people are being told not to worry, that God will help us solve our economic problems, but I believe that God helps those who at least try and help themselves. If we are going to leave the success of our economic policies to God shouldn’t we give Him a vote?

It isn’t God who gave us an eight trillion dollar accumulated deficit. It isn’t God who is forcing our children to inherit a per capita debt of more than twenty-five thousand dollars each. It is the philosophy of using the excuse that “God will help us overcome” that has led us to a crisis of confidence on the part of the public. Maybe they understand something that our leaders have apparently forgotten -- God helps those that help themselves. Who put God in charge of our national debt? I thought that was supposed to be our problem?

Since when did feeding the poor and the homeless become the total responsibility of the Churches in this country? Did they volunteer for this assignment? Is this an abdication of the government’s responsibility? Who appointed charitable organizations as the surrogate government bureaucracy to oversee and be responsible for the economic problems of our society? I thought that was our responsibility under a government that inculcated the principal of separation of church and state.

When did the lines get blurred? Who decided that cutting student loans and health care research was a middle class friendly policy designed to cut our national debt? I find it hard to believe that God would decide to make these kind of anti-social cuts so that tax policies that benefit the rich could become entrenched because the administrators of these policies are people of faith. The middle class is caught in the bind of feeling they have to be in favor of these ‘give to the rich tax policies’ or be considered to be lacking in faith. Isn’t this taking the name and intentions of God in vain to justify unsound economic policies? Why assume that God has a social covenant with the current administration regarding economic policy just because they are people of faith.

Isn’t it time to start searching for God’s answer to this dilemma? Hurry, God may be waiting to hear that you are socially responsible.