{"id":15594,"date":"2013-05-30T13:14:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-30T17:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=15594"},"modified":"2013-05-30T13:14:12","modified_gmt":"2013-05-30T17:14:12","slug":"dives-will-always-be-with-us-and-so-will-selfish-rich-jackwagons-who-misquote-the-bible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2013\/05\/30\/dives-will-always-be-with-us-and-so-will-selfish-rich-jackwagons-who-misquote-the-bible\/","title":{"rendered":"Dives will always be with us — and so will selfish rich jackwagons who misquote the Bible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Southern Beale is not impressed<\/a> with the exegetical skills of kleptocratic Tennessee Republican Stephen Fincher:<\/p>\n

Rep. Stephen Fincher, you are a horrible person who uses the Bible to selectively justify your greedy, selfish ways. Woe unto you.<\/p>\n

Repent, asshole.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not Sunday school language, and the Civility Police will no doubt be horrified that Southern Beale is stating truth so directly and so accurately. (When someone like Fincher extravagantly flaunts his bad faith arguments, the Civility Police always insist we must pretend he hasn\u2019t done so. Pretending, euphemistic inaccuracy, and never, ever calling out self-serving liars are the hallmarks of their idea of \u201ccivility.\u201d)<\/p>\n

But those who fret about such blunt honesty should note that Southern Beale\u2019s condemnation isn\u2019t nearly half as harsh as the rebuke Jesus himself delivers in the Bible passage the congressman misquotes. Nor is it anywhere near as stiletto-sharp as the rebuke that Moses delivers in the passage from the Bible that Jesus is reciting there.<\/p>\n

Fincher, you see, does not like Food Stamps. He wants to cut $21 billion from food aid for poor people.<\/p>\n

This cut would be part of the big Farm Bill<\/a> \u2014 the same bill which guarantees that Fincher himself will continue to receive even more of the agricultural subsidies he\u2019s been collecting personally for years, to the tune of $3.48 million to him directly since 1999:<\/p>\n

At a Holiday Inn in Memphis over the weekend, Fincher expanded on his version of the Christian social gospel: \u201cThe role of citizens, of Christians, of humanity is to take care of each other, but not for Washington to steal from those in the country and give to others in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Fincher interprets food assistance for the needy as \u201cstealing,\u201d he has not similarly condemned the Farm Bill\u2019s massive agricultural subsidies. In fact, he supported a proposal to expand crop insurance by $9 billion over the next 10 years. Fincher has a great personal stake in maintaining these particular government handouts, as the second most heavily subsidized farmer in Congress and one of the\u00a0largest subsidy recipients\u00a0in Tennessee history:<\/p>\n

USDA data collected in EWG\u2019s 2013 farm subsidy database update \u2026 shows that\u00a0Fincher collected a staggering $3.48 million in \u201cour\u201d money from 1999 to 2012.\u00a0In 2012 alone, the congressman was cut a government check for a $70,000 direct payment. Direct payments are issued automatically, regardless of need, and go predominantly to the largest, most profitable farm operations in the country.<\/p>\n

Fincher\u2019s $70,000 farm subsidy haul in 2012 dwarfs the average 2012 SNAP benefit in Tennessee of $1,586.40, and it is nearly double of Tennessee\u2019s median household income.\u00a0After voting to cut SNAP by more than $20 billion, Fincher joined his colleagues to support a proposal to expand crop insurance subsidies by $9 billion over the next 10 years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That argument takes a lot of gall to make. Even more galling is Fincher\u2019s attempt to say that taking food away from poor people \u2014 in order to give more to him, personally<\/em> \u2014 is the \u201cChristian\u201d thing to do. Cutting food assistance for the poor by $21 billion, Fincher claims, is what Jesus<\/em> would want.<\/p>\n

To find that anything other than infuriating you would need to share Fincher\u2019s contempt for poor people, or his contempt for Jesus, or both.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
This is Rep. Stephen Fincher, Republican of Tennessee. Or maybe it\u2019s the Sheriff of Nottingham. It\u2019s hard to tell them apart sometimes, what with their shared agenda of taking from the poor so they can plunder the public treasury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jesus\u2019 own response to this \u2014 to exactly, precisely, literally the very thing<\/em> that Rep. Stephen Fincher is saying \u2014 was to say, \u201cYou are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Somebody better call the Civility Police about that one.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s from Matthew 25. Fincher didn\u2019t quite have the audacity to cite that chapter, instead choosing to make a mess out of a passage from the following chapter<\/a>, in which Jesus says, \u201cYou always have the poor with you.\u201d Mark\u2019s version of that story is longer<\/a>, so let\u2019s quote that, from Mark 14:7: \u201cFor you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s from the NRSV, not from Fincher\u2019s GOP translation of Mark\u2019s Gospel, which apparently reads, \u201cFor you always have the poor with you, and you can take $21 billion in food aid away from them whenever you wish.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors of both Gospels, like Jesus himself, expected that everyone reading or hearing that phrase \u2014 \u201cFor you will always have the poor with you\u201d \u2014 would recognize it and know where it comes from. Jesus was quoting scripture. Jesus was quoting scripture and counting on his disciples knowing<\/em> that he was quoting scripture.<\/p>\n

Fincher is quoting Jesus and counting on his listeners not<\/em> knowing that Jesus was quoting scripture. Because anyone who knows that will instantly recognize that Fincher is twisting Jesus\u2019 words into the opposite<\/em> of what they mean.<\/p>\n

Jesus was quoting from the Torah, from Deuteronomy 15<\/a>. That\u2019s another one of those Jubilee passages. The chapter starts with a quick rehash of the laws regarding the Sabbath year. Every seven years, debts must be cancelled. Thus saith the Lord.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Bible says that. It says that over and over and over again.\u00a0Every seven years, debts must<\/em> be cancelled.<\/p>\n

Jubilee and the cancellation of debt are kind of a major theme in the Bible. This tends to escape the notice of most American Christians \u2014 particularly those who most loudly proclaim themselves to be upholders of \u201cbiblical\u201d morality. Years of painstaking conditioning have rendered this major biblical theme invisible to the eyes of American readers, so much so that people like Dave Ramsey have been able to create an industry out of teaching the opposite<\/em> of Jubilee.<\/p>\n

Every seven years, Deuteronomy 15 reminds us, \u201cevery creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it.\u201d Follow all these rules for Jubilee, Deuteronomy says, and there will be no such thing as poverty<\/em>:<\/p>\n

There will, however, be no one in need among you, because the\u00a0Lord\u00a0is sure to bless you in the land that the\u00a0Lord\u00a0your God is giving you as a possession to occupy,\u00a0if only you will obey the\u00a0Lord\u00a0your God by diligently observing this entire commandment that I command you today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Got it? Obey the rules, Deuteronomy says, and no one will be poor. So if anyone is poor, it\u2019s because you\u2019re disobedient<\/em>. That\u2019s implicit in the verse above, but Deuteronomy makes it explicit in the verses that follow:<\/p>\n

If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the\u00a0Lord\u00a0your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbor.\u00a0You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be.\u00a0Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, \u201cThe seventh year, the year of remission, is near,\u201d and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the\u00a0Lord\u00a0against you, and you would incur guilt. Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account theLord\u00a0your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake.\u00a0Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, \u201cOpen your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That<\/em> is the context for Jesus remark in the Gospels. \u201cFor you always have the poor with you\u201d is Jesus\u2019 direct quotation of Deuteronomy 15:11, \u201cSince there will never cease to be some in need on the earth.\u201d<\/p>\n

That statement is followed by a \u201ctherefore\u201d \u2014 \u201cI therefore<\/em> command you, \u2018Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor.'\u201d In reciting the first part, Jesus was invoking the second, the \u201ctherefore.\u201d He didn\u2019t need to recite all of Deuteronomy 15 for his disciples because he knew that they, unlike American Christians like Rep. Stephen Fincher, were not biblically illiterate.<\/p>\n

For Jesus, it was impossible to cite the first part without reinforcing the second part. The two are inextricably linked \u2014 hence that \u201cFor ..\u201d and \u201cSince \u2026\u201d in our English translations. People like Fincher who invoke the first part as a denial<\/em> of the second part are mangling the Bible in obscenely perverse ways, turning Jesus\u2019 words into their opposite and turning Christ into antichrist.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss the rebuke there in Deuteronomy 15. That\u2019s the key point here \u2014 it\u2019s why Jesus chose to quote this particular passage, applying its rebuke to Judas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf only you will obey the\u00a0Lord\u00a0your God,\u201d Deuteronomy 15 says, there will be no one in need. And then, six verses later, \u201cSince there will never cease to be some in need \u2026\u201d\u00a0Ouch<\/em>. That passage just comes right out and says \u201cyou\u2019re all a bunch of disobedient disobeyers who will never cease to disobey disobediently.\u201d And in the context of the Pentateuch, that\u2019s not good. (Do you know what Deuteronomy says should happen to the disobedient? It isn\u2019t pretty.) In that context, that\u2019s far harsher than anything Southern Beale had to say to Rep. Fincher.<\/p>\n

Whenever you hear some blowhard quoting \u201cthe poor will always be with you\u201d in the backwards, antichrist way that Fincher invoked it, there really is nothing more true, more appropriate, or more necessary to be said than just exactly what Southern Beale wrote: \u201cYou are a horrible person who uses the Bible to selectively justify your greedy, selfish ways. Woe unto you.\u201d<\/p>\n

And \u201cRepent, asshole,\u201d is actually charitable \u2014 an extension of mercy, offering Fincher, et. al.,<\/em> a last-gasp shot at escaping their otherwise certain fate of \u201cYou are accursed, depart from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not possible to avoid upsetting the perpetually upset Civility Police, but I\u2019ll try not to give them an excuse to utter their well-rehearsed gasps here by avoiding S.B.\u2019s salty language. Instead, I\u2019ll just stick with quoting the G-rated, but far harsher, language of Deuteronomy:<\/p>\n

Rep. Stephen Fincher,\u00a0be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought \u2026 and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the\u00a0Lord\u00a0against you, and you would incur guilt.<\/p>\n

You would incur guilt. You have<\/em> incurred guilt. You are incurring guilt.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rep. Stephen Fincher, Republican of Tennessee, be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought … and therefore view your needy neighbor with hostility and give nothing; your neighbor might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[11,58,40,27],"class_list":["post-15594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-class-warfare","tag-bible","tag-greed","tag-jubilee","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nDives will always be with us -- and so will selfish rich jackwagons who misquote the Bible<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rep. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dives will always be with us -- and so will selfish rich jackwagons who misquote the Bible","description":"Rep. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15594\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}