Answering, "Voting for neither candidate of a major
political party is going to bring us closer to God."
Ramesh C. Reddy
Pittsburgh Standard
PART V:
What about the poor and needy and who
will care for them?
One party wants us to believe that they are the party of
the poor and the other party is the party of the rich.
If we ask ourselves honestly, have we seen any party
eradicate poverty or has poverty remained regardless of who has been
president, we will have the answer.
Jesus talked about helping the poor a lot. Throughout
Biblical scripture there are at least 179 verses regarding the poor.
Majority of them deal with the call of God’s people to help out the
poor. It is the responsibility of those who have to help those who have
not. It is the responsibility of individuals and religious institutions
to look after the poor. To blame poverty on one party is distressing but
that is what many want us to believe. The poor are not dying in
staggering numbers as the unborn are.
Biblical Scripture states, “If one
of your countrymen becomes poor and is unable to support himself among
you, help him as you would an alien or a temporary resident, so he can
continue to live among you.” (Leviticus 25:35)
It is up to us to take care of the poor around us and
this verse commands us to take care of the poor. When we are so
concerned about the poor and act on that concern we can make a
difference. In the larger picture, it would not matter who the president
will be when it comes to poverty. The person who is elected president
does not always have control to change the poverty rate.
Biblical scripture states,
“However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD
your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly
bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to
follow all these commands I am giving you today. For the LORD your God
will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but
will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will
rule over you. (Deuteronomy 15:4-6)
But, mankind has not fully obeyed the Lord and followed
His commands and therefore poverty has become a consequence of man’s
disobedience and selfishness.
“There will always be poor people in the
land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and
toward the poor and needy in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11)
It has not changed now! Sometimes poverty is because of
the way people decide to live but that does not mean poverty is always a
person’s own fault but some times it is.
“Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent
hands bring wealth.” (Proverbs 10:4)
“He who loves pleasure will become poor;
whoever loves wine and oil will never be rich.” (Proverbs 21:17)
“Do not love sleep or you will grow poor;
stay awake and you will have food to spare.” (Proverbs 20:13)
An interaction between the disciples and Jesus made such
an impact on me because of what it made me think about.
Biblical scripture says, “A woman
came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she
poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples
saw this, they were indignant. "Why this waste?" they asked. "This
perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the
poor." Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this
woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always
have with you, but you will not always have me.” (Matthew 26:7-11)
Regardless of what candidate becomes president, the poor
will always be there for us to help. But, the unborn won’t be there if
we do not help them by choosing a candidate who is opposed to abortion.
Whatever issues I have looked at, the killing of the
unborn and gay marriage has been forefront even over gun control and the
plight of the poor. This however does not mean I do not care for gun
control or the poor. People can make more of an impact in poor people’s
lives than those who are seeking an abortion. When people are poor, they
are willing to receive help from anyone who is willing to help. There is
not a law against that.
When it comes to abortion and someone wants to get an
abortion, they will seek that abortion unless there are laws to prevent
it. Even if people try to convince them not to get an abortion, it does
not always work unless there is a law against it.
The candidates we vote for will not be perfect but that
does not mean they do not deserve our vote. If we do not vote, others
will vote and put candidates in office that will not be against
abortion, gay marriage, etc.
When it comes to the poor, the candidate who opposes
abortion and Gay Marriage stated, “it's important to strengthen our
communities by unleashing the compassion of America's religious
institutions. Religious charities of every creed are doing some of the
most vital work in our country: mentoring children, feeding the hungry,
taking the hand of the lonely. Yet government has often denied
social-service grants and contracts to these groups just because they
have a cross or a Star of David or a crescent on the wall. By executive
order, I have opened billions of dollars in grant money to competition
that includes faith-based charities. Tonight I ask you to codify this
into law so people of faith can know that the law will never
discriminate against them again” during an address to the joint session
of Congress.
Sadly, poverty has occurred because of job losses, low
income wages, and what happened on 9-11 but there are programs out there
to help those who are poor but there are no programs out there for an
unborn baby that wants to live if the women goes to get an abortion.
That bothers me a lot!
If we decide not to vote for the
candidate who is going to be against abortion, have we given our ‘yes’
for the slaughter of the unborn?
I believe we do and as stated before I believe when we
handle controversial moral issues such as abortion and gay marriage,
other issues will fall into place. No one is against helping the poor
and they will be helped. We can make that difference!
If you had to choose to live in poverty
or choose for millions of lives to be saved from being slaughtered, what
would you choose?
I feel so strongly about saving innocent lives that
cannot defend themselves, so in faith I am going to cast my vote for the
candidate who opposes abortion and pray all other issues will fall into
place.
I am hoping you will join the cause, at the same time,
not forgetting to help the poor as we are able.
May we make our vote count through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Amen!
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