Christian charity and helping the poor, destitute and starving temporarily to get to a point of self-sufficiency is not equivalent to communism or evil. Showing compassion for people and helping them out of a hole or a bad situation not entirely of their making is not communistic or evil. Neither is a willingness to share one's good fortune with neighbors and loved ones.
Communism is a diabolical counterfeit that the devil tries to equate with Christianity. What you don't understand is the difference between the two. Christianity allows the earner/worker to decide when and if to give away his earnings. Communism dictates how much the earner will give up rather than encouraging him to become more Christlike and do good works of his own volition. It removes the direct relationship and contact between the giver and the receiver and replaces it with a far away dictator, thus robbing the giver of his chance to give freely and become more Christlike and blinding the taker (who often becomes a swindler) of seeing the real sacrifices of time and suffering of people just like him that were required to atone for his irresponsible decisions or misfortune. Without real human contact and free will between the giver and the receiver, communism like all of Satan's appealing counterfeit plans of happiness, makes the situation worse not better. Even though communism has been tried many times and failed, even though the democratic socialism, the scamdemic, and the green new scam, it can be proven right now to have significantly reduced the standard of living of the American worker. And yet astonishingly enough it's still appealing enough as pedaled by the mainstream media for half the country to say, this time it will be different. This time communism will work. Even though his plan would never have worked, Satan's plan was appealing enough that 1/3 of the entire host of heaven followed it to their own eternal misery.
Besides that, if you think providing welfare assistance to the genuinely needy, especially because of circumstances not entirely their fault is evil, isn't it even more evil to provide gargantuan subsidies (corporate welfare) to selfish individuals who are already immensely wealthy and powerful and have no need of government assistance, while refusing to help the needy and helpless?
We have corporate subsidies to lift all boats and grow the economy. If we don't, those jobs go elsewhere. When you do those kind of things you get an economy like we had in 2019. When you get your way, we get an economy like we have now. If you get your way for another four years, you very well might crash the stock market, blow out the bond market, have to bail out Wall Street, and further shackle the American taxpayer with permanently unpayable debt.
At least you're not telling me that we should cut all military spending in favor of welfare spending anymore. Unfortunately your foreign policy has led to idiotic outcomes like paying money to both Israel and Hamas in the current middle east conflict? Just a quick question, how is that putting the interests of the American taxpayer first?
As I have often said before, conservatives are not actually opposed to re-distribution of wealth per se. They are only opposed to reversing the current direction of that re-distribution from the poorest classes of society to the wealthiest and greediest!
We believe in equality of opportunity. You believe in equality of result.
Showing compassion for and willingness to help the less fortunate is what Christ, himself, requires of us.
Nobody who is forced upon penalty of imprisonment to sign over their paycheck to the government is willingly showing compassion to help the less fortunate. And the fact is that most people voting for increased taxes are doing so under the false belief that these taxes will be imposed only upon people wealthier than themselves. That's right, they're being generous with someone else's earnings, not their own. What's Christlike about that? That's definitely not what Jesus would do.
Gunnar I do see you as a kind of Jimmy Carter like figure. I believe Jimmy Carter was a good man. But his policies led to very bad outcomes for the American people. Unlike Biden, Pelosi, Maxine Waters, Harry Reid and the uber wealthy political elite, Jimmy did believe in sacrificing his own fortune and lifestyle to help others in a Christlike way. He did it of his own volition, not because somebody raised his taxes. I suspect that you unlike most Democrats would pay more to charity without being compelled to do so. But you need to learn to respect people's agency. Just as I don't force you to attend Sacrament meeting at gunpoint or pay your tithing and a generous fast offering, so you need to respect the right to private property of all US Citizens, or this is no more a land that can promise freedom and liberty.
It is not just an evil, communist plot! If Christ really came back and tried to present his teachings to congress, Conservatives would immediately throw him out!
When Christ comes back He will rule as King of the World. And I will joyfully serve Him with all my heart, might, mind, and strength, not because some deep state elite forces me to, but because I know that the Lord's way is not just for the happiness of other people, but my personal eternal happiness as well. He put on me on this earth with the freedom to figure this out through his holy spirit and choose of my own free will to earn a testimony of His gospel and do this. It is Satan and the Democrat party who seek to take this freedom and opportunity away from us.
I could even see a United Order working in a Terrestrial society. But this earth is living at a Telestial law, and often times worse than that. Hunger is a necessary motivator for most people to get up in the morning and go to work, especially drug addicts. The Mosaic law is where we're at. Private property and capitalism is what has resulted in the greater good. Communism (even if it's done with the best of intentions) leads to Cuba, Venezeula, Vietnam, North Korea, and Russia. That's not the greater good for most people.
And when the Confederates saw Jackson standing fearless like a stonewall, the army of Northern Virginia took courage and drove the federal army off their land.
