Ah its been a while. I forgot how seriously some Dopers take themselves and this silly place.
Necessitate a pitting? Really? Are there some things that *necessitate *the use of a Pit thread?
The same thing happened when I told someone this weekend on Facebook I wouldn’t sign their petition over this drug testing for welfare recipients. Most of the replies were from people bitching about crackheads using their hard earned taxes to stay high.
I’m almost positive most of those people get a huge chunk of EIC money every year and at the very least smoke out at parties, but heavens forbid a person on welfare (or food stamps such as myself) smoke a little weed alongside them.
It pisses me off too.
The observation has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of drug testing welfare recipients and is clearly meant as a catty remark about people on assistance. I don’t know why this isn’t more obvious.
I had hoped that in the age of the Trillion Dollar+ bailouts the “great evil scheming welfare mother who’s sending our country to hell” would be forgotten- in fact, maybe there’d even be some nostalgia for her since after all her buying T-bones with food stamps and spending welfare checks on 52" flat screens and somehow making WIC formula into meth might stimulate the economy. But nope, she’s just evolved into a tack on.
I’d love to take people like “The Church Lady” in the OP and introduce them to some of these “evil” scheming women and let her see the whole “Life of Reilly” they’re enjoying. I recently overheard somebody talking about a welfare mother with ten asthmatic children who consequently got almost $10,000 per month from the government for them. I so wanted to leap into that conversation but… it’s like taking a toothbrush and a bottle of Pinesol to clean up a slaughterhouse: where do you start, and why bother?
I see that the Octomom is making six figures an episode.
I bet she’ll watch the octomom show, just to be sure in her hypocrisy, and have something to kibbitz about.
Ha, nice.
Except that wasn’t the argument. The argument was that those pushing a Christian perspective should display some circumspection before pretending that their morality comes from up high, when the biblical basis of such assertions is weak to the point of being pathetic.
Of course they can oppose abortion. They just shouldn’t do it as representatives of Christianity.
Topicality: Take another look at the title of the thread. It’s about hypocrisy. I provided two examples. Let’s face it: the reason fundis go on and on about homosexuality is that it’s a high profile “sin” that 90%+ have no inclination to do. Convenient that, eh?
I honestly can’t say for certain whether this is the case because of my spotty knowledge of ancient history. But that’s my impression as well. I’m sympathetic to attempts to honestly track and compare moral developments with the emergence of Christianity and various Axial Age religions. The point here is not to disparage Christianity as such: like I said the NT is jam-packed with a number of blistering attacks on those whose morality is more concerned with codes than compassion.
Attacks on abortion in contrast were a 19th century development.
and of course there are no Self righteous, hypocritical Muslims, or Jews, or Hindus, or even practitioners of various African tribal religions and/or others.:dubious: Just Christians.:rolleyes:
Well um no. But those other religions don’t put such an emphasis on hypocricy in their holy texts. Just saying.
Personally, I think hypocricy is a somewhat over-rated vice, just as prudence, precision and humility are underrated virtues.
I don’t understand the point of this post. To call out hypocritical Christians is not a commentary on any other religion whatsoever.
Agreed. Christians should not be hypocrites (Measure for Measure is dead right there) and it’s no defence to say “Well, X, Y and Z do it too!”. When a poster has a story of, say, a hypocritical Jew, then perhaps it will be time to say “Fie upon Jewish hypocrites”, but that’s not what we’re talking about now.
Still, I think it’s possible to be a passably good Christian, possibly one who donates generously on the quiet (as Christians are supposed to do) and still be honestly concerned about people who game the welfare system. It’s also possible to be completely wrong about gaming the welfare system, without being a hypocrite. Too few facts.
It seems to me that the ones in this story who are really gaming the welfare system are the fathers of these children. Why do people get so angry with the mothers who are actually taking care of the babies and not even comment on the absent fathers? It is his baby. He is using the welfare system.
Those who want to take away Medicare and Medicaid – what are you going to do with all of the sick and dying old people? Just let them rot in the streets? Some of them have no family at all.
I know a man who served in the South Pacific during WWII. His wife died of MS. His son died without any children. Then his sister died. He has no one left and he is in his ninties. He is in a wheelchair in a nursing home – this man who used to be a pilot. And you want to take away his medicine and his room?
I don’t know how to begin to think of people who say things like that. What kind of festering cesspool of a mind would someone have to have to be capable of thinking that? It’s just bone ignorant. That’s a different kind of brain.
I don’t think I knew there were people like that until I got on the Dope. Is it just that they are very young and don’t realize what they are saying? Are they just dumb and clueless?
Are there that many sociopaths out there? Do they not ever love people?
And as a Christian, I am required to forgive and love these pieces of cold stone. This is getting hard.
There exists a certain brand of Christianity (the prosperity gospel) that the more material wealth you have, the more blessed you are by God (that material wealth is an indicator of your standing with God, because God gives material wealth to those He loves). The basis of this is in the Old Testament; but it’s kind of strange that they retain the rewards of the Old Testament promises but does not practice the rigid rules within.
…anyway, this may be the reason why the OP’s lady is reacting in such a way. “They are poor, therefore, they are not blessed by God”. Perhaps.
People do comment on the Fathers.
I can understand why you stopped reading there. If you admitted to reading on, you’d be forced to admit that the OP hasn’t been attacked for being a Christian(except by a single pitbull poster who everyone regards as a resident crazy anyway). And that would upset your ability to wallow in self pity at the gross anti-Christian-ness of this place.
I do. Now look *over there *at those awful thieves while I help myself to your wallet.
They did beautiful cabinet work but had to contract out the tile and stone.