Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God. (Hebrews 13:16)
Do good, share what you have, such sacrifices are pleasing to God, the Bible says. Yet, it seems that this verse is nowhere to be found in Evangelical Bibles. Oh, the verse is there, but it is marginalized, reinterpreted, or dismissed. Many Evangelicals live as if this verse doesn’t exist. Their right-wing political beliefs and overwhelming support of Donald Trump suggest that Evangelicals aren’t that interested in nor do they care about the least of these; those different from them. Six weeks out of each year, Evangelicals will “show” they care about the poor by handing out food baskets and gift certificates, but the other forty-six weeks of the year? Evangelicals support Republican politicians and policies that materially harm the sick, poor, and marginalized. They might even operate food pantries and clothing rooms a day or two for a few hours each month. The rest of the time, the needy are expected to figure things out for themselves, even if it means letting their children go hungry or do without.
Faith without works [do good, share what you have] is dead. (James 2:17)
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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I remember over a decade ago, when Obama was president, there was a push to keep (or expand?) SNAP. I had a discussion with Christians who said that WE, the people were not responsible for all the hungry kids. They just don’t GAF.
Yes, I can hear some of your evangelical detractors now, and I have a good guess what they’ll say, especially if they have a Calvinistic bent- “Bruce is advocating a ‘works based salvation’. It’s almost a mantra. No “works based salvation!”. Most of the time they point to “justification by faith not by works of the law”. So they totally ignore the Gospel teachings about how followers will be judged by what they either did or did not “for the least of these”.
I read somewhere (don’t know if it is true) that Martin Luther originally wanted remove the Book of James from his Bible due to verse you quoted.
With the modern GOP, and white US evangelicals (basically a Venn diagram of 2 circles to nearlyexclusively overlap), cruelty is the point. Oh sure, white evangelicals will hand out a few bags of toys and pantry canned goods to people the rest of the year they say should “pull themselves up by their boot straps and work harder”. They act like they view people in need as inferior. Of course, that goes along with their prosperity gospel BS, that God blesses the faithful so if you’re poor, you’re just not Jesus Jesusing correctly.
Hey Obstaclechick, I’m stealing “you’re just not Jesus Jesusing correctly.” 🙂
Nice, John! Feel free to use it as much as possible!
Yes, there’s a disconnect with what an evangelical should do, versus what they do. Helping the homeless and hungry are one thing, but they’re WAY shy of the more important issue. In the words of Penn Tiller, “If you believe someone is about to be hit by a truck, you should tackle them. Why aren’t Christians on street corners screaming about Jesus to stop people from going to hell?”
I came out of the word of faith/prosperity type church. The interesting thing is that many of the people I knew, me included, were pretty poor. None of us made much money at all (especially those of us who worked for the ministry) and we were giving 10%-20% to the church and expecting God to make up the difference somehow. Pretty gross stuff. And, if it wasn’t working (which is wasn’t!), like Obstaclechick put it so well, we just weren’t Jesusing enough. It was always our fault, not god’s. Our church was pretty big and had a food pantry and clothing center. But to be able to get help, you had to be a member in regular attendance, AND you had to be tithing. And they kept strict records of that. If you didn’t meet the criteria, no help for you. How fucked up is that? We didn’t have enough money to eat decently, but to get help, we had to give at least 10% of what we did earn to the church. Well shit. If I’d kept the 10%, I could have eaten better! The brain washing was very impressive at this church. To no one’s surprise, years later when I quit giving money to the church, I was able to get out of debt, have some in savings, and help people in need. No god or church involved.
Hi Bruce. Thank you for your much needed attention to this subject. There is great personal need out there all year round—-not just on holidays. I hope Christian Fundamentalists and Conservative Evangelicals will abandon their so-called “Anointed One of the Lord” (a.k.a. Donald J. Trump) and donate food clothing, and whatever else is needed to the “least of these.” But I ain’t holding my breath waiting for it. I am still just amazed at how utterly and totally Trump has deceived these people.
Well said.
Over and over again the Bible talks about covetousness and greed VERSUS love of neighbor. Idolatry always added up to lack of love for neighbor. Just like today.