In the New York Times‘ article on the Glenn Beck rally, among the infuriating descriptions of Beck and Palin’s calls for America to “turn back to God,” there’s this lovely bit from a woman named Becky Benson from Orlando, explaining why she was there:

“…We believe in Jesus Christ, and he is our savior.” Jesus, she said, would not have agreed with what she called the redistribution of wealth in the form of the economic stimulus package, bank bailouts and welfare. “You cannot sit and expect someone to hand out to you,” she said.

Now, I’m no religious scholar, and I guarantee Becky’s been to church a hell of a lot more than I have, but, let’s see.. Ah, yes, here it is. Mark 10:17-31:

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”

“Children, how hard is it for those who trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God.“

Maybe Becky is thinking of a different Jesus.

Anthony Hecht is The Stranger's Chief Technology Officer. He owns no monkeys.

81 replies on “Eye of the Needle”

  1. http://tinyurl.com/28ezzrv
    Des Moines Police Fear Fair Fights Are Race Related

    By James Swierzbin, ABC 5 News Reporter

    Two Des Moines Police officers were injured and five people were arrested, after yet another fight near the State Fairgrounds, on Sunday. And now police are looking to see if race, may have played a part in all of it.

    This was the third time large groups of young black people were seen assaulting individuals in and around the fair. The first incident happened at the end of the Fair’s Eastsider Night, and the second was on Friday.

    Police say that on Friday a white man was viciously assaulted by a group of black males and females. An attack that police think may have been race related.

    Sgt. Lori Lavorato said today that, “…the police report, it states that a group of black males and females, were out at the fair yelling that (quote) ‘It’s beat whitey night.'”

    Sunday’s assaults weren’t quite as serious, but involved forty-person deep crowds, tangling with both each other, and police officers trying to break things up.

    Several Des Moines Police officers tried to break up the fights after they started at around 10pm. According to one of the police reports, a large portion of the fighting involved “…a large fight with black male and female juveniles assaulting white citizens.” 

    During that effort, two white officers were hit in the head from behind, while trying to make arrests. One officer had to use a stun gun to get control of the situation, and eventually chemical sprays were also used on the crowd, to get things under control.

    Given the racial make-up of the crowd last night, Des Moines police believe that these latest attacks may also be racially motivated.

    “We have reports that these juveniles were attempting to assault white citizens,” said Sgt. Lavorato, “you know it’s all under investigation at this point, whether or not this has racial overtones or not, we are looking into that.”

  3. @21… I don’t know what misunderstanding you saw. Virgin Birth is a large term that also incorporates conception as well as the act of birthing ( or here virgo intacta).

    Rational people don’t believe in magic so the larger point remains the same however — absurdity in basic held beliefs can only produce crazy actions.

  4. lady, it ain’t welfare that’s ‘destroying liberty’. it’s the Finance Industry, the ones that inflated the bubble and burst it, and the MIC, the same one that killed your nephew in iraq. you just look where the demagogues point.

    YOU DUMB CRACKERS. WTFU.

  5. @48: One half of Americans are poor enough that the charity they receive in the form of tax credits is greater than or equal to the amount they are expected to pay in taxes. It’s not that they don’t pay taxes; it’s that the amount they are given meet or exceeds the amount they pay.
    And I like the use of the phrase “Qunited States of Gaymerica”. Trust me; if we WERE collectively that gay, we’d all have better fashion sense.
    Also, get the fuck off the Internet.
    @51: Yeah, like there are no racially motivated mob beatings of black people…you’d better get your cracker ass out of my Interwebs too.

  6. @53 I think that’s true in layman’s terms, but not so much for academic circles. Virgin Birth has a specific meaning to theologans, scholars, etc. That’s why I mentioned it. It’s one of those common misconceptions (no pun) that’s so often repeated it becomes something else.

  7. There is a bit of a contradiction in the idea that the government should enforce some Christian principles (same sex marriage) and not enforce others (charity). I suppose the argument is that the gov can effectively administer the former, but not the latter. Still, it is interesting the ways in which some Christians believe the gov should limit ones ability to choose to do what’s “right” in some cases , but not in others.

  8. If the Jewish Antiquities, the Jewish Wars by Josephus and other documents are to be believed then there indeed was a Jesus. And, the historical Jesus had a large following of disenfranchised peasants who had lost the livelihood due to extreme taxation by the Roman government. The historical Jesus protested the collusion of the government with the Temple. The events around 6 CE led to the Roman government assigning the role of government administration to the Temple and its authorities. The Temple became the center of local collaboration with Rome. And in doing so the Temple’s leadership became linked with economic exploitation and religious legitimation. According to historical records thousands of people were crucified around Jerusalem in the first century alone, including mass crucifixions. Unlike the Persians and the Carthaginians, the Roman government used crucifixion on the lower class. Crucifixion was allegedly popular as a deterrent because in addition to the other forms of torture associated with it, being publically flogged in the nude, it represented the victims uttermost humiliation… Victims of crucifixion were quite often not buried. The victims remains served as food for wild beasts, scavenger dogs, and birds of prey. The victims humiliation was made complete, because in antiquity to be refused burial, and the dishonor which went with it was supreme humiliation. Jesus is listed as a one who was executed by Roman crucifixion for terrorism against Rome and to deter resistence and revolt amongst his wandering, most homeless, impoverished followers.

  9. @47 – What @58 said. There aren’t any contemporaneous accounts, so it’s certainly possible (though unlikely) the stories were made up out of whole cloth, but the vast majority of scholars (historical scholars) agree that Jesus probably did exist. What he said and what he did are much less certain.

  10. 55

    Tax credits are only considered “charity” in the HomoLiberal Socialist Theocracy.

    Brush up on your English, slick;
    and your Math-

    It is that they don’t pay taxes…..

  11. Jesus, she said, would not have agreed with what she called the redistribution of wealth in the form of the economic stimulus package, bank bailouts and welfare. “You cannot sit and expect someone to hand out to you,” she said.

    Whether he was a real person or not, the Jesus in the Bible, likely would not be in favor of wealth redistribution to the rich but almost certainly would be in favor of wealth redistribution to the poor.

    I don’t know what the Qur’an says about wealth and poverty. I just did a quick Google search and, at one link the writer says: “As far as the division of wealth and Muhammad’s poverty, one of the fundamental messages of the Qur’an is the emphasis on material welfare and the entire community’s responsibility for the material welfare of all its members.“

    I think one of the broad differences between liberals and conservatives is how they feel about the “undeserving” vs. “deserving” poor. I think that most conservatives probably don’t have a problem with providing financial assistance to poor people who make an effort to better their situation because they “deserve” help. But I think they differ from liberals in how they view the “undeserving” poor, poor people they perceive as making little-to-no effort at improving their situation.

  12. @56 — I went to seminary so I know what I am talking about, and I don’t know your background. But thanks for your thoughts any way.

  15. Hecht @ 39: You are shifting the goal-posts by making the argument about all the policies of “Glenn Beck, the tea party, and their ilk” rathar than the specific question of government taxation and redistribution with which you began.

    Don’t be so sure that Jesus would support either Beck’s or progressives’ tax policies. First, he had a bit of Zen master in him; he loved to react opposite to expectations. Remember John 12, where his disciples suggest selling expensive perfume and giving the proceeds to the poor, and Jesus insists on keeping it for his own benefit. Second, he was a lot more hellfire-and-brimstore than your progressive vision. Remember, this guy believed in human sacrifice to assuage the blood libel of original sin. He was not going to become a Unitarian. Third, at least in the protestant tradition, Christianity is explicitly about personal acts and thoughts, not a relationship to the state. That’s what the “render unto Caeser” line is usually taken to mean. Finally, whatever Jesus might have thought about the proper direction for tax policy in the year zero, when the state took less than 5% of GDP and spent almost none of its take on the poor, it’s not at all clear what that says about the proper direction for tax policy when the state takes more than 30% of GDP and spends maybe a tenth of its take on the poor.

    If you are interested in a Christian tradition which emphasizes collective actions, look into Catholicism. You’ll find the church does support more state redistribution, but I expect you won’t like some other state policies they find grounds for in their religion.

  16. @ 65 – Enh, I think it’s less about “Jesus would support my policies over yours” and more about pointing out that wealthy conservatives really ought to spend less time worrying about anyone else’s eternal fate, and more time worrying about their own.

  18. David Wright,

    It may or may interest you to know that the early church fathers, including Augustine, DID NOT teach that Jesus died for the sins of the world. Anslem Archbishop of Cantebury introduced the Theory of Substitution back in 1000s and the protestant reformers during the Reformation (1600s) for the Doctrine of Penal Substitution. So it may be that Jesus did not believe that human sacrifice was required to assuage the blood libel of original sin. Since, the first 1000 years of the church taught the Ransom or Classic Theory, basically Jesus as God fooled Satan and set Gods people free from Hades by allowing himself to be “killed”. And, the “predictions” of his death were his discussing the reality, as it would be unlikely that he was not aware of the thousands who had been crucified by Rome for claims of terrorism. Just some food for thought?

  20. Mis-translation folks: The camel kneeling gate is a silly one. A *much* easier story to swallow is that there was a screwup translating from Aramaic into Greek; the Aramaic word for “rope” and “camel” are spelled the same.

    Wiki “eye of a needle”.

    Still means rich people are generally going to hell.

  21. Al Franken’s “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them” included a comic book segment called “The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus.” Supply Side Jesus spouts teachings that could have come from Ayn Rand, refuses to heal the lepers because that will kill the incentive to avoid leprosy, and then tells the people that the way into Heaven is to give God money “through his only son. Me. Supply Side Jesus.” When he gets arrested and Pilate calls him out on his hucksterism, he bribes a mob twenty shekels each to get himself released on Passover in lieu of the REAL Jesus and then goes on to run for Senate in Rome, promising in his campaign speeches that tax cuts will double revenues.

    Perhaps Becky was thinking of him.

  24. Kim @ 68-69: Thanks, that was interesting. After reading your post, I found more information in the Wikipedia article on “Penal Substitution”.

  25. The way I’ve always understood the passage is however it can be interpreted so that I don’t have to pay as much money to the government. I gots to have my money! Jesus wouldn’t have it any other way!

  27. @58. I don’t think what is thought of as the ‘original manuscript’ of the The Jewish Wars ever references Jesus. There is one Greek manuscript that slips in a passage from
    the oft-disputed Testimonium Flavium (from the Jewish Antiquities, written 20 years later) that’s thought to be one of many later additions as the text migrated from its source.

    The sections believed to be authentic from the Jewish Antiquities suggest that there was a guy named Jesus who caused trouble at one point and that he had a brother named James the Just who was stoned to death. Of course it’s written 60+ years after the ‘death’ of Jesus at which point Josephus is in his mid-50s. I.e. Josephus is delivering hearsay, not an eyewitness account.

    Josephus was a shady character himself, as one of two survivors of a 40-man ‘Roman Roulette’ and then later as the Roman’s chief PR source on their Jewish Problem, a Lord Haw Haw of his time.

  28. Thanks, dirge. I do know all that, but it does require repeating and that Josephus gives different accounts of the same period as well. It also requires repeating that the canonized Gospels are very likely heresay as well, especially with evidence provided from reconstuction of the “Q”, and no two letters of Paul are the same or original (200 CE) were used as texts considered for canonization in the Bible. Evidence of interpolations as well. It is all a mystery, as religion often is. Still, I believe there is a consensus amongst historical scholars that there was a Jesus.

  29. @60: Not all tax credits are charity. However, plenty of tax-credit programs are designed to give a financial boost to low-earning families, generally for the purposes of helping them raise their children properly. And here’s the definition of charity: “The giving of help to those in need who are not related to the giver.”
    By that definition, government assistance to the needy IS ABSOLUTELY charity. If you disagree, you are clearly the one who needs to work on his English skills.
    (Your chosen name, by the way, is somewhat ironic, given that I skipped 5th grade and went directly from 4th to 6th. Also, do not try to compete mathematically with me; I will own your soul in that regard.)

  30. @61 Whether they work for it or not, no one deserves to live on the street or not be able to feed themselves. That’s the difference.

  31. You got it- these people are so disgusting that amongst other things they’re bastardizing Christianity and the spirit of Jesus Christ, thereby threatening it way more than any muslim, secular-humanist, buddhist, atheist, agnostic, satanist can.

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