[A]ccording to Ken Blackwell, who is the Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment at the conservative Christian lobbying group, Family Research Council, programs like food stamps prevented people from being truly empowered.
"I think through empowering others and creating self-sufficiency—there within lies the path to sense of worthiness," Blackwell told CP. "When I was growing up, there was fundamental belief, that there were times in people's life when they needed a hand up—there were temporariness to hose programs, where they were structured so that they didn't breed so that they didn't breed dependency."
Blackwell also suggested that there was "nothing more Christian" than "not locking people into a permanent dependency on government handouts, but making sure they are participants in their own upliftment and empowerment so that they in fact through the dignity of work and can break from the plantation of big government."
32 comments
Like Jesus said:
"Fuck you, I got mine!"
And how empowering is the outsourcing of jobs to increase corporate profits? I'll give you a hint: it isn't, not at all, not even when the executives who order it and the politicians who make it easy for them really hate abortion and beat the drum of "traditional Christian values."
there were times in people's life when they needed a hand up
There still are, but you keep swatting the hands away.
there was "nothing more Christian" than "not locking people into a permanent dependency on government handouts
There seems to be nothing more Christian than completely ignoring what Christ taught in the bible about helping the poor.
Well, see, I'd help you out, but I'd not be helping you. By not helping you, I'm actually helping you.
Food stamps, abortions, welfare and on and on and on. You don't like them, you don't have to take them. Really.
Oh, and two things about food stamps. First, my dad used to talk about some of the recruits they used to get in World War II. Some were emaciated, after coming through the Depression and no food for days on end; and others had a variety of illness all due to malnutrition. The Army gave them the first 3 squares they had ever seen. You want to take away food stamps, fine. Just get ready for people starving on the streeets and the big-time return of Kwashiorkor, Marasmus, tuberculosis, scurvy and rickets.
Oh, and do you know who manages the food stamp program? The Department of Agriculture, because one of its key purposes to support agriculture in this country. You notice there hasn't been a agricultre depression in the US in a long time? Food stamps and some other preventative measures did that.
And if you can't create self-sufficiency on your own then you get to die a dignified death, apparently. It's what any decent humanitarian would want.
These people do not even support "temporary programs," at all. They're fine with providing people with nothing.
I remember how Jesus said
"not locking people into a permanent dependency on government handouts,"
Which is why you go out of your way to make sure that the poor are highly educated and given opportunities to advance economically, right? You know, making sure that it is possible to begin with to 'pull themselves up by their own bootstraps'. Oh wait, that's right, actually you do the exact opposite.
That's all bullshit when you have a system that encourages and needs unemployment, and that, as it becomes more deregulated, creates more unemployment.
Malnutrition and hunger fosters disease, impaired development, and discontent, not empowerment. Education, self-esteem and acheivement fosters empowerment and self-sufficiency.
Fuck you, Ken. A social safety net is not SLAVERY you disingenuous scumbag.
eta: Nobody else picked up on him using the word "plantation"? The implication is deliberate.
Oh yeah, people instructing his followers to...........wait, what?, giving to the poor?. According to you, there must be a mistake.
@ #1592537
I agree. There's an obvious dog-whistle in this one!
Just admit it, Blackheart; What you want to say is, "I don't like them lazy-ass niggers!"
Anyway, even without the ethnibigoted implications, your statement is still stupid. Sure, "Teaching a person to fish" is a great concept but "Giving a person a fish" in the mean-time is still noble.
You obviously are not following Jesus. You and your ilk follow a weirdo, Bizarroworld Jesus, not the real Jesus!
You follow "Another Jesus", you follow "GOP Jesus"...you follow "Fundie Inquisition/Witch-Hunter Jesus" also known as ANTICHRIST!
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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