I saw a post the other day purporting to describe the steps a person can take to legally subsist on $75,000 in welfare benefits each year. #1, this is patently false, incorrect, illegal, and impossible. The post, called "The New American Way of Life," is debunked by Snopes here. (http://www.snopes.com/new-american-way-life/)
Several things trouble me about these kinds of posts being thrown around the Internet by angry Christians. For one, very few take the time to verify the accuracy or authenticity of what's being said. They just see it and get angry because it confirms their biases. What I find particularly problematic when we're dealing with professed Christians is when they are angry at the poor, perhaps for using social programs, being unable to work escape poverty through sheer hard work & bootstrap-pulling (despite propaganda by the more fortunate that says they can), not being able to magically change their luck/fortune, AND apparently for not being the right type of poor to receive benefits, like the sad little orphans on TV, but rather ones that do distasteful things and to whom they wouldn't wish to donate their money.
Unfortunately, we don't get to choose who the poor are. When Jesus implores us to care for the poor and talks about loving the unlovable more than he talks of anything else, this is what he means. So, even if people were taking advantage of social programs in that way, what would (did) Jesus ask us to do? You know the answer. Give the shirt off your back, too. Turn the other cheek so they can hit that one, too. Walk twice as far as they originally asked. Jesus can hear your mind going, "But that really sucks and they should be better and look at all this good work I do to earn my money and even donate to charity and do lots of amazing Christian things."
Well, Jesus would likely say in the vernacular, "Suck it up. So did the Pharisees."
He also, through this extraordinary property of grace, loves & forgives this folly, every time. Same with the "unlovables." That's why he's Jesus.
I heard someone on TV the other day say they were "a proud Christian." I paused the program to consider that—I truly couldn't get my mind around that paradox. I found it almost nauseating. Jesus was not proud, nor did he advocate that; in fact, just the opposite—humility was a theme of his life. So, it's far more effective & desirable to demonstrate your faith by emulating Christ than by decrying every apparent moral slight and hiding behind a label. A "Share if you love Jesus" ultimatum meme is pathetic. Show you're a Christian by your love.
(Not to say I'm all that good at it by any means.)
