Rep. King is furious. Nine democrats in the House voted “No” on resolution he proposed stating that “the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world.” The resolution recognized “the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.”
What could those nine have been thinking? Could it have been something related to the separation of Church and State?
More importantly, what was Rep. King’s motivation for such a resolution?
Speaking with FOX News Wednesday, King said he was motivated to push the resolution because of liberal activists and “secularists in the country who are trying to eradicate Christ from Christmas.”
“It’s time we stood up and said so and said to the rest of America, ‘Be who you are, and be confident, and let’s worship Christ and celebrate Christmas for the right reasons’,” he said
Below: Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir in the Mall of America.
What are the right reasons to be a Christian and to celebrate Christmas? Well, a big one is helping the poor. The Old and New testaments have quotes that are relevant, I’ve cited a few of them below:
1 John 3:17-18: If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
And the second part of this verse addresses speech without action to back it up:
Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
There’s more. The gist of the message from these Biblical quotes is to sell all of your worldly possessions and to stand up for the poor, ones who cannot help themselves.
Luke 12:33
Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.Mark 10:21
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. Then come, follow me.”Proverbs 19:17
He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward him for what he has done.Proverbs 21:13
If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor, he too will cry out and not be answered.Proverbs 22:9
A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.Luke 14:13-14
But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
Proverbs 31:8-9Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.
Does Representative King practice these beliefs? One way to tell is to examine his voting record. The American Public Health Association rated him with 11%, a value indicating a anti-public health voting record.
Rep. King voted against the SCHIP bill that would have expanded healthcare for working poor families. He not only voted against it, he mocked it and criticized it unjustifiably. He called the SCHIP bill “Socialized Clinton-style Hillarycare for Illegals and their Parents” The bill allotted no funds for illegal aliens.
Is this vote an outlier? Further scrutiny of his voting record shows he voted against allowing the government to negotiate the cost of drug prices for Medicare part D (Jan 2007). This is, in effect, a tax increase on poor persons. He also voted no on denying non-emergency treatment if a person cannot afford to make their co-payment at the time of their visit to the doctor (Feb 2006).
It’s not just healthcare that’s a problem in the US. The number of working families that are becoming homeless is a crisis. The increase in fuel and transportation costs have been too much for many families to bear. What’s the congressman’s record on housing? On housing for poor persons he also voted “NO.” He voted no on a bill that would have provided housing vouchers for 10,000 low-income families. These vouchers would have provided, safe, affordable and decent housing for these families. The bill would have paid for the vouchers by scraping a computer project for Housing and Urban Development. King chose the computer over the families.
Image below shows place where a homeless man died in a fire that was lighted to keep him warm in Minneapolis, MN.
Below is an image of a homeless man sleeping on the sidewalk in NY City; his wheelchair can be seen in the background.
The bible also has something to say about aliens, a favorite topic for Rep. King.
Deuteronomy 24:14
Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns
Leviticus 23:22
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
Zechariah 7:8-10
And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’
Images below from an immigrant march in St Paul, MN.
In summary, I can’t judge the faith of Rep. King, but the apparent discrepancy between his voting record and his resolution to support Christianity requires explanation.
We have a wealthy nation, and if its leaders would practice the tenets of their religions rather than criticizing others for not following the “right” religion, we wouldn’t have hungry, homeless and sick children without access to health care in the US this Christmas. If our leaaders were to fight a real war for Christmas/Chirstianity, they would pass legislation that helps poor and working families.
The image below is from a several years ago. The number of poor is much higher now.
The image below is also from the immigrant march:
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gave me an opportunity to recycle some older photos that I’ve taken. I thought that with all of us working so visibly on these issues on the internet that the problems would be getting better. They don’t seem to be, but I’m still doing what I can.
Here I am…….
perhaps we could post a list of notendorsed ones somewhere on the site.
Would that be this Steve King?
http://www.seattletimes.com
McDermott: Christmas resolution wasted time
By JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTER
For Rep. Jim McDermott, the season surrounding Dec. 25 should be less about politics and more about innocence.
“Christmas is really about children,” he said Thursday. “A children’s holiday, if you will.”
And that helps explain why the Washington Democrat recently voted against a House resolution to recognize the importance of Christmas and Christianity.
McDermott said the resolution was a Republican tactic designed to draw attention from pressing issues in Congress, including legislation to boost funding of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. President Bush vetoed a bill Thursday that would have expanded the program.
Bush earlier vetoed a similar bill, saying the bills would move children who already have private insurance into government coverage.
The SCHIP legislation also was opposed by Rep. Steve King, a conservative Republican from Iowa. King sponsored the Christmas resolution that passed 372-9, with Democrats casting all the nay votes.
McDermott, a liberal from Seattle, jabbed at his Iowa counterpart by withholding support from the resolution that acknowledged Christianity’s role in the founding of America and Western civilization.
“Obviously, it’s a protest vote against Steve King,” not Christmas, said McDermott, a member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle and a graduate of Wheaton College, a Christian liberal arts institution in Illinois.
McDermott supported House resolutions this fall to recognize the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the festival of Diwali, celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. He drew the line at Christmas, he said, because the resolution only stated “obvious facts” that Christianity is the predominant faith in the U.S. and that many Christians and non-Christians celebrate Christmas.
“It’s Christmas time. There’re lots of Christians in the U.S. Hurray for Christmas. It’s ridiculous,” McDermott said, giving his take on the resolution.
Rather than “wasting time on this stuff,” he said, people should be protesting Bush’s vetoes of expanding health insurance for children.
“We’re talking about Christmas, and we do not care about kids in the state of Washington,” McDermott said.
All but two of Washington’s nine House members supported the Christmas resolution. Rep. Norm Dicks, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, did not vote because he was engaged in a spending debate elsewhere.
Neither the Ramadan nor the Diwali resolutions drew any opposition. King voted “present” on both resolutions, meaning he took no position.
No one spoke against the Christmas resolution.
“What are you going to say — you’re against Christmas?” McDermott asked rhetorically.
King said opposition to his resolution stemmed from “an anti-Christian bias,” one that leads people to say “happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” for fear of offending someone.
The Des Moines Register recently wrote that King, who opposes abortion, same-sex marriage and illegal immigration, “draws intense reactions from both friends and foes.”
Ironically, King missed the vote on his Christmas resolution after being stranded by an ice storm in Iowa.
But McDermott said other Iowa representatives made the vote — though one Iowan besides King did not vote — so he wondered why King was absent if “he thinks it’s so im