Notice how it’s somehow the government’s job to legislate a few Bible verses on human sexuality over our entire country, but it’s suddenly “not the government’s job” when it comes to the +2,500 Bible verses calling for a generous use of wealth that prioritizes the poor.
— Rev. Benjamin Cremer (@Brcremer) October 28, 2025
Yea verily, amen. All those Christian Nationalists, billionaires, and trillionaires ought to read some of their Augustine1:
[T]his is what the rich should do: not be haughty in their ideas, nor set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches...But what are they to do with what they have? Let me tell you what: Let them be rich in good works, let them be easy givers. After all, they've got the wherewithal. Poverty is difficult and grim. Let them be easy givers; they've got the wherewithal. Let them share, that is, take some notice of their fellow mortals2...
What more do you get from all the things you have? You've got your food, you've got your necessary clothing; necessary, I say, not vain, not superfluous. What else can you get from your riches? Tell me. For sure, it will all be your superfluities. Well, let your superfluities provide the poor with their necessities.
MAGA can miss me with the "government ain't charity" bullshit (glares at James Madison). The phrase "general Welfare" was so nice, the Framers mentioned it twice in the Constitution, and the Federal government enjoys economies of scale and more power to act than any individuals or charities.
You want a "Christian nation"? Let the wealthiest country on Earth be easy givers, helping people in their immediate circumstances and creating a system that sets them up to succeed in the long term. You know, as opposed to allowing oligarchs to hoard all the wealth whilst starving the working poor, the eldery and infirm, and children.
Now, a parable:
While Augustine was working on his book On the Trinity, he was walking by the seaside one day, meditating on the difficult problem of how God could be three Persons at once. He came upon a little child.
The child had dug a little hole in the sand, and with a small spoon or seashell was scooping water from the sea into the small hole. Augustine watched him for a while and finally asked the child what he was doing. The child answered that he would scoop all the water from the sea and pour it into the little hole in the sand.
‘What?’ Augustine said. ‘That is impossible. Obviously, the sea is too large and the hole too small.’
‘Indeed,’ said the child, ‘but I will sooner draw all the water from the sea and empty it into this hole than you will succeed in penetrating the mystery of the Holy Trinity with your limited understanding.’
Augustine turned away in amazement and when he looked back the child had disappeared.
Indeed, and sooner than we will succeed in penetrating the depravity that is MAGA.
Selah.
1 - That's, uh...a bit of a joke. President Biden sure did read him, which is why he declared a moratorium on the death penalty, and commuted death sentences for a few dozen people just before he left office, so naturally the orange rapist/fascist/felon made death great again.
2 - He does go on to say: Non enim...exspoliare illos volo, nudare illos volo, inanes relinquere volo ("[I]t doesn't mean I want them looted, want them stripped naked, want them left empty."). But to be honest, I'm kinda inclining in that direction these days.
PS - Post title from the last line of Psalm 12, about which Augustine said, "The ungodly walk in a circle round about" (verse 8): that is, in the desire of things temporal..."
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