Running the Candidates Through the Litmus Test-Who Has the Best Interest of the Least of These in Mind?

In my area, the two most contested races are Congressional District 6 with Gary Palmer and Mark Lester. The next is the gubernatorial race between Robert Bentley and Parker Griffith. 

Robert Bentley has failed every aspect with regard to the least of these in Alabama. And Gary Palmer has already been out through the test and failed every aspect as well. 

But I will break it down.

Matthew 25:31-46 - "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on the right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you! And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one if the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'

      "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."

The least of these. When you treat the least of these well, you treat Jesus well. When you hurt the least of these, you hurt Jesus. 

So here is the breakdown. Robert Bentley has avowed that he will refuse to expand Medicaid. And let me set something straight. People on Medicaid are not lazy. Medicaid, as established, is supposed to help the poor and the disabled. In Alabama, Medicaid has an assets test of $2000 maximum. Most of the poor and the disabled tend to have just over $2000. When the Affordable Care Act was passed, it gave states the opportunity to expand the Medicaid program. But Bentley let his hatred of President Obama get in the way. Bentley said healthcare was something that only his Christian brothers deserve. And the thing is, he is wrong. Many of the poor and the disabled are Christians but they still have no access to healthcare because they can neither get private insurance because their income is less than $11,000 and they do not qualify for assistance, but neither can they get Medicaid because of the assets test being one of the worst on the country. If Bentley had expanded Medicaid, just about every single person in Alabama would have access to healthcare. Bentley will continue to refuse access tohealthcare  for the least of these in Alabama as long as he remains in the governor position. Take a look at The Birmingham News from this past Sunday. A nice lengthy article about the disabled on the waiting list. These are the ones who have been blessed enough to actually be out on the Medicaid rolls. However, they are waiting for services because of an outdated and lengthy waiting list which even those who need the help still cannot get on. The state of Alabama will not improve in this regard as long as Bentley is governor. To make Medicaid work, and work well, it has to be expanded. The disabled need the expansion. Also, many of the poor do work. The ones who don't work are often the disabled. 

Parker Griffith has affirmed that he will not only expand Medicaid but reform Medicaid. And I support his position. For a disabled adult who is able to be placed on Medicaid in Alabama, it serves as nothing more than a supplement to private insurance. The coverage is worse than bare bones. It is almost non-existent. Neither private insurance nor Medicaid covers hearing aids for adults. And with the current assets test of $2000, affording hearing aids when state agencies, like Voc Rehab will not even help due to lack of complete understanding of how the hearing loss affects a particular person, is impossible since a good pair, but not necessarily the best pair, costs $3000. 

That is where the ABLE Act waiting for Senate passage in November comes in. The ABLE Act will allow families of the disabled individual to save up to $100,000 in a special 529 type of account tax-free without benefits being lost. This means that a disabled adult who is able to work more than just part time will not lose their benefits. Most of the disabled cannot afford to work right now due to the fact that they need the benefits more than they need the job. And the reason for that is because of the gaps in coverage through insurance companies and Medicaid. 

As you can see, the problem is circular. 

Now compare Gary Palmer and Mark Lester. Gary Palmer has avowed to not only repeal the ACA, but to fight against the president. Why run if you are just going to fight the president? Consider this thought: In a sense, the president is the boss. A senator or a congressman has said they are going to fight him. Essentially, they are planning to fight the boss. Now, if I go to a job interview saying I am going to fight the boss, I am most likely not going to get the job, right? So why should we allow senators and congressmen to be hired if all they are going to do is fight the boss, the president? 

One other problem. Many of these republican candidates tout their Christianity. Yet, they want to destroy programs set aside to help the least of these? Bounce back to what Jesus said in that passage in Matthew. Now think about what I just stated. If we know them by their fruit, and if the republicans claiming to be Christians are willing to destroy programs set aside to help the least of these even though Jesus made it perfectly clear that what they do to the least of these is what they do to Him, do you honestly think that they are truly Christians? I have to question that one big time. To me, this is like a church that abuses and bullies someone for having autism, and having been there, I can tell you that it not only hurts to experience that, but it is unforgivable and it tarnishes one's mindset of what church should be: a SAFE place full of love and grace and mercy and acceptance no matter what the person's walk of life might be, a SAFE place that comes along side of the person through their most difficult of challenges and never discriminates against someone, a Jesus-filled SAFE place. Yet, too many churches have failed people like me. They have failed. Period. This is why churches cannot be expected nor trusted to help the least of these. Not by themselves anyway. The government has established programs to help the least of these for a reason. Programs like SSI, SSDI, VA, SNAP, TANF, etc. Look into the history books of the Bible if you would. There are a lot of passages where kings would have the people who were able to do so go out and harvest the crops before a drought. Then when the drought came, the kings would have designated people who made sure every citizen's family had just enough food to eat for the day. That's right, the government made sure their citizens were cared for and provided for. There are many passages where God says that the rich should be kind to the poor and that the love of money is the root of all evil. Yet the republicans today would prefer to give tax breaks to the wealthiest corporations while taxing the poor through the nose and denying them the help they need. 

Picture this: The republicans in many states have been trying to make the poor pee in cups before they can get help they need for their families. But the courts have said this is illegal and a violation of privacy. Also, did you know pre-employment drug tests are actually illegal? I found that out after one store discriminated against me because I was on prescription ADHD medication at the time. I provided a copy of the prescription and all the information needed to prove it yet I was still discriminated against. I am no longer on the ADHD medication because of it. Also, the argument, well, I have to take tests when I am employed, fails. Why? Because you are employed. Also, you should question what kind of behavior your employer thought warranted the test. And unless you are in a position where public safety or heavy machinery is a factor, you should not need to drug test. But picture this: At the feeding of the thousands where a little boy sacrificed his picnic lunch so Jesus could feed them, imagine if you would each person coming to Jesus for their share and Jesus holding out a cup and saying, "You can eat after you pee in this cup." I can't imagine it because He would not ever do that because He never did. Jesus never made those kind of contingencies.

Jesus was not the one who said that a man shall not eat if he will not work. It was a disciple that said it. And it was not a reference to the disabled or the elderly or children although many people do not understand that these are the people on SNAP. Also, many of the people on SNAP do work. And nowhere does the Bible say anything about teaching a man to fish, though it is a nice proverb that some man after the Bible said. 

Minimum wages. Did you know our current minimum wage level is now below poverty level? In Shelby County, Alabama, it would take $14 per hour to not be below poverty. And yes, the law established minimum wage to be a living wage. If cost of living expenses were truly attached to minimum wage, then why has the cost of everything gone up despite the stagnation of the minimum wage? Well, they should go get an education! Many minimum wage jobs are filled by people with college degrees and years of experience. Even in government sector jobs. Well, then they should look for work elsewhere! Because there is such an abundance of jobs? Stop arguing the point of reality. Stop watching Fox News which admits to lying claiming there is not a law. (There is a code of ethics for journalism though.) 

Hobby Lobby. Suddenly a corporation is a person that can think, feel, breathe, eat, poop, sleep. Hmmm. The First Amendment is about people. Not corporations. But if Hobby Lobby has its way, no woman will be able to get any healthcare. Plan B says right on the box that it is a three day dose of standard birth control and that it does not cause abortion. Plan B is OTC and most insurances don't cover OTC. Hobby Lobby does not exclusively sell Christian merchandise nor does it indicate religion in its name. Hobby Lobby has infringed on the rights of women to have independent decisions about their healthcare. And what I think needs to happen now is that employer based coverage be eradicated. Completely. 

Also, faulty logic going on. A pastor once said that maybe the reason the woman chose an abortion was because it was a choice of being able to feed her existing children or losing one of those children to starvation for having the baby. Afterward, I did some research to see if that kind of thing could happen and was appalled when I discovered that his birth state actually had a law in place that said unless a woman could prove that the pregnancy was due to rape, that she had a choice: She could carry the baby to term but doing so would mean that her SNAP benefits would be cut. Or she could abort. So therein lies the problem.

Pro-life. For life. All life. At all stages of life. Republicans would rather that women carry and birth babies they cannot afford or they do not want but do not want to actually take care of the babies once they arrive. That is not pro-life. That is pro-birth. 

My stance: 

1. I do not like abortion. But I will not judge the woman who chooses abortion. It is not my place to judge anyway.

2. Yes, I do believe that homosexuality, along with adultery, along with pre-marital sex, are all sins. I will not condone them. But neither will I judge someone because it is not my place to judge.

3. Yes, I believe Medicaid should be expanded. Matthew 25:31-46 sort of supports this stance.

4. No, I do not believe that the poor should be drug tested before receiving help. This has failed in other states already nor does Jesus purport that kind of thing.

5. Yes, I believe minimum wage should be slowly raised. Initially to the $10.10 proposed which is still below poverty but not so below poverty that people would need as much as help as they do now.

6. No, I do not believe all the poor are just lazy. That was a horrid lie from Romney, who is not a Christian no matter how much people want to delude themselves into thinking that Mormons are Christians, and yes, I have researched this point as well.

7. No, I do not believe that President Obama has anything to do with the end times. Matter of fact, I do not believe America has anything to do with the end times because America simply did not exist when those prophecies were written about.

8. Yes, I believe churches should do more to help than they already do. They need to be more intentional about reaching out to those in their communities at home and targeting those who have special needs and their families. But, I also feel the government should do more as well. 

9. Yes, I believe the second amendment has been taken out of context. "A well-regulated militia" is not the general public and "arms" did not mean high powered shoot with six bullets at once guns like we have now. 

10. I am a Christian and these thoughts have been shaped through experiences. I took a quiz just for fun that indicated that I am 60% democrat and 40% republican. The thing was, a lot of the questions were about social issues. And if that makes me a liberal or a socialist, then I am very proud because I have based many of my positions on the words that Jesus spoke in Matthew 25. 

I have never forgotten that sermon about the least of these. And I have never forgotten that the pastor said that any Christian who held the same attitude that Romney expressed about the least of these needed to repent. That sermon inspired me to utilize Matthew 25 as a sort of litmus test and a prayer guide when approaching any and all elections. And then I add simply, "Lord, may Your will be done in light of this passage." 

Story: After the presidential elections in 2012, I had a nightmare. Romney had won and I lost my insurance. Then my mom, a DAV, and I lost our home. I woke with a start and prayed, "Lord, you know my heart and You know my needs. Let Your will be done." The next morning, it was with great relief when I learned that Obama had won the election. I now have better insurance as a result. Stubborn doctors who seem too afraid to actually act in my benefit and move toward life-saving IVIG infusions that could help me get well enough to work and live and thrive, but better insurance nontheless. I will repeat the same prayer this year as well. For me. For others like me. And the thing is, God's will will be done. It sickens me when I see people praying so specifically and then claiming that God is not answering prayers. That they pray everyday for Obama to be impeached but it never happens. Well, maybe consider that you are asking God to do something that is not His will. Stop praying for Obama to be impeached and stop praying so specifically. Simply pray, "Lord, let Your will be done." 

I get hurt when someone says, pray for this person that they no longer have cancer. Or pray for this person that they no longer have depression or autism or whatever. Why? Because when I was still a teenager a friend of mine had a son with a brain tumor that just would not truly go away. And for some time after he passed, I questioned everything about God. Why did God not heal him? That is what everyone prayed for. Only now when I reflect back, I see that God did heal him. God gave him ultimate healing. It was not the healing we wanted, but it was healing. Robin Williams may or may not have been a Christian, and suicide is not the unforgivable sin and Christians do commit suicide just as much as any other people do, but God did heal him of his depression. Not in the manner we would have preferred, but healed him nonetheless. And please, stop praying for autism to go away. It is not a disease that needs a cure or that kills. Matter of fact, God Himself may have autistic traits. 

Lord, we have elections next week. And You know the needs of the people more than even we do ourselves. Let Your will be done.

It's Not a Suggestion

Psalm 62:8 - Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Selah

Psalm 62:8 (ICB) - Trust God all the time. Tell him all your problems. God is our protection.

Matthew 6:34 - "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." 

II Corinthians 12:9 - But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Dear God, it is so hard to only focus on the today rather than to worry about what's ahead. A lot of things can catch us off guard. But in focusing on the today right now, all I will be able to adequately ask is that people who are voting in the run offs in my district make the right decision. The problem I am noticing is that many people want to vote based on whether they believe a candidate is a Christian or not. What they do not seem to understand though is that could actually cost them and everyone else dearly. Especially when those so-called Christian candidates are also running a campaign on hate for the president. If the candidate truly was a Christian, they should be running a campaign of respect and willingness to work with the president to do what is best for all the people. The ACA, for example, which was proposed by republicans to start with, is good for all the people. How so? It ends discriminatory practices that allowed insurance companies to deny people based on pre-exisitng conditions or even drop them when they got sick. Case in point: Before the ACA, if my immune deficiency had been determined to have been present at birth, the insurance company could have said that condition was pre-existing and dropped me when I went for treatment because of a condition that the immune deficiency causes me to have. Even though I never knew about the immune deficiency until adulthood. The ACA is a good thing because it equalizes opportunity for everyone when it comes to getting insurance to help with the costs of healthcare. It helps families like my own to no longer be crushed by the costs of healthcare. The problem is the people who chose to block the Medicaid expansion in states where Medicaid is already more dysfunctional than it should be because it doesn't follow federal Medicaid guidelines. The other problem is the employers have too much control in a person's doctor-patient relationship. They need to eliminate employer-based insurance altogether so everyone will be on an equal playing field. I have private pay insurance and my insurance should not be better than or worse than an employee for some company. If we pay the same thing and have the same plan, than they should have the same coverage and so should I. Why should an employee have autism coverage when I don't? Why should I have coverage of all forms of birth control when they don't because some stupid judges decided a corporation can have beliefs, which actually is the stupidest and most unethical and unbiblical thing I have ever heard? How can a corporation have beliefs when a corporation cannot breathe, walk, think, eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, feel, etc. on its own? It cannot. The Bible says that You created man and woman in Your image, not corporations. The Bible says Jesus came to die on the cross so that man may live, not corporations. Even the founding fathers of the United States said all men were created equal, not corporations. And the constitution starts, "we the people," not we the corporations. Until a corporation has the capacity to feel and think and breathe on its own, it cannot have beliefs. Based on that judgment, my dog believes all men should be castrated because she has closely held beliefs that men are bad. My dog is not a person, but she does have closely held beliefs. I have observed them. So I guess I should take her case to the Supreme Court and convince them that unless all men are castrated because I think the Bible should agree with me on it even though that is not what the Bible says that my religious freedoms are being trampled? Yeah, same logic as the Hobby Lobby case even if it sounds stupid. But see, that is why I think people who only vote for others because they are "Christian," might be doing themselves and everyone else a major disservice. DeMarco for example says he is a good Christian. But his campaign says he hates the president and plans to fight the president (excuse me, your job if elected to congress is to work with the president). And just this past week alone, I received TWO attack ads in the mail from his campaign. Yeah, no. Not a Christian. A true Christian would not attack another like that. I cannot wait until November when I can vote for Mr. Vise. I already did my research into him and what he stands for and he was very open and honest with me about the questions I asked him. He was very personable. And I have a feeling he really gets it and will be the best choice for my district because he is willing to listen to all his constituents and not just the rich ones. Which is good because a lot of veterans are not rich. A lot of disabled people are not rich. God, why do people insist on using women and veterans as pawns in their sick game of politics and why do people insist on voting based on party rather than actual issues? Not all democrats or non-republicans support abortion? But they see anything besides an R, and they instantly assume that the person cannot be Christian or must somehow support abortion. I have a feeling if more research was done into when abortion became legal, people might be suprised to find that a republican was president or that congress was republican or even the senate. Who knows for sure? And contrary to popular opinion, the democrats have a long history have caring more about the poor and the veterans and the disabled and the elderly than the republicans. Which is odd since "democrats cannot be Christians." Says who? The Bible has no political party and from what I have read in the Bible so far this year, Jesus was a socialist and more in line with today's democrats than today's republicans. Just saying. God, one more worry to release: I am going to take time to actually begin to write the letter later today. Give me the words I need to say. Good or bad. Guide me to write what he needs to hear. Give me the courage and the strength to offer him grace and forgiveness and opportunity to receive it. Soften his heart and prepare it for the words that will come his way. Guide him to respond in kind. Okay, God. That was a lot. Thank You for caring enough to hear all my worries, no matter how big or small. In Jesus' Name, Amen!

Seeking Perfection

Exodus 20:3 - You shall have no other gods before me.

Psalm 37:4 - Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Dear God, no other gods. Money is a god for some people. I think it is a god for most republicans. They have it. Others don't. Because money has become their god, they treat those who don't like they are not even people but objects. That is what they do when they threaten to take healthcare from people or when they threaten to discriminate against people who receive SNAP by trying to dictate what they can and cannot eat or drink when the real culprit is one ingredient: high fructose corn syrup, and the reality is that there are more fat rich people than there are poor fat people. And in the south, it is more of a problem of the obsession with fried foods. But this belittling of the poor and judgment of the poor whether it comes to trying to dictate what they can and cannot buy because they assume there is "rampant" fraud - I am pretty sure that less than one percent fraud is nowhere near rampant because rampant means widespread and there is more fraud in congress than in SNAP or Social Security combined! - or whether it is trying to deny healthcare to people just because they are poor (congress keeps trying to repeal the ACA or Bentley is blocking Medicaid expansion which is forcing hospitals in rural communities to shut down in Alabama because they can no longer handle the financial burden of the uninsured poor) has become their god. Duck Dynasty guy was telling the republicans to get more godly, and now I understand what he means. The anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality fixation they have developed alongside the anti-poor and hate the president mentality they have has become their god. Money has become their god. They get paid $174,000 per year and yet they do nothing for the people anymore. They even shut down the government because of their sick obsession with trying to keep people from gaining access to affordable healthcare. They have it, so why shouldn't everyone else? Not every job provides insurance. And insurance used to illegally discriminate against people. Now they want government to discriminate against people who receive SNAP by dictating what they can and cannot buy when there are already restrictions in place. Discrimination - denying a group of people something others can have for some reason. Insurance used to deny people with pre-exciting conditions. Many places still discriminate against the disabled. Many of the pre-existing conditions can be disabling. Places used to discriminate against people of color and some places still do. If banning the purchase of soda is good enough for people who get SNAP, then they must ban purchase of soda for ALL of the people, or else it is called discrimination. Instead of a ban on purchasing it with SNAP, they need to ban HFCS which has banned in other countries already, is no longer needed, and is more directly tied to obesity and diabetes than anything else. Don't believe me? Do some research about when it became the main ingredient in sodas and when fast food restaurants began showing up on every corner. You also will find that that is around the time girls entered puberty earlier and earlier. Another thing to consider is that the cost of healthy foods needs to be brought down in price and grocery tax needs to be repealed in all states with the exception of the proposal to tax products containing HFCS. The ban of HFCS or the special grocery tax on products containing HFCS will go further and be more effective than dictating what SNAP recipients can and cannot buy which then has to be a sweeping restriction on all of the people to prevent illegal discrimination. Look, God, I know You already know these things, but Bentley and DeMarco and that Palmer guy they said will be in some runoff do not seem to get it. Another god? Guns. They are obsessed with guns to the extent that some idiot actually tried to carry his (more like flaunt it) into a church that was serving as a polling place. All the polling places are subject to federal guidelines which prohibit guns or any other weapon. The church does and maintains business on a daily basis and I believe offers childcare and it is private property. The man was disrespectful and arrogant. Now he is threatening to do it again, which I hope police will just take action at that point because if he wants to break the state law and the local law, then he should have to deal with the consequences. But they are so obsessed, I have seen people claim that it is a "God-given right." When asked to point to where it says it is his God-given right in the Bible, he said it isn't in the Bible. So I said, well then it isn't your God-given right; it is a man-made right, and not even one intended for the general populace. But it is my God-given right to live and have food and healthcare if I am sick and to be treated with respect with dignity. After considering a lot of things from the past few days, I now know why Christians should not be involved in government. As congressmen or senators though. One of them is out on the radio saying if he wins, he will impose his religion and his beliefs on everyone. Well, that is a violation of the First Amendment. Little wonder why America is so messed up right now. They lost focus and their moral compass has shifted too far into legalism. And that is what the Pharisees did. When a pope who exemplifies what Jesus did while on earth actually commends the president for his efforts to help the poor in regards to access to food and healthcare, you know he must doing something right. When the pope actually criticizes what congress is doing, you know they are doing something wrong. I am not even catholic, but even I like what the pope is doing! By the way, if Bentley or DeMarco happen on this, I do not care how good a Christian you claim to be but if you block access or take away access to healthcare from someone because you hate the president so much, then you are not a Christian because a true Christian would not do that. Matthew 25:31-46 and Romans 13:1-7 guys. As long you disrespect the president, you disrespect God. And I do not support anyone who disrespects the president of the country my mother and my ancestors served. Furthermore, DeMarco, if you hate the president so much and have no intention of actually working with the president who will basically be your boss in D.C., then why are you even bothering to run? If I went to apply for a job with your attitude, I would not be hired. Period. God, five more months until November. Give me peace and comfort and most of all wisdom. I am now finally gaining understanding of what some of those lessons I have been taught actually mean! Now if Tom would just exemplify You and seek restoration with me like You say he is supposed to have done to start with. Sigh. God, thank. You for lessons learned and revelations of Yourself. In Jesus' Name, Amen!