Still can't eat

Terrence Heath outlines the GOP con game on Food Stamps. Party speakers seem to have latched onto the phrase (which I found in the Bible at 2nd Thessalonians 3:10), "The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat."

Let's leave aside that this phrase is taken out of context and on its own contradicts the central message of the Bible (check out Matthew 25:31-46). Instead, let's look at the GOP premise, that Food Stamps are going to the lazy.

Only 8 percent of recipients fall into that category. More than half of Food Stamp recipients can't work because they are children or elderly. The rest are the working poor. They do work. But the job pays so little they need and qualify for food stamps. They work, and still can't eat.

So, if the church is supposed to feed the poor…

“Christianity is all about serving the poor,” Representative Ribble [R-Wis] told [Sister Simone]. “What is the Church doing wrong that it had to come to the government to get so much funding?”

Sister Simone said the need for government assistance is more about the “dimension of the issue.” She noted a Bread for the World study that calculated the funds religious institutions would have had to raise if the food stamp cuts proposed in last year’s House Republican budget had been implemented. She said “every church, synagogue, mosque, and house of worship in the United States” would have needed to raise $50,000 in additional monies—every year, for ten years.

Is Rep. Ribble donating enough to his own church so it can pay its $50,000 share?