Brother John's traveling charlatan show

By Dan Popp

The good make use of this world in order to enjoy God, whereas the evil want to make use of God in order to enjoy the world. – Augustine

There's something especially galling about a man who tries to justify his wickedness by claiming he's serving God. Karl Marx was an ignoramus and a robber, yes, but he was candid enough to admit that he did it out of hatred for God. Marx' progeny, like Ohio Governor and pretend Presidential aspirant John Kasich, have learned to cloak their robbery in a blanket of blasphemy.

Kasich ridicules those of us who oppose his expansion of redistribution programs by suggesting that we should read the Bible. Well, I keep reading the Bible, John, and I've never found one instance of God helping the poor through government. Maybe you have a special translation. The Governor refers us to Matthew 25, conveniently misapplying it to the state, where there is no reference to civil authority at all.

Kasich's lie, or one of them, is that we who understand the difference between coercion and charity don't want the poor to be helped. Bastiat exposed this false choice a long time ago.

Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain.

We all agree that God wants the poor to be helped. The point at issue is, how should this be done? The God-Man who said, "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me" is the same One who commanded, "You shall not steal," and, "You shall not covet." Selectively obeying some of God's imperatives and not others – and misinterpreting these in a manner that draws more power to yourself – is a sure sign that something isn't quite right under the religious robe. However we help the needy, if we're doing it in the name of the biblical God, we'll have to do it without violating anyone's property rights.

Let's think about this for a moment. If you were a State official who truly believed that the Bible is a factual guide for our lives, and you honestly wanted to help poor people, what would you do? I think you'd search the Scriptures to find out how God wants this to be done. And in both Testaments you'd discover that the primary source of help is to be the family. Then you might ask yourself, "How can I use my authority to defend the family so that it can provide this godly safety net?" What has John Son-of-a-Mailman done? He has said that the Supreme Court's endorsement of counterfeit marriage is the "law of the land." Yes, John, just like their Dred Scott decision was the law of the land. Remember how Christians got over that and moved on? "Acceptists," I think they were called. And then we had that big Civil Party thing, you know, to celebrate some people owning the labor of other people.

If you're a Christian officeholder who cares about the poor, you don't just roll over when there's an attack on marriage, which is the foundation of the family, God's primary anti-poverty institution!

Our hypothetical Bible-believing Governor would keep reading God's Word, and learn that the second line of support for widows and orphans is the church. "Ah," he would say, "then I must defend churches, synagogues and ministries so that they can do their charitable works unhindered." What has John Kasich done? In Ohio he's opened the door to Obamacare that makes war on real charities like the Little Sisters of the Poor. Really, Mailmanovich? You have the audacity to tell us you care about the poor because of your reverence for God, while you nonchalantly watch the destruction of God's institutions for alleviating poverty?

No one likes a charlatan. But that's what John Kasich is: a man who pretends to be a humble servant of the Most High while manipulating the simple-minded, using a cardboard Jesus to advance his own interests.

The people who tried to portray Jesus as a robber were not His followers, but His murderers.

© Dan Popp