President-elect Donald Trump has a new policy adviser who is lacking in one thing: compassion.
Ken Blackwell, a Senior Fellow for Family Empowerment at the Family Research Council, said that there is “nothing more Christian” than cutting food stamps for families.
He wants to cut $40 billion from the SNAP program, which will cut 40 million families from the program.
We are all aware that I’m an atheist, but something about making families go hungry doesn’t seem like something Christians would be wanting to do.
Blackwell said:
“I think through empowering others and creating self-sufficiency…there within lies the path to [a] sense of worthiness. When I was growing up, there was fundamental belief, that there were times in people’s life when they needed a hand up…there were temporariness to [t]hose programs, where they were structured so that they didn’t breed so that they didn’t breed dependency.”
What he failed to mention is that 15 percent of people on food stamps are elderly or disabled or both. They might not be able to survive without that money. Also, 47 percent of people on SNAP are children or children with parents or both.
This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Blackwell is a Tea Party Republican who once called President Barack Obama a “communist” who is “dead set on destroying families.”
Blackwell said that church groups will help feed families. First, not everyone in the country is a Christian. We are a secular nation, any actions from a church should not be part of government policy. Yes, some churches do great things, but we have to keep religion and government separated.
The Family Research Council is a famously bigoted anti-LGBTQ Christian organization.
Wired reported:
“FRC members perspectives are treated as reasonable by many in Congress…and now it appears they’ll enjoy similar esteem from the Trump administration.”
The group often peddles misinformation, but the Republican administration will likely listen to them. Welcome to the next four years, folks!
Featured image via YouTube screenshot.
