Biblical Food Stamp Cuts?

This month in November, a forty billion dollar cut in the agricultural bill for food stamps occurred, causing millions of families across the nation to make do with less food than before. Never mind the quality of food that they were having to buy because of the food stamps they had to start with being poor, now they also have to do with less. Many of the people in Congress that voted for these cuts did so, claiming that it was Biblical to do so based of one verse from the Bible that states:?

?He who does not work, neither shall he eat.? (2 Thessalonians 3:10)?

However, there is more to the verse and chapter than just those words that these men in Congress loved to throw out, along with a historical context, never mind the words that Jesus Christ himself spoke concerning the poor.

?what would jesus cut

In 2 Thessalonians chapter three, it covers praying for Paul, protection and deliverance for him and whoever was traveling with him, the word of God may speed ahead and be honored, that the Lord is faithful, that the people reading the letter will be protected, and that they are to always imitate Christ. He then goes on to state that, while he and his fellow travelers were with him, that they toiled for their food and shelter, or paid for it. He reminds them to make sure to work for their food and to remain faithful. There is a historical reason for this, though.

In those days, supposed men of God and others that followed other religions would go to people’s houses and, in exchange for a blessing upon the house and family, they would need food for the night and for their journey in the morning, and then they would need shelter for the night as well. They would provide a blessing upon the house and family, take the best food and drink, sleep in the best bed in the house, then go on their way the next day. This is what Paul is speaking against in 2 Thessalonians when he tells the disciples that are learning from him that if a person will not work, then neither should they eat. People were taking advantage of poor families, providing blessings and supposed religious relics to these families- all in the name of one god or another. Paul was not speaking of the poor and those who do need the help, like many of these families on SNAP do, simply because he could not go against the Judaic laws of the time and also could not go against what Jesus himself said.

The main thing that Jesus spoke about in his teachings to people was help to the poor. He even went so far as to say that whole nations will be judged on how they treat their poor, their widows, their children, and those who need help. Jesus also said that whatever was done to the least of these would be done to him as well. (I would use specific verses, but they are too many and numerous to be fully used for this article, but I suggest looking primarily at Matthew for these verses.) We are to help those who are in need of it, if we claim to be followers of Christ, and to not set out to screw them over. If we do that, in the name of Christ, then we are no better than the Pharisees who Jesus so reviled in his speech, going so far as to call them a generation of vipers. We are false prophets and are not truly of God should we seek to hurt those further who are already in need of help.

In conclusion, no, these food stamp cuts are not biblical but a way for the richest of this nation to step further on the poor and those who are ignored by the media and the richest ones. Along with blaming them for this crappy economy, denying them basic rights and basic care, demanding drug tests for people on food stamps, and using the Calvinistic doctrine of a prosperity gospel that is false to explain their situation, these food stamp cuts are a blatant attack on the ones that Jesus stood for. And, truthfully, if Congress feels that way about people that do not work, perhaps they need to begin with themselves on that not eating bit; especially with the way that many people on food stamps do work jobs that pay poverty wages, and they work as hard as they can at these jobs, while the people who own these companies that they work for earn billions off of slave labor in this country and in other countries. This is honestly spitting in Christ’s face to advocate these cuts and the treatment of the poor and call yourself a Christian.

?A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways.? (James 1:8)