Poverty and Christian Responsibility (Video)

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Christian and American Contributor David Stotts recently put together a video on ministry to the poor with the Acton Institute. Here’s David’s intro to the video. If you scroll down you can watch the embedded video:

We all fall for slick packaging. I do it on a regular basis. And as the father of 3 kids, I routinely find myself throwing boatloads of fancy boxes away after a birthday party – the contents of which looked far better (and way more fun) inside the box.

It reminds me of Barack Obama. His packaging is slick. His rhetoric is beguiling. And thousands of my fellow Christians are buying it.

For months now I’ve marveled at how Obama’s ad execs in the mainstream news media have lost all shame in their relentless effort to find fresh new ways to make him appear moderate. But it’s not just the MSM. Obama himself is supremely skilled at packaging himself, especially on economic issues, only rarely letting down his guard like he did recently in Ohio with Joe the Plumber. Subsequently, he has doubled down on his “spread the wealth” comment almost as if he knows now is the time America might finally be willing to swallow the bitter pill of socialist economic policies. Hey, we let Congress do it, why not our President?

Americans are a compassionate people and by far the most generous in the world measured by charitable giving as a percentage of our GDP. Our giving, 1.67% of the country’s GDP, is twice that of the next most charitable country, the UK. Along comes Obama and the Democrats who know their audience and are far more skilled than anyone on the Republican side at convincing voters that theirs are the most compassionate, most generous economic policies. And thousands of Christians, be they mushy Emergent types or even traditional Christians who simply want to vote for the guy most like Jesus, are being seduced – even to the extent they’re willing to wink at the most radical abortion policies any American Presidential candidate has ever espoused.

It’s time conservatives learn how to reframe the debate on economic policy. We need to learn the right way to expose the contents of the Left’s “economic policy” packaging as simply band-aids at best…and at worst, destructive policies that actually destroy families.

This video is a starting point in learning how to do that. It is intended to challenge the assumptions of good, honest Christian voters who are intending to vote for Obama on the basis that his economic policies are more compassionate. Shouldn’t our goal be not simply to feel compassionate, but instead actually be more effective in assisting the poor?

Press play to watch video:

What do you think? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.