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Why is it bible-thumpers who are always so against socialised healthcare and welfare? (hexbear.net)

submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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It's always puzzled me and reading a thread on reddit just how has reignited that puzzlement. Someone on reddit asked people opposed to universal healthcare to explain why and the conservatives in the thread have given reasons like they don't want to wait their turn for treatment, and that people don't have an intrinsic right to live, along with the usual "WHY shOUld i PAy fOR YouR HealTHcarE?"

Christians seem to lead the charge with objections such as these. And in my experience of asking for help accessing food, Christians were the cruellest and the least likely to help.

I just don't understand how someone claims to follow Jesus but holds beliefs like this. When Jesus handed out the loaves and fishes, did he check everyone's employment and tax status first, and only feed those who were working and paying tax? When he healed the sick and disabled, did he make sure they had health insurance first and refuse to treat those who couldn't pay?

What makes these people such incredible hypocrites?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, over burdened by their perpetual work for others, by want and isolation. Impotence of the exploited classes in their struggle against the exploiters just as inevitably gives rise to the belief in a better life after death as impotence of the savage in his battle with nature gives rise to belief in gods, devils, miracles, and the like. Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward. But those who live by the labour of others are taught by religion to practise charity while on earth, thus offering them a very cheap way of justifying their entire existence as exploiters and selling them at a moderate price tickets to well-being in heaven. Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man.
-Lenin "Socialism and Religion"

Churches are political institutions. The church tells the congregation how to influence politics. In that, the status quo is to support capitalism and the bourgeois class, most churches repeat the dogmas of the bourgeois class.

The largest Protestant organization in the United States and the World is the Southern Baptist convention (SBC), 12 million members. SBC formed in 1845 when it split from northern baptists, to support slavery. The largest Protestant organization in the United States was formed to support slavery. SBC did not denounce support of slavery until 1995. SBC is currently in a feud on whether women should be allowed to be pastors.

Churches are still commonly segregated in the United States. Around 80% of churches in the United States are predominantly composed of a single race. This is because churches in the US were segregated during Jim Crow and then they were never desegregated. Public Schools were forcibly desegregated by the US Federal government. Churches are exempted from this federal regulation.

spoiler

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2014/12/08/many-u-s-congregations-are-still-racially-segregated-but-things-are-changing-2/

There are many different polls about the racial segregation of churches in America. I picked this one as an example. This one estimated that 57% of churches are mostly white people, 14% of churches are mostly black people, 8% of churches are mostly hispanic people. (Year 2014)

"WHY shOUld i PAy fOR YouR HealTHcarE?" << I would take this quote as a dog whistle. A person who says this likely signalling that there is a specific group of people that they do not want to have healthcare. Given that Christianity teaches healing the sick, I would think that this person believes that some people deserve healing and other people they don't consider to be people.

"Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing" << Quoting Lee Atwater, Ronald Reagan's campaign advisor, partial quote because slurs. The significance of the quote is that racist white people admit they support abstract policies which would hurt black people. That is to say that racist white people oppose free public healthcare because it would mean that black people get free public health care. Ronald Reagan also invented the concept of the "welfare queen". He used racial stereotypes to garner support to defund welfare programs.

Tying these two things together, Bible Thumpers who are against free healthcare as so because most United States churches are rooted in racism.