Joni Ernst and her failure with 'Bible Verse Picking' (Parable of the Talent)

[LynneSin]

Not sure if you have seen the internet 'meme' with Joni Ernst telling us liberals that we can't go picking bible verses and using it to define how we live our lives. Then she picks one in particular out of the Gospels from the Parable of the Talents and uses that one as the reason why we should take the poor off of Obamacare.

In a nutshell it's the section where a servant was given one Talent (a type of coin back in biblical times) and the servent buried the coin in order to save it. And when the Master returned and saw that the servent did nothing with the coin he called the servant wicked and took the coin from him and gave it to someone else.

Really Joni - that's what you got for taking away Obamacare from the poor? And then you accuse liberals of cherry-picking bible verses. Yikes not only did Ms. Ernst cherry-pick but it's like she took a section out of the story and didn't tell the entire story!

Lately the Parable of the Talents has been a favorite of the Right-wing because first, it was actually something that Jesus said. Lately the Right-wingers have been getting hit on their bible-abuse because most of the stuff they say and believe come from everyone else in the bible except from the Gospels, which are the words of Jesus. And second because in just that section it does seem like a bust on giving handouts to a lower class person (Master giving a coin to the poor).

But it's a fail on how they use it.

The Right-wing fundies equate the servant who received one talent and who was called wicked for doing nothing with as the same with the poor who receive government handouts.

But what they fail to mention: Two other servants also received handouts from their master. Wait WHAT! Yes there were THREE servants who received handouts, the others just happened to received a bit more (one received 5 and the other received 3). But in the end they were all 3 servants and nowhere in the parable was one deemed as a better servant than the other. They were just 3 servants who received handouts from their master.

In the end the non-fundie version was simple - God gives us gives talents and we shouldn't hide them but take risks and go out there and show them to the world. And at no time was that parable ever meant to be an interpretation on Government Social programs but hell Fundies can take any scripture and find a way to make it sound like they can hate on the poor or people unlike them.

Go figure

[NoJusticeNoPeace]

1. Joni and friends hate poor people

[guillaumeb]

2. yet another take on the prosperity gospel

so popular among rich white people because it states that rich people are rich because God favors them.

[LynneSin]

3. Yeah who cares about that pesky Matthew 19:24

I'll say it again--it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a
rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!"

[guillaumeb]

4. Another interpretation is that camels are not allowed in heaven.

The rich will ride around on the backs of the poor.

[gratuitous]

5. The parable of the talents is problematical for anyone

There are several very different interpretations that can be put on the parable, and unlike many of his other parables, Jesus didn't give his disciples a private interpretation later (cf. the sower and the seeds).

In varying readings, a talent can be seen as either a measure of money or a very large measure of money (some estimates put it at 20 years' wages for a laborer). In the course of the parable, the "wicked" servant says that he was afraid of squandering the money entrusted to him (call it $500,000, 20 years' wages at $25,000 a year), knowing that his master often reaped where he did not sow, and gathered where he had scattered no seed. The master confirms this observation, and calls the servant wicked for failing even to bank the money so the master could have "gotten his own back with interest." Note that the master does not fail to get "his own" back from the "wicked" servant.

An alternative interpretation puts the master in a class of society's oppressors, pulling so much money out of society that he can lavish the equivalent of 160 years' wages ($4 million) on three of his servants while he's away on a journey. Having realized a profit on his money of "only" $3.75 million, he's inordinately upset because he didn't quite double his money through the efforts of his servants (note, not his own efforts). There are some interpreters who see this parable not as a tale encouraging good stewardship, but as an example of the rapacious greed of those dominating the societal and economic system. Those who do not support the system with their best efforts, like the "wicked" servant, can expect that even what little they have will be taken from them.

[rickford66]

6. I coudn't find a link to her interview about this.

Anyone have it? It seems too stupid even for her. That's why I'm suspicious.

[rayrossmoor]

7. Jodi Ernst needs to study the Bible more closely

Talk about misquoting Jesus! In Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus tells His disciples that God does not tolerate an "idle servant". But Jesus was NOT referring to the house servant who draws your bath, He was USING AN ANALOGY and was actually referring to The Lord's Servant ... those who have been redeemed through Christ.

So, what Jesus is saying is that those who do NOT do God's work ... feeding the hungry, helping the poor, spreading the Gospel, etc, are NOT serving Him. And if you do NOT serve the Lord in THIS WAY, then you are of no use to Him, and will be cast to hell.

Here is one commentary on the passage:

"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. The day of account comes at last. We must all be reckoned with as to what good we have got to our own souls, and have done to others, by the advantages we have enjoyed. It is not meant that the improving of natural powers can entitle a man to Divine grace. It is the real Christian's liberty and privilege to be employed as his Redeemer's servant, in promoting his glory, and the good of his people: the love of Christ constrains him to live no longer to himself, but to Him that died for him, and rose again. Those who think it impossible to please God, and in vain to serve him, will do nothing to purpose in religion."