"Christ's life was marked by poverty. He was born in a FEEDING TROUGH."

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Martin Bahsir is tearing asshole Tony Perkins a new asshole. "I CANNOT FIND A CHRISTIAN LEADER SPEAKING UP FOR THE POOR. ALL I CAN FIND IS CHRISTIAN LEADERS SPEAKING OUT AGAINST GAY MARRIAGE!"

Perkins said that Christian leaders are also concerned with the SPIRITUAL needs, not just the PHYSICAL needs, TEACHING the poor how to fish instead of GIVING them a fish.

Bashir took this prick APART.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

1. So if you're not part of a church you must die

Perkins said there should be NO government help for the poor or disabled and it should all be handled locally by the churches. Not very "Christian" in my opinion. This man's religion is Randian, not Christian.

[atreides1]

3. Perkins lacks humanity

And so do other "Christians" like him....

[WCGreen]

21. And humility....

[cthulu2016]

2. The miracle of loaves and fishes is not in this guy's Bible, I guess.

[butterfly77]

4. Perkins says..

the church will: Pay for your medical,rent,bills,transportation,etc..If you can get or find a job.

[Raven]

5. Perkins and his ilk need to be hammered

on this. They need to be asked if they have any solid information to support their contention that local communities and churches and private charities can pick up the slack. If they were serious about this they would have a transition plan but we know they don't. They need to be called on this!

[jp11]

6. I liked how he essentially was saying that all the programs that help people

poor, sick, elderly, handicapped, had to go because the government shouldn't be doing any of that. Why cause that is the job/duty of charitable organizations like Churches and of course the community. Also the government doesn't offer the 'faith' service, conversions, spirituality that churches offer so the government is bad.

So lets see, no money to help people who weren't getting that help before, it just wasn't getting done or there weren't enough people to do it. So no one gets paid to do what needs to be done it ALL has to be voluntary OR financed through churches meaning you need to divert money to churches. So if we cut off the funding to programs from the government we can either redirect that money back to churches OR back to the taxpayer who then must give it to the church so they can send out I guess nuns and volunteers to do this work for free. Then they get to try and convert people to their faith as part of their spirituality aspect and I'm sure there won't be any issues of them not offering help to people they don't like as in LGBT.

It just sounded so clear that what this guy wanted was a return to churches being the ONLY source of aid/comfort for the starving/destitute/etc when people were starving to death, living in the streets, and so on. Why would you want that so your church can have more to do? More people to solicit into your faith? More money for your church? More standing/power to control people's lives?

Churches can do good work I don't see any reason they should be the only ones doing it besides community volunteers. We have a society we can make sure people get what they need with jobs that take care of them instead of hoping it gets done and that there are enough people to do it.

[jwirr]

17. The biggest joke in the world is that church members will definitely give up the extra money for

social causes after the church has taught them that those causes are sinful. Oh, sure after hell freezes over. Some members and some churches willingly help others with no strings attached. But very few.

[xtraxritical]

18. The Salvation Army will not help people that are not Xtian and won't go to their church services.

[jwirr]

20. Yes, I know that. However, to be fair I have to tell you that is again the community they are in. It

does not happen here in our liberal community. That does not excuse what they do nationally.

[tallahasseedem]

7. Martin Bashir is becoming MUST SEE tv!

I am really enjoying his approach to the issues!

[lillypaddle]

10. I agree ...

At first I kind of wrote him off as an entertainment reporter, sort of like Piers. But now I watch him religiously, he is GREAT!

[cynatnite]

8. I'd like to know how many of these fucking churches would open their doors to the homeless...

How many of them would open their kitchens? How many will help the poor get a decent paying job?

How many of these fucking churches will do it if you do not want to be a member of their religion?

I'd like to remind these douchebags that Jesus did not require those he cured and fed to believe his way.

[nxylas]

9. I could see them doing it for a while

I could imagine the Church of St Ayn and St Ronald throwing open its doors to convince people that there is no need for social programs. Then, once they had been drowned in the proverbial bathtub, we'd be hearing a lot about how Jesus said "the poor are always with us" and therefore eliminating poverty is disobeying Jesus (I have actually heard this argument from fundies).

[jwirr]

16. They are not all alike. There is a church across the street from me who has a free meal every week

and it is open to all. My own church is deeply involved in many social needs programs that once again are open to all. Neither of these churches is evangelical so they do not demand membership before they will help. Don't get me wrong - I know there are churches that have the attitude in the OP and yes they do things only because they think it will get them into Heaven or convince someone to join. They IMO are a disgrace to the church.

[Snotcicles]

11. Martin Bahsir needs an evening show. nt

[LiberalArkie]

12. I am sure that the church of scientology would really contribute a lot

[ErikJ]

13. Where were the churches in the 1920's BEFORE govt programs, when poverty was 50%?

[jwirr]

15. Ah that I can answer from the stories my parents told of their lives. The churches in their area

were as broke as they were since it was them who supported the churches in the first place. They had no money to give. There were rich people who still belonged to the churches but in our small rural area only one or two that I know of.

Religious services were held during the week in order to allow members to come to town when the stores were open instead of on Sunday when they were closed. Special services often were open to all and included a potluck meal. At Christmas there was a bag of fruit and nuts for evey family. I am thinking that what the church was doing depended entirely on the community that it was in. Generous community - generous church. Greedy community - greedy church. Not so different than today.

My dad said that the churches in that area were very much in favor of social programs run by the government because the churches were overwhelmed. Those churches today like the one in the OP have forgotten that they had never seen anything like the Great Depression before and were given a real lesson in failing the needs of the people. That was of course a time when they still thought that the needs of the people were part of their mission. Greed owns a good share of the church today, especially the rw.

[jwirr]

14. Just another example of rw spin. Only this time they are spinning the Bible they claim to believe in

[Laurian]

19. Wasn't Perkins also bemoaning the pending cuts to the military?

How can "Christian" folks favor military funding over help for the disadvantaged. I didn't hear the whole conversation. While I love Martin, Perkins makes me sick and I cannot understand how a person like him is allowed by the media to pontificate on all these shows. He's disgusting.

[WCGreen]

22. There "proprietary" churches are all about making people with money comfortable that they

have money...

[jtuck004]

23. Here's the interview. Perkins isn't human.

He is way beyond an advocate or even my conception of a true believer. Just mean. Somebody must have really hurt him, and he liked it.

The link -

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/martin-bashir/47418767#47418767

At first I wanted Bashir to ask him to produce even the skeleton of a plan, to denote some serious thought, into how they really proposed to prevent all the tragedy they are trying to wreak.

He has no plan, just wants the rules on religion out of the way. He wants government funding cut because it is a barrier to his proselytizing, and he doesn't care how many people he hurts in that pursuit. Like a private equity profiteer, only with his version of souls instead of dollars.