“This is how we should order our lives together,” he said. “And frankly, yes, we are going to impose it upon you. If you don’t like it, I’m sorry, but this is good and right and just if it lines up with God’s standards, and I am going to enforce my morality on you in as much as our morality is God’s morality.”
“You should always check yourselves,” he continued. “Do I believe what God believes? Am I defending what God says is good?”
“And if it is, then you should have the courage to say, ‘This is how we’re going to run our town, this is how we’re going to run our county, this is how we’re going to run our state, and this is how we should run the United States of America by legislating the morality that we can find in the Bible.'”
Someone counted it. Apparently it’s over 2000 times for helping the poor, and a maximum of 5 times “gay is bad” and in several of those that interpretation is questionable. Zero condemnations of abortions.
The book of Amos starts with God saying he doesn’t want Israel’s prayers and sacrifices because they don’t take care of the poor. It is the primary theme across the entire bible.
I’m not denying there are some questionable parts, but nothing in there is repeated as often as this. Well, maybe praising God.
Forgive me for not taking “someone counted it” as a citation.
And its absolutely not the primary theme of the bible, that is supplication to god in all things.
Saying “starts with” when it doesnt appear until half way into the second chapter is fascinating. Amos is a short book, we’re nearly a quarter of the way through it before the needy are mentioned.
And even then its not “give to the needy”. Its “dont sell the needy for money”. Did you read Amos before mentioning it?
Maybe I’m remembering it in a more condensed form, but Amos mentions mistreatment of the poor several times as reason for the punishment. But what stuck out to me is that all the religious services, songs, offerings etc become worthless in light of their sins, and that it’s the country as a whole that’s held accountable for this. Conservatives sometimes justify their inhuman policies by claiming it’s an individual responsibility to help the poor, and not something for the government to concern itself with, but here it’s the country as a whole that’s held responsible for it.
And it’s not just about selling the poor into slavery, it also mentions taxing the poor, justice for the poor, and corruption. I recall there being explicit mention of feeding widows and orphans, but I can’t find that right now.
The one citation you did give me turned out to be false… I will need actual chapter and verse references before I believe you on any other bible claims.
I did not give you any citation, I referred to an entire book.
Do you seriously want to check 2000 bible verses? Unfortunately I can’t find an exhaustive list online, but here are 100: https://www.openbible.info/topics/helping_the_needy