Sanctimonious blather from MSNBC

I don't watch MSNBC much.

But people send me video clips from the cable network – and, occasionally, I'm tempted by the subject matter to take a look.

So when a friendly reader sent me a commentary by Ed Schultz explaining why all Christians had a duty to support nationalized health care, I couldn't resist.

Frankly, I didn't think the stupidity and arrogance of television commentators could surprise me anymore. I was wrong. Very wrong. This guy Schultz makes Keith Olbermann look like a sober, well-informed intellectual by comparison.

But enough from me, for now – watch this for yourself.

Is this guy serious? I had to pinch myself. If I were putting together a "Saturday Night Live" skit mocking cable news punditry, I couldn't do any better than this guy.

He thinks Jesus was a socialist. He thinks because Jesus healed the sick and fed the hungry and commanded his followers to do likewise, he actually wanted government to do that job.

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It wasn't Jesus who was the socialist, it was the man who betrayed him – Judas Iscariot. And I will prove it to you.

Read John 12:1-8:

"Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper; and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

"Then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein.

"Then said Jesus, Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always."

Note that Jesus was not a proponent of "the Great Society" or the "War on Poverty." He preached to individuals to heal the sick, feed the hungry and help the poor. But he never suggested in any way, shape or form that this was the proper role of government. This was the role of the church – the duty of the individual believer.

Jesus said: "For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always."

And note Judas' phony, non-righteous indignation about the wastefulness of pouring the expensive ointment on Jesus' feet: "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"

Does this sound familiar? Doesn't it sound remarkably like Ed Schultz's whining?

But Judas didn't care about the poor, John tells us. He was a thief. He was the guy who held the moneybag. He wanted to see his own power increased by the sale of someone else's private property – just like the modern-day socialists who don't care about the poor and sick, but use them to increase their own standing.

No, Ed Schultz, Jesus was not a socialist. He was not a proponent of socialized medicine. He was certainly not in favor of people trusting in government. He was a proponent of people putting their faith in God and acting responsibly.

The ideas being promoted by Ed Schultz, MSNBC, Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress are anathema to Jesus. They are antithetical to the Bible.

In fact, most of the ideas of Ed Schultz, MSNBC, Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress are anathema to Jesus and antithetical to the Bible.