“Why don’t liberals just get jobs”
This lie has been spread since Reagan’s racist “Welfare queens” comment.
It has about as much truth as Haitians eating pets.
Six months after 1-6, a man told me that it couldn’t have been conservatives rioting. “They all have jobs. It’s the liberals that don’t have jobs.”
But lies aren’t harmless. They cause untold suffering and pain.
It was the lies about immigrants that inflicted brutal, untrained thugs with military weapons on our civilians.
And it was the lies about “welfare queens” and “lazy libs” that is causing our economic collapse.
We fight the lies, then we build a better Minnesota.
I’ve been in human resources and management for most of my life. I have never met these “lazy liberals”. Almost everyone I meet is desperate to work, eager to earn enough to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table.
No one ever wants to spend a day in the unemployment office. They aren’t there because they are lazy. They are there because they are desperate.
And it is also true that people get discouraged – they have to work two or three jobs to keep healthcare, or get the medicine they need, or afford gasoline or daycare. And they watch as the companies they slave for get richer and richer.
The solution is NOT to starve people into compliance. The solution is to create healthy environments where humans thrive, have time to take a weekend off, can afford to go out for dinner every once in a while, and keep a roof over their heads without fear.
I propose:
Universal healthcare. If billions aren’t lining the pockets of the insurance companies and health conglomerates, it can go back into labor, saving money for everyone.
Free childcare for working families. The biggest hindrance I see, especially for women, is the cost of childcare. We can fix that and both business and workers can focus on other things knowing that the children are cared for.
Mandatory paid days to care for sick children. You shouldn’t have to lose your job when your child gets sick.
We can create a far better Minnesota for everyone, but it will take courage to go up against the billionaires who won’t give up without a fight.
Author: Sam Powell
What am I doing here?
I am an ex-Reformed pastor. I love the system of doctrine found in the confessions of the church because they lead to Jesus, exalt Jesus, and clarify the life and work of Jesus.
But I worship him, not the confessions. I will never use the confessions of the church to beat someone down or to win some kind of argument.
In Reformed and Presbyterian churches, I hear over and over again how the books of order, the constitutions, and the centuries of procedures are used to silence the abused, drive away the sheep, protect the powerful, and maintain the status quo.
If you haven't seen it, you haven't been paying attention.
On top of this, in the 1980s and 1990s, several influential and powerful men introduced a new theology in the church as a response to feminism. They called it "complementarianism". They based it on a novel interpretation of the Trinity, by introducing authority and submission into the persons of the Trinity. Doing this, they contradicted the unanimous testimony of the church since the 4th century.
And one more - in the 70s, a cult leader named Bill Gothard invented a religion which he called "Institutes of Basic Life Principles". He peddled it to millions under the guise of Christianity.
All of these streams combined into a weird, oppressive, violent, vicious mixture which has infiltrated the churches. It is a strange new religion, under the guise of Christianity, but has nothing to do with it. It has gone by different names: Moral Majority; Christian Nationalism; Patriarchalism;
It worships power and authority, it worships traditions and parliamentarian procedures, it worships celebrity, and it worships those who can argue down a liberal or a feminist. It values destroying enemies with argument, it values contempt and winning the debate.
It calls for the release of Barrabas - at least he was trying to do something about Rome-
And shouts for Jesus to be crucified.
What this new religion doesn't have is:
Jesus, the Lamb of God
Grace
Mercy
Compassion
Understanding
Listening
or Good news.
All it knows is law. And all it trusts in is power. It knows nothing of washing feet, of letting the mind of Christ dwell in us, or of taking the lowest place.
So this is why I am here. For those who have been run down by Driscoll's bus, who have been crushed by the Gothard machine, cast out by Wilson's cult (or Piper's or MacArthur's)...
...for those who are so confused that they don't know how to separate the gospel of Jesus Christ from the lies and tangles that the enemy has woven into a snare...
I offer my services. I can listen. I can help untangle the lies by pointing you to the simplicity of the faith once for all delivered to the saints.
You can find me at sampowellministries.com
View all posts by Sam Powell
Sam Powell for Senate 