February 19, 2015 5:41 AM

Repeat after me: Compassion does not equal weakness

Fox News contributor Dr. Robert Jeffress, who is head pastor of one of the most prominent megachurches in Texas, insisted on Monday that Jesus would not have wanted his church to promote health insurance that provided comprehensive birth control coverage for women. Host Steve Doocy pointed out on Monday’s Fox & Friends that the Department of Health and Human Services had recommended that churches encourage their members to get coverage under the Affordable Care Act before the end of the open enrollment period…. Doocy said that the “political left” often charged that conservative policies “were a violation of the separation of church and state.”…. “So, now the state is asking the church, ‘Hey, we need to boost these numbers, you got to help us,’” the Fox News host quipped.

It’s not exactly a stretch to believe that Steve Doocy is to rational, intellectual discourse what a hairball in your shoes is to starting your morning off well. I suspect Doocy is not an unintelligent person, but he manages to play one on TV with surpassing alacrity. Being that irredeemably dumb has got to be an act, knowhutimean? Now he’s evidently trying to pass himself off (poorly) as a Constitutional scholar, which seems to indicate that he’s reached the level of incompetence.

It’s interesting how Conservatives hold forth about how the Constitution never specifically employs the phrase “separation of Church and State”…until they can use it to their advantage. It doesn’t exist…until they can pull it out to support one of their arguments, at which time they BELIEVE in it with every fiber of their being.

That Jeffress and Doocy together don’t have the intellectual and moral candlepower of a gasoline generator only makes their contention that churches encouraging members to get health insurance violate the separation of Church and State that much more laughable. They believe the State and the Church should be one…except when they see what The Black Guy in the White House © is doing…and then it’s “OMG!! How dare the President commingle Church and State?? IMPEACH THE ISLAM-LOVING TERRORIST SYMPATHIZER!!”

“You know, when most people come to church, they come to hear a timeless word from the Lord, not the latest word from Washington, D.C.,” Jeffress opined. “And I realize that many bureaucrats confuse themselves with the Almighty, but there really is a difference between the two.”

“The problem I have with this is Obamacare is not an idea or a suggestion, it’s a governmental mandate, and if you don’t participate, you get fined. If you don’t pay the fine, you go to jail. And I just don’t think the Church of Jesus Christ ought to be an extension of the federal government to enforce it edicts.”

Too many preachers “confuse themselves with the Almighty,” and Jeffress and Doocy don’t “think the Church of Jesus Christ ought to be an extension of the federal government” unless it supports their narrative and agenda. The reality is that it’s not unusual for government to appeal to churches for assistance in getting a message out; where else do people congregate so consistently and in large numbers? A preacher reminding his flock of the deadline for (and importance of) getting health insurance coverage is not commingling Church and State; it’s simply getting a message out to people who need to hear it.

The “Church of Jesus Christ” is no more an “extension of the federal government” than Steve Doocy and Robert Jeffress are followers of the teachings of Jesus. Their Christianity isn’t about love and compassion; it’s about power, enforcing social conformity, and political power…none of which are to be found anywhere in the Gospel. The truth is that it’s far less about compassion spreading the love of Jesus Christ than it is about money and power.

The truth is that compassion doesn’t seem to be a part of the Social Conservative agenda, so there’s no reason why Doocy and Jeffress would conduct themselves in a manner that speaks to a compassionate nature. I’d hazard a guess that they just simply don’t care about those less fortunate than themselves, but I don’t know that to be true. Still, I have to wonder about those who employ hypocrisy in the service of their “religious faith” with such ease and alacrity.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 19, 2015 5:41 AM.

The Tea Party: Their commitment to life is exceeded only by their commitment to hypocrisy was the previous entry in this blog.

The worst welfare Queens aren't poor minorities- They're rich Whites is the next entry in this blog.

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