“Lord, when did we see you naked, hungry, sick, and imprisoned?” “So as you have done for the least of all, so you have done to me.”

“Who will condemn this woman with us?” “Should I condemn you all? Now go, and sin no more.”

“If your right hand causes you to sin, it is better to cut it off than to be cast into the flames.”

“Hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs: beautiful and clean outside and rotting inside.”

“You shall know them by their fruits.”

“All of the law hangs upon two commandments: to love God with all your soul, and your neighbor as yourself.”

“Let they who pray loudly in public do so: truly they have received their reward.”

“You pile heavy burdens upon others, but will not help.”

They miss a LOT of what Jesus had to say, and this is all from memory (and so probably jumbled, and definitely not direct quotes).

Nah you just started caring about the wrong others.

Right. Let’s all just give everything we have to the government and let them distribute it as they deem fit. The government is obviously the most qualified institution to make decisions about the quality of my life. I’m sure they’ll make much better decisions about my financial well-being than I ever would.

That way, we will all have next to nothing. As if sacrificing the quality of life for my children, who I am responsible for, and just give it all away to the government (who will make much better quality of life decisions for my children than I ever could hope to) and all will be well.

Instead of a few children starving, they can all starve! Why won’t you just let the government into your heart? All they do is care about you!

Now, how about an alternative. Instead of giving 30% of our income to the government to decide how to spend it, why don’t we all just keep it, and choose how much we can afford to give out to the church and trust them to use it to help people?

I’m sure voluntarily giving 15% of my income to a charity like the church, (or any charity of your choice that you believe in) who actually does have compassion for people and successful programs that help people and 15% more in my pocket so I can afford gas, my mortgage and groceries and day care and summer camp and activities for my children would make the government very very sad, but I’m also 100% sure it would make everyone else much much happier.

Caring for people doesn’t mean just giving up your income to the government to solve everyone’s problems. They’re incompetent. They aren’t capable of doing what you’re funding them to do.