Warmongering

The other day I read a tweet about how the Tea Party was rallying once again.

This time the rally was for something. The rally for support was not quite so surprising, as much of the Tea Party rhetoric has been supportive of big business, and large corporations, as well as the local proprietor with the idea that the business ought to have the right to decide how their money gets spent, and not the government.

What surprised me was something else. There was something different about the rally this time. The Tea Party was rallying in support of Government. No, it wasn't for someone who espoused their ideals.

This time the rally was for the NASA programs, and space exploration, and military defense spending.

Someone had called out the Tea Party folks for hypocrisy. Wasn't this just pandering to Big Government, the very thing the Tea Party had seemed to decry from the outset?

The response was what really got my attention. It was contained in a 140 character tweet. Support for NASA was not hypocritical, because people create governments to defend the people, not provide health care.

And something in my brain took a screeching halt. Because I remember that one of the other primary platforms of the Tea Party is that this is a Judeo-Christian nation, founded upon Christian values. And things didn't line up right for me.

I remember reading through that entire Old Testament, and then the New Testament. I have even read it a few times, and gone back to check facts along the way. I have checked this time, and I still can't find what needs to be there for this reasoning to succeed.

God's nation of Israel was not founded with a standing army, but they were commissioned with a standing order to Love Neighbor as Self. Something doesn't connect right and tight when this rhetoric of the Bible is ignored to then justify another message.

If the language of an army set forth by God, to defend Israel is there, without the additional items of caring for one another - even by lesser means of health care than we have now, then please point me in that direction. I want to understand, but moreover I want to follow God's lead.

In the meantime, Government has its place, and it is to defend us, from those who would seek to harm us, internal and external enemies, and to care for the weakest among us, by health care, social service programs, and reminding us that we are all needed to sustain a great nation.