Category: Politics

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Politics Poverty

Christians should pay attention to the COVID relief bill in Congress because it could help the poor

With Trump's impeachment over, "there is not much news going on." But I recommend paying attention to the bill in Congress because:
(a) it is possible with the filibuster almost nothing else will pass in the next four years, and
(b) this could dramatically help poor people.
👇

It is impossible to overstate the difference between the people struggling in the United States and those who are doing well. The stock market indices are at all time highs. The constant talk on CNBC is of large and startup companies being so rich there is worry about a bubble.

People who have had money in the stock market in 2020 have reaped massive returns. And rich people have not been able to spend as much money on vacations, entertainment, and eating out so they have been spending it on nicer homes and on saving and investing their cash.

Meanwhile, 15% of workers have been directly hurt by the COVID recession.
https://twitter.com/hshierholz/status/1357692597469253634
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (nominated by President Trump) says unemployment in January was close to 10%, which is horrendous.

This 10% drop in employment is worse than other recessions.

And jobs are coming back more slowly now.

18% of households with children sometimes or often didn't have enough to eat in the past week in December! And this number was just going up!

https://twitter.com/arelisrhdz/status/1354462341857947653

See my recent January 26th thread about who to consider learning from with regard to policy solutions.

As Christians, we can certainly jump in as private citizens and churches to meet needs. However, we can also advocate that government assist with helping people through effective means like SNAP benefits (food stamps).

See: @rebeccavallas @laurenlbauer

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-biden-is-expanding-snap/id994153765?i=1000508803822

Biblical support:

See also my Jan 17th thread about the minimum wage.
https://twitter.com/AndyRowell/status/1350877878553083905
and today @wilsonhartgrove tries to explain the plight of the poor who work multiple jobs.

Note too that the estimates by the Congressional Budget Office that raising the minimum wage to $15 would cost jobs is exaggerated.
https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1358888317622755329,
https://twitter.com/arindube/status/1359375749426212864,

For those appalled by the idea of government assistance, note the leading conservative Republican thinkers (Brad Wilcox, Yuval Levin, Ramesh Ponnuru, Ross Douthat) are open to the massive payments Mitt Romney proposed to assist families with children.

Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on February 15, 2021.

Categories
Politics

Albert Mohler casually commenting on politics

"even as the Democrats overplayed their hand in the earlier impeachment effort, it is also clear that at least some Democrats driven by the left wing of their party are at least aiming towards confusing matters once again, bringing all kinds of charges against President Trump."🤦

"But, the second most dangerous possibility, the second greatest tragedy would be if Americans did not learn the lessons we must learn from these days in order to prevent similar developments in the future." — Albert Mohler, dunking on himself.

I am amazed at the breezy, partisan, political musing and speculation here by Albert Mohler, while then saying: "it is at least sobering for Christians to recognize, we really are looking at events of major moral consequence."

Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on January 12, 2021.

Categories
Politics

Christian politicians in Georgia: 1969 and 2021

Thread 👇
In 1969, when Raphael Warnock was born, the Georgia governor was Lester Maddox, who became famous for chasing away at gunpoint three Black seminary students coming to his chicken restaurant in 1964—after the Civil Rights Act.

Martin Luther King Jr. was very upset when Maddox won the race for governor in 1966. The Klu Klux Klan had supported Maddox. A Baptist (like King), Maddox believed segregation was "Christian and American." He did not allow King's body to lie in state at the State Capitol in 1968.

Bob Jones University gave him an honorary doctorate in 1969.

Maddox was born in 1915 and died in 2003. My Grandma was also born in 1915 and is still alive at 105.

Stacey Abrams lost by 1.4% in the 2018 Georgia governor's race. She helped Warnock win the Senate seat in 2021.

Stacey Abrams

Truett McConnell University president.
Baptist Convention of the State of Georgia.

https://twitter.com/EmirCaner/status/1347226898980548609

Originally tweeted by Andy Rowell (@AndyRowell) on January 8, 2021.