Unsettled Christianity

Colbert may be the greatest theologian of the modern time, Jim West not withstanding. This in response to O’Reilly’s misuse of Christ and the use of Christmas by the GOP to go home...again:

Keith Olbermann returned to one of his favorite targets last night when he named Bill O’Reilly his “Worst Person In The World.” This time, O’Reilly got the honor for a column in which he cautioned against providing too much aid and charity for those in need:

There comes a time when compassion can cause disaster. If you open your home to scores of homeless folks, you will not have a home for long. There is a capacity problem for every noble intent…there are millions of Americans who are not responsible, and the cold truth is that the rest of us cannot afford to support them…being a Christian, I know that while Jesus promoted charity at the highest level, he was not self-destructive. The Lord helps those who help themselves. Does he not?

“I don’t know, pal, because the phrase ‘the Lord helps those who help themselves’ is not in the Bible, which is where one has to assume O’Reilly is getting his nonsensical, Catholic-school dropout holier-than-thou cant,” Olbermann said. He then went on to read a couple of Bible verses that he thought might be more appropriate to explain the book’s stance on charity and to mock O’Reilly, respectively.

For all intents and purposes, Christ was not a liberal Democrat and wouldn’t have been today. I do get their point, however, and I hope you do too. He wasn’t anything near a Republican, nor, for that matter, a Libertarian, although He met one once when He was in the desert for forty days.