Now, the preferred religious magazine of the left,  Sojourners,  is trying to cash in on the Occupy Wall street movement. Yes, in a fundraising e-mail they tell us that they have been playing the collectivist game of blaming the rich and expanding government for years.

They remind us that they are the ones with expanded trust in government with campaigns such as “What would Jesus cut.” Yes, apparently, Jesus would never cut welfare programs that keep people in the bondage of dependency to the false idol of government. They think Jesus would expand he power of collectivized compassion that ties people to a maze of programs, keeps alive ineffective bureaucracies, and hands out cash and other benefits that disconnect reward from accomplishment. They think that government can do justice and mercy and practice compassion from on high better than Christians can through basic communities that care for the people they see as neighbors.

Yes, the bureaucrat handing a check can enact better what Jesus commanded you and me to do than a Christian handing a cup of water to a thirsty man. That is the only way of looking at this, after all, all that money Sojourners wants to remain in worthless government programs was once in the hands of the people; but they cannot be trusted.

The morality of budgets, they say, is in increasing the impersonal amounts going to bureaucracies supposedly helping “the poor.” As budgets are moral documents, they say, to cut programs handing stuff away is supposedly immoral. They have a few biblical allies in such train of thought. In fact, a whole set of apostles question thing the way they do!

Mark 14: 3-9: While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Yes, all that money in the hands of “the rich” could go on to pay for government programs for the poor. Jesus would have never let that woman use that expensive property in that way when there were hungry people starving while she poured the potions on his feet, right? Only the evil super rich would have such lack of empathy. Jesus would never ask the apostles to voluntarily help the poor “any time they wanted to.” No, he will be for confiscating the woman’s perfume, selling it, and then use the money to beef the moral budget feeding the apostle’s purse, right? We can end poverty that way if we just have the collective will and the poor will disappear, they will not always be with us if we just bind together against the rich, right?

Yes, Sojourner’s theology is supported by a whole lot of biblical apostles. But it is rejected by Jesus, too bad. Anyway, you can still get a complimentary subscription to their magazine if you voluntarily send them a check. Speaking of voluntary gifts, I am reminder of another interesting position they spouse in their Capitalist fundraising efforts:

“Occupiers all over the nation say we should pay close attention to the fact that 1% of our population holds so much of the wealth and power while the other 99% suffers. That reminds us of what Jesus taught us 2,000 years ago: to speak out against injustice wherever it exists and serve “the least of these.”

So, you send us a free and voluntary gift so that we can fight to forcibly re-distribute the wealth of others. You know, they do not deserve the money but we do. In the process of stealing from them, we feel that lying is justified. Exaggerating the pain of people is fine if it helps us get a hold of all that dough. We know that among that 99% most are not suffering and, in effect, leading lives that are the envy of most human beings in history. But you understand the deal, you know that it is all for a good cause and we are “too important to fail.”

Anyway, before we let you go, don’t forget of the complimentary Marxist poster you get with your generous gift. ‘Human need over corporate greed!” We are incorporated and accept all major credit cards…