Evangelicals want to cut funding for the world's poor

Is there a more depressing headline? Those who frame their entire world around Jesus Christ (or so they say) are jumping up and down to cut funding for international aid, for the environment, and for the unemployed. As Fred notes here, this is both spiteful, and stupid, as none of this will actually help our budget.

I am increasingly convinced that most conservatives over-estimate their own autonomy, and completely inflate the role that their own effort and will played in their success. And that isn't a shot at them for either. The conservatives I know have worked very hard, and have often denied themselves certain things to achieve their income, home, vacation, etc.

But they most often, at least it seems to me, underplay any role that tax money or luck play in their good fortune. And I have to say, that is the best possible explanation. Because if not, then they are like the kid on the playground who gladly uses the rope ladder to get into the fort, but then pulls it up when inside. If that is the case, then it is an incredibly mean-spirited selfishness that drives these political considerations.

All I know is that I find it incredibly hard to see Christ cutting funding for mosquito netting, or cutting funds for women's cancer screenings (as the House voted yesterday to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood), or cutting funding for AIDs drugs. If that is Christianity, as I seem to say a lot on this blog, then let me out.